ドラえもん ・ Doraemon 🤖 (ABBC) Week 10

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Week 10 15 Feb 2025
Start Page 105
End Page 123
Chapters ママをたずねて三千キロじょう and ちかてつをつくっちゃえ
Last week Week 9
Next week Week 11
Home Thread Here

Page numbers are the ones printed on the bottom of the pages. These may differ from the numbering in digital versions.

Last panel: end of episode

:mag_right: Vocabulary

Vocabulary spreadsheet

Characters

Japanese English role photo
ドラえもん Doraemon main character - a robot-like cat from the future sent by Nobita’s great-great-grandson
野比 のび太・ のび のびた Nobita Nobi main character

:speech_balloon: Discussion Guidelines

Spoiler Courtesy

Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.

  1. Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
  2. Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
  3. Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
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:rocket: Discussion questions

What do you think about this week’s invention from the future?

:fire: Participation

Will you be reading along with us this week?
  • I’m reading along
  • I’m still reading but haven’t reached this point yet
  • I’ve already read previously but I’m here for the discussion
  • I’m reading this after the book club has finished
  • I’ve stopped reading this book
0 voters
3 Likes
ママをたずねて三千キロじょう (Mama’s visit at three thousand kilometers)

Page 1

Were you scolded again?

I hate my mom!

I wish she’d go somewhere (?)

Do you really hate her?

I SUPER hate her!

She makes me mad (?)

Well then…

Page 2

“Mama visit to three thousand kilometers above”

By taking one pill, Mama will be three hundred meters away when looking for you and won’t find you.

That would be nice.

NOBI-CHAN!

She’s coming to look for me.

It’s fine!

You can’t run away from me.

Ah, it’s the phone.

Wow, right?

Page 3

What was that? She went to answer the phone.

Calm down.

NOBITA!

You don’t have to hide.

But, but, she’s coming to find me!

Sorry, excuse me.

Oh, a guest!

Oh, so she had to meet someone.

With this, your mama can’t find you when she’s looking for you.

It’s wonderful this way!

Well, that’s excessive.

Page 4

Mama? Are you here?

A guest was coming - she’ll be in the entranceway.

She’s not here either.

The house was damaged here and there, so I called you to check it out.

There’s a voice in the garden.

She’s not in the garden either.

Maybe she went to the kitchen.

Maybe she went to the second floor.

Anyway if you don’t walk three hundred meters, you won’t be able to find her.

If I walk three hundred meters from here, then…

Page 5

Thanks for coming!

Yay I found her!

I can’t run into her a second time.

Did you take all of the pills?!

From 3000 kilometers away, Mama won’t be able to find you. Three thousand kilometers is across the Pacific Ocean, to the island of Guam!

You sent this Mama so far that you won’t be able to meet…

Ah…really?

This narrow house we live in together is three thousand kilometers, ahaha,

I’m getting worried.

Page 6

I know she’s in this room so, for now, let’s look for her face.

Hello, Nobita-san!

Do you want to play?

In a bit, not here!

Heeyy, Nobita, let’s play baseball!

Don’t you get it, that’s no good!

What’s with that attitude?

But I don’t like baseball!

Ahh, Mama! Mama!

He’s telling/tattling - ?

Page 7

She’s not here…

Didn’t I say, didn’t I?

Shouldn’t we take a trip overseas?

Yeah, that’d be nice.

She must be in the garden!

We can chat better at my house.

She’s not here either!

Mamaaaa!!

How about the island of Guam?

Oh nice, and I’d like to go soon too.

Page 8

Mama! Mama!

Wherever we search, it seems that she’s a thousand kilometers away.

She’s at least three kilometers away.

I want to see Mama!

Then, let’s do it!

The “anywhere door” is said to send us to a place 1500 kilometers away…

Mama, I found you!!

ちかてつをつくっちゃえ (make a subway)

Page 1

There’s Papa, he’s back from work (the company).

Welcome home!

Huh, what’s going on?

We’re going shopping, let’s go to the department store.

All of these people are going to ride the train?

Aa, I’m being crushed, etc.

Page 2

I commute on that train every day.

What a pain!

Eh, you get used to it.

What a pity. What can we do for him?

That’s it!

Let’s change it to a nice thing! Wow, wow!

Yay, yay, where’s the nice thing?

It’ll be Papa’s Christmas present!

That’ll be great!

What I want to give him is…

Yep, yep…

Page 3

A SUBWAY?

That’s…unreasonable!

You can do it, Doraemon, dig a hole in the ground.

Do me a favor. Have it go directly to the company.

“Hole digger” would be able to do it…

That’d be ingenious!

We could dig from this area.

Until we can do it, it’ll be a secret.

Departure!

Page 4

The company is in this direction.

It’s dull…

That’s because we’re digging.

How many more days will it take to dig to the company?

We hit the river. We’ll have to change course and start over.

I wonder if we’ll be on time for Christmas.

Page 5

This area is tough/sturdy.

It stopped.

We have to keep trying (give it more chances).

Huh?

From inside the hole we dug there’s still a sound…

No way, there was nothing in there other than us.

What were you doing?

A good thing!

Papa, look forward to Christmas!

Page 6

Good evening…

Santa Claus!

Shh…

I brought you a present.

What was that?

Santa Claus gave it to you!

There was a commuter pass in it.

“House to Company, from 12/25/49, forever use”

Page 7

Use the pass from last night!

Ehh? I can really use it?

SUBWAY

You made this?

Please show your pass for riding.

We will be departing shortly.

Goodbye!

Page 8

This is nice…

We’ll be there in five minutes.

This is helpful!

What a bother, they made their own.

Here is where the original subway runs through.

Let’s dig a different street.

We’ll transfer with the “hole digger.”

It’s not working.

What do we do, what do we do?

Page 9

How far do we dig until the company?

Hahhh! It’s no good.

We did an unnecessary thing! Sorry UWAHH!

It’s nothing! You did a nice thing for Papa, I’m glad.

Huh?

It’s a manhole!

It was in front of my company.

Goodbye!

(DORAEMON FIRST YEAR END / TO BE CONTINUED IN SECOND YEAR)

ママをたずねて三千キロじょう (Mama’s visit at three thousand kilometers)
By FAR the hardest story in this volume - I don’t know if most of my translation is correct. However, I think part of the problem is the invention just doesn’t make a ton of sense? Both Nobita and Mama are clearly still in the house but they can’t find each other? Huh? Does taking more pills just mean the effect takes longer to wear off? I did think it was funny when she started planning an actual trip to Guam.

ちかてつをつくっちゃえ (make a subway)
Aw, this was super cute but I thought something much worse would be in the subway tunnel (a monster?). As someone who takes public transportation regularly, I wouldn’t turn down a private subway car!

I tried to read some of the commentary for next week and was defeated lol. I’ll save it for when I’ve leveled up some more! I’m doing the Beginner Book Club next - it’s for Look Back!

4 Likes
Page 107, Panel 9

Yeah this one was a bit of a riddle tbh. My best guess is it’s
一粒飲むと三百メートルママを探し歩かないと会えない。
So, “If you drink one pill, you won’t be able to [meet|see] your mom until you walk (looking for her) for 300 meters.”
Nobita walked around the house for a bit, supposedly covering 300 meters, eventually found Mom, got rekt again, and took 10000 pills. Apparently the effect stacks, so without the どこでもドア he would have to travel to Guam to cover the distance.

3 Likes

ママをたずねて三千キロじょう

Here are some parts that I think are the hardest to get. Please peak if you’re stuck, especially the first two as those are tricky to parse!

P 106 panel 4


There are some contractions that might be older, I haven’t seen them elsewhere

どっか = どこか somewhere
いっちまえ = 行ってしまえ leave (and don’t come back… the -てしまう here means to make the preceding verb final)
The whole thing is basically “get lost

p 107 panel 9


I think the kanji will help here:
ママを探し歩かないと 会えない

This panel translation:
If you take 1 drop, if you don’t walk searching for your mom at least 300 m, you won’t meet = you have to search 300 m to find/ meet your mom

What is confusing at first is that Nobita’s mom is searching for him. But look at the verb direction. She can’t meet Nobita/ they can’t meet, until Nobita searches for her 300 meters. So that’s why something will always come up and she won’t manage to find him.

3000 km

Then Nobita takes the whole bottle. Zaichiki is right. The 3000 km applies to the dose in the whole bottle. So now Nobita would have to search 3000 km to meet his mom again, and that’s the distance to Guam

ちかてつをつくっちゃえ
This was so heart warming. I like how chill and good natured Nobita’s dad is

Please don’t worry! It’s more like upper BBC level.

3 Likes

thank you! Now I’m thinking of it like a pedometer lol

2 Likes

Read to the end of the series, started reading the commentary, got bored and wanted to read something else so called it done. @mitrac thank you for hosting! This was just what I needed to get out of my reading slump.

2 Likes

て form question

ママをたずねて三千キロじょう Page 110

Sentence: このせまいいえにいっしょにすんでて三千キロなんて
Translation attempt: How will we live together in this small house and be 3000km apart

Question:
Why すんでて? I would expect 住んでいる here. I’m guessing this is すんでいて with a dropped い, but unclear on why there’s this second て-form

Also unsure if I worked in なんて correctly

1 Like

I’m so glad you enjoyed it @hotdogsuplex !!

p 110

You’re right. So the first one is ている which you already know. The second て can be used as an informal ‘and’ so you get the feeling he wanted to continue his sentence but he didn’t. I would translate it like this (unspoken sentiment from previous panels in parentheses)

Living together in this small house, (how will I search) 3000 km?!

The なんて expresses surprise, and since 三千キロなんて is not a full thought, that’s how you know that there is an assumed/ unspoken sentiment

3 Likes

We made it!!!

ママをたずねて三千キロじょう
Phew, I think I struggled the most with this chapter. It’s definitely the final boss of this collection, utilizing a lot of the grammar we learned along the way simultaneously.

Pg 106, panel 4, thanks for answering that one.

Pg 107, panel 8, I don’t understand the invention name たずねて. たずねる brings up two possibilities in Jisho, with the most relevant being 尋ねる to look for, but I thought the invention makes it so you can’t find them until you walk the distance.

Pg 107, panel 9, thanks for that one too.

Pg 109, panel 29, also having problems here. What I think I’m reading: 家があちこちで (the houses are here and there and) 要たんで (was needed and) or 居たんで (people were there and), 来たので (they came here and (also, why ので instead of んで?)) 調べて (they talked and), 頂こうと思って (I thought “I’ll receive them” and) お呼びしたの (I called them). Maybe “them” is the guy she’s talking to? So altogether, perhaps she’s talking about how she’s seen this guy around and is just now getting around to calling him over for a visit? But at the same time, he has a clipboard which makes it seem like he’s there for business.

Pg 110, panel 39, there were 10,000 pills in that bottle!?

It seems kind of strange to have the mom be coincidentally planning a trip to Guam. I guess the problem would have resolved itself regardless?

ちかてつをつくっちゃえ
By comparison, this one went relatively smoothly!

Pg 118, panel 24, what is the く here? 会社はこっちの方がくだよ translates to “the company should be in this direction?”

Pg 120, panel 43, is this 49年 using a previous era calendar?

And that’s the last story. It’s been a lot of fun! All that’s left is the end commentary for next week. I’ll try, but I may also give up if it’s too hard. I have other book clubs to move on to!

1 Like

See you in Look Back! I’m trying that one next.

2 Likes

Others could answer better, but I’ll take a stab at some of the questions in case it helps:

Questions on Week 10 Reading

Pg.107, panel #8:
Right, 尋ねて (or 訊ねて) as in “to look for”. Though you may look for the person, you won’t meet up with them until you’ve walked the combined distance per pill (your mileage won’t vary).

Pg.109, panel #29:
Nobita’s mom is speaking rather formally (敬語) to the man:

家があちこち傷んできたので、調べていただこうと思ってお呼びしたの。

I’m guessing the man is maybe an appraiser come by to estimate some repair costs to the home (which has gotten damaged “here and there”).

The ので (Bunpro) conjunction (formal form of から) is marking the reason for having the man come by. Since she’s speaking formally, the ので maybe isn’t contracted to んで.

For 「調べていただこうと思って」, it’s maybe better to think of the 調べていただこう as a unit rather than 調べて (to examine, and) + 頂こうと思って.

~ていただく (formal form of ~てもらう) is a grammar point: て-form + receiving verb (もらう or いただく) → to have someone do something (the verb in て-form) for the speaker. The volitional (おう) form + と思って here also softening the request (“I thought I’d have you come by and look at it…”)

Pg.118, panel #24 (meant panel #22 I take it):
This one confused me at first too, but it looks like you got it:

会社はこっちの方角だよ。

The 「く」 being just the ending of 方角 (ほうがく)

Pg.120, panel #43:
Right, the 49年 is the Showa Era year. The era year (元号 or 年号) calendar is based on the year of the reigning emperor. So it looks like Dad got a yearly pass from Christmas 49年 (1974 (昭和49 → 1974)). (From the afterward, the story was published ~1973年12月).

4 Likes

Finished!

The mom distance pills one is still really baffling to me but without this forum I don’t think I could have made any sense of it.

I liked the final story. We’ve seen so little of the world outside of their immediate neighborhood it was neat to see the rest of the town/city. It’s a nice end to the book as it implies there’s so much more to the world to explore. Also the panicked response of ちかてつ made me laugh.

4 Likes

We did it, everyone! :muscle:

ママをたずねて三千キロじょう

This one was a little bit harder for me to understand by myself, but as soon as I read all your comments I was able to understand this invention. Thank you! I believe this invention would be really useful if I could take a pill and people from marketing and sales would not be able to call me until I look for them :joy:.

ちかてつとつくっちゃえ

Ahhh, this one was so cute. It may not have been the way Nobita and Doraemon wanted, but either way Papa was happy and that’s what counts :smiling_face::heart:

2 Likes