午后のあくび / Afternoon Yawnings - BBC Book Club - Week 8

Today starts our penultimate week ! Next week will also feature the omake, a small 7 pages story.

Week 7 May 16th 2026
Start chapter 29
End chapter (included) 34
Last Week week 7
Next week -
Home Thread 午后のあくび

Vocabulary

Vocab sheet
This vocab sheet was generated automatically with Mokuro and Ichiran. It may thus contain mistake. Feel free to correct them !

Manga Kotoba

Discussion Guidelines

Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy! (even tho, to be fair, there is no real story in that book and not much to spoil).

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.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags

Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).

Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:

Example

This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.

The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.

This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.

Posting Advice
  • When asking for help, please mention the page number or a the very least the chapter number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.

  • Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!

Proper Nouns

Name Reading Notes
あわこ Main character
ねね香 A little girl from the same neighborhood
かご中 かごなか Ayako’s colleague. Her head is a bird cage

Discussion Questions

What was you favorite story this week ?

Participation

Will you be reading along with us this week?

  • I’m reading along
  • I have finished this part
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0 voters

If you’ve already read this book but are still going to join the discussion, please select “I have finished this part.”

Don’t forget to set this thread to Watching in order to stay abreast of discussion!

I liked the chatty ghost and the museum of lost things a lot. The snowglobe one was kinda creepy :grimacing:

Vocab:
熱帯 - tropics
死神 - god of death :skull:
星屑 - stardust
囁き - whisper
流れ星 - falling star

The narratives are really fun and whimsical: I am planning on reading the next volume as well.

For chapter 32, I really like how ねね香 takes the lead with the excursion.

I am a teacher, and I formerly worked at a private school in Mexico. I’m still in Mexico but now teaching business English. The cultural differences between children’s independence here and in Japan always surprises my students when we are talking about cultural differences, as well as the cleanliness.

If you aren’t familiar with Japan’s expectations, this video is a good overview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkVvXVDs5aI

Another lovely set of stories. I too enjoyed the ghost one and the museum of lost things. The ending of that one was particularly good. :slight_smile:

It’s bittersweet coming to the end of the volume. On one hand I’ve been feeling a bit scattered doing two book clubs and reading otherwise, but on the other this volume has been truly special. I think this is something I’d like to finish reading one day and return to at a later point. Might have to pick up the physical version!

I didn’t think about the narrative in this context. Thanks for sharing the link and the perspective!