Okay, now I think I finally got the logistics. 
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Btw, cousin-met-only-at-Obon thing is also in short story 魔法のからだ from 生命式.
I think I already mentioned it during 授乳 book club when there was a talk about recurring themes, but since there are newcomers here, I decided to repeat myself.
So now of course I’m wondering if it’s autobiographical.
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Thank you for the information. I’ll try to get my hands on a copy of 生命式.
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Gonna answer some questions before reading the thread this time. (My page numbers are from my kindle version and seem to not line up with the hard copy)
1. Hardest sentence to understand:
Summary
-pg15 手前の部屋は山形が使うから。奥の部屋は福岡が使ってるけど - how does one “use” Yamagata or Fukuoka. Is it families from those places?
-pg18 家族水入らず I was able to look up - I guess feeling outside of one’s family, like you don’t belong?
-pg.23 うらやましくて しかた がなかった did I parse this right? Is it saying I don’t know how to be jealous of Yui, or I’m jealous I don’t know what to do ”私は、自分も宇宙人になりたくて、帰る場所がある由宇がうらやましくてしかたがなかった”
2. What was your favorite new vocab word from this week’s reading?
Summary
宝探し was a fun and easy to understand word
豆電球 was similarly instantly understandable
a load of other stuff I had to look up, but nothing that stuck with me
3. Was there any passage that you found particularly intriguing? Did it resonate with you (either positively or negatively)? Was it surprising? Offer any insight or new perspective? Was it just beautifully written?
Summary
I read it a while ago, so don’t recall anything in particular. There’s a lot of general intrigue into their relationship and where this story is going
4. What do you think drove Natsuki and Yuu together? Why might they feel such an affinity towards each other?
Summary
I struggle to read deeper than they are just similar age / similar interests in a world full of old people - I can’t say I understand the 恋人 dynamic yet but keen to read on
5. How does Murata’s language paint the Obon scene? Do you have any childhood memories or traditions that you remember so vividly?
Summary
It paint a pretty vivid picture of a lively house, and people trying to uphold traditions. Similar to the big extended-family Christmas lunches I used to have when I was a kid, where there was a lot of people you didn’t know, or didn’t remember and you were forced to say “Merry Christmas” to.
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Does it help if I point out 部屋は福岡が使ってる means Fukuoka is using the room not that something’s using Fukuoka? (otherwise it would be 福岡を)
I’d say yeah, it’s the speaker using the prefectures different groups of relatives are from as shorthand for the different family units while telling the newly arrived which room to use.
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ty, I flipped things in my head when reading my notes. My previous thought was “how does a prefecture use a room”, but now I follow. Pretty sure we used to use cities sometimes when talking about room assignments or arrive times - but that didn’t come to mind.
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水入らず means no outsiders, strictly, purely, so 家族水入らず would mean strictly family only, no outsiders. In the English translation of the book (I had read the sample, and it goes as far as this part), it’s given as “close-knit family”, which doesn’t seem entirely accurate to me, but works in context. In any case, the takeaway is that Natsuki doesn’t regard herself as a true member of this family, so when they are “family-only” it’s without her.
I understand this as “I couldn’t help but be jealous”
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I don’t think I’ll keep up this speed until I’m caught up lol but since I have both motivation and free time at the moment, I might as well ride this wave as far as it can carry me 
This seems simple enough that I might be missing something obvious but I’m not getting the role of へと in this sentence:
私は頷いて、リュックを背負って二階へとあがった。
The verb here is just あがる, right? So why is it へと instead of just へ?
When Natsuki talked about how she’d make herself magically invisible for the sake of her family, that somehow really hit me in the feels, it sounds exactly like the kind of sad thing a child might say nonchalantly 
Her descriptions of the silkworms was also beautiful, I’m curious to see how that will come up again.
The main thing that stood out to me was the uncomfortable feeling of being around that many relatives you remember either barely or not at all 
Not sure how much I’m projecting onto Natsuki here, since she seems somewhat detached from everything going around her, but she really doesn’t seem to be enjoying it.
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へと is basically just へ with added emphasis, so you’re not missing anything. 
I think that on the contrary, you’ll find it hard to slow down once you are caught up. This is really a book that’s almost impossible to put down, as I’m finding out.
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I’m waaaaay behind having been sidelined by a nasty case of eye inflammation over the holidays which made reading more or less impossible, but back on the saddle! Not totally sure I’ll catch up as I’m currently editing my dissertation, but we’ll see.
Not sure I have much to add, but I loved the atmosphere she created, made me feel nostalgic for the days of big family gatherings (which have mostly ended now that grandparents have passed away). I have 20ish cousins on my mother side, so I can emphathise with the ceaseless bustle, the grandfather who gets your name wrong, the sudden appearance of new babies, the cobbled together table that stretches into multiple rooms… Just goes to show how some experiences cross over cultural barriers.
I agree with others that there were some warning signs: how resigned Natsuki seems to be to being scolded, Yuu being parentified… I’m also getting slightly wierd vibes from uncle Tetsuyoshi (? Can’t be bothered to check the name), considering he seems to be… Comfortable around children. But maybe that’s just me imagining things.
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