Lol oh right. Those two are uncles and not grandpas. That family is too big to memorize 
Yeah that’s what I’m always checking and marking red in the reader. Just threw me off a bit today
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Was glad to find a slightly shorter section in my quest to catch up! I don’t think I’ll write quite as much this time round, ha, but still putting in my two cents to keep myself accountable.
Thoughts on plot
Re: parents. Anyone else find the way that the mother wakes Natsuki up really callous? Just “Get ready to go, your grandfather’s dead.” Yeesh. The more we get the mother, the less I like her. By contrast, as someone else mentioned, I was glad to see the father be a bit more assertive in this chapter, and have some moments with Natsuki. Yes, it was not a full heart to heart, but I appreciate that he takes the time to answer her question and include her in the funeral.
I enjoyed reading about the Japanese funeral rites (well, as much as you can enjoy a funeral) and appreciate that we had a child’s eyes to see it through, so that some things got explained. Though it took me a while to understand what was being said about the earth falling at first, even with the explanation. I was especially amused by the description of how other villagers seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and how surprised Natsuki is. I thought it was interesting that the digging of the hole and the final burial were completely by others - very much a community affair.
I was surprised to learn on Wikipedia that 99.81% of deceased Japanese are cremated. That’s really high! So a burial would be pretty uncommon. It has made me wonder if there is a reason that Murata chose to depict a burial, rather than cremation, asides from making the region feel extremely rural. Is it to make this place feel somewhat stuck in the past, aware from the strictures of modern society? Perhaps it is a way of marking the mountains as apart from societies factory. Not sure, but food for thought.
I wasn’t totally sure what to think about Natsuki request: but I was struct by the fact that she is convinced that she might be killed. That to me seems to play a big part. While I do think that it might have something to do with bodily autonomy, its not clear to me whether she understands what happened to her was necessarily sexual in nature, especially because she had her eyes closed while it happened. I mean, maybe I was just a highly sheltered pre-teen, but when I first stumbled across my first explicit sex scene in a book at 14 which described oral sex (thanks Clan of the Cave Bears!) I was pretty… shocked. It hadn’t even occurred to me that is something that people would do. So yeah, for me it feels more like she wants to a “real” couple with Yuu and her basic understanding of sex is that its something that husbands and wives do together (and the thing that makes babies). So to me, it feels more motivated by the fact that she doesn’t know if she will see Yuu again, rather than a way to experience sex on her terms.
But gah, the whole thing is pretty messed up, no matter her motivation. I just want to sit down with her and give her a big hug and tell her that she never has to see Isagaki again.
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Week 6 done. I am also surprised by how much of a quick read this one was.
Natsuki's father
@Phryne pointed out the line regarding him being manipulated by Natsuki’s mother and sister, which sort of explains his behavior (or lack thereof) up to now, though it’s not really a full enough picture for me.
This section had a lot of moments with him, and I tried to pay close attention to each one. Him acting more like he’s in charge was quite curious (a death in the family seemed to bring him to life). The moment that really stood out to me, though, was when he went to the casket to say his final goodbye.
「夏だからすぐに腐るな」とだけ言った。
This line tripped me up a bit. On the one hand, I know な can act as a way to negate a verb, so you could argue it means “don’t rot too soon” or something of the like. However, I’m also not sure if he’d speak with his father like that (not like we got to see the two chat). な can also be used for adding emphasis, so it might also mean “you’ll rot away soon” because of the summer heat. Part of me thinks this is supposed to be a little ambiguous.
There must be a reason he lets Natsuki’s sister and mother do every horrible thing that they do, and that one line with the dad makes me think their relationship is the reason for it. Still, that’s a MASSIVE conjecture on my part.
Question 4
The only thing I knew was that most Japanese people get cremated (thanks to @AmomentOfMusic for that staggering statistic). Other than that and the fact that everyone generally dresses in black, nothing.
Natsuki’s surprise regarding the people from the village helping to bury her grandfather was interesting. On the one hand, I don’t think it’s surprising for a child not to know that, especially when this might be her first funeral. I do think the idea of a community coming around a member and helping them in their hour of need might be surprising to her. She doesn’t mention this, so, again, a lot of speculation on my part. She’s someone who thinks no one will help her, and so far she has every right to think that. I wonder if it’ll end up being someone who’s a stranger to her that does help her, or at least gets her on the path to finding a way to help herself.
Question 6
I, too, don’t know how to feel about the request. I can understand her desire of being in control of her own body for once, but obviously they’re too young to even be considering such a thing. I don’t think she’s trying to manipulate Yuu in the scene or anything; I think it comes off more as her confiding in the only person she really trusts as much as she can.
Is it reasonable? I probably wouldn’t go so far as to say that. Personally I would’ve tried to get him to run away with me: collect all the edible plants we could find and get out. That probably wouldn’t last long; their family would find them. But then maybe she could finally blurt out all the wrongs she’s had to endure in front of as many witnesses as possible? Who am I kidding, it would probably backfire. I’m just engaging in wishful thinking. 
Side note: when Teruyoshi was instructing people on their positions and he asked Yuu to help carry the casket, did anyone else notice this line?
「陽太は由宇より血が近いからもっとこっちに寄れ」
Did he just mean that in terms of age, or is this the confirmation that we needed about Yuu not being his mother’s child by blood?
Also, I quite liked this section:
縁側から靴を履いて、ぞろぞろ列になりお棺を運んだ。後ろを見ると、姉と母が寄り添って歩いていった。おばあちゃんの後ろに、いとこやおばさんが列になっている。皆、黒い服を着ているから、蟻の行列みたいに感じられた。
According to Jisho, while ぞろぞろ can mean “in succession,” it can also mean “crawling (of insects).” I really like the double meaning Murata gets out of that word choice.
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Interesting thoughts.
On the father
I hadn’t considered the possibility of a strained relationship with his father - mainly because we saw nothing of their relationship. The grandfather barely had a line (or not even one?) in the little we’ve seen of him. I too wasn’t sure if he was instructing him (a little too directly for Japanese politeness) not to rot fast, or was just commenting on it, but then I’m not even sure if rotting quickly is considered a good or a bad thing. I believe he didn’t say anything that would be considered untoward though. I think he only came to life because he knew what was expected of him, he was performing a scripted role in a play where - added bonus - his wife was just supporting cast in the background.
On community
I took Natsuki’s surprise simply as a child’s skewed perception of her surroundings. She feels that this house is totally isolated, a world all to herself (and her family). She even says she’d never seen all those people who came to the house for the funeral, so the fact that all those unseen people not only exist but come to your hour of need and help out, before retreating back to invisibility, must have been very surprising for her. I liked your take on the world being bigger than what Natsuki sees being a good thing, and maybe help coming from outside her limited immediate surroundings.
On what Teruyoshi said
I’m not sure I remember correctly, but I think Teruyoshi is the eldest son? As such, he would be considered the closest immediate relative, and his eldest son the closest among the grandchildren. Yuu is the child of a daughter, so probably less important in family hierarchy? I really like that it fits with him maybe being an “alien” though, it hadn’t even crossed my mind.
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For what it’s worth, the English translation says:
“Dad peered into the coffin. Then he simply said, “I guess he’ll rot quickly in the summer heat.”
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Argh, still kind of vague, but that at least eliminates one possibility. Thanks for sharing that!
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After last week’s reading I feel like this bit was super mellow despite Natsukis proposition to Yuu the night of the funeral. It was mellow otherwise. I feel like a crazy person for calling this part mellow lol but it felt like a nice break having an event with little surprises. Kind of made me feel like I did after I got caught cheating on a test and feeling like just doing things the way I’m expected to is better than carrying that guilt. 
Less serious but could oddly relate.
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