We are reading the first volume of 夜カフェ as the Beginner Book Club!.
This thread is for chapter related discussion. We are reading together from the aforementioned date on, but this thread will be kept open mu~ch longer (like 10 years longer). So don’t be shy to ask questions even if you are late to the party
Vocabulary List
Feel free to add any words you looked up as well! Page numbers may be off by one or two because of differences between physical and digital editions, but we try to keep the words roughly in order of appearance
The book is also available over at koohi.cafe (formerly known as floflo).
Discussion Guidelines
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I know it only takes so long to establish the setting because I’m so slow at reading this language, but still, I’m feeling a bit impatient with the pace of the story. It’s not like I’m not enjoying reading it, but I feel like everything so far has been in preparation for what’s to come (and I hope that’s gonna be good!). I want Hanabi to finally succeed at something! So… “not sure yet”.
On the other hand, the reading speed so far has been “a little fast” for me. But I feel like I’m currently speeding up (I’m pretty sure I’ll finish my preliminary read of chapter 4 in one day), so “a little fast” might give you the wrong impression. Therefore, “not sure” here too.
Regarding the current chapter… 「ハナビ、悪かったわ。ママね、いろいろ考えたんだけど、もしもハナビがいやなら、仕事やめてもいいと思ってるのよ。」You’re breaking my heart, ハナビーママ! This is both so sweet of her, and so sad. And luckily not what Hanabi wants.
So, let me preface this with not being 100% positive about this because I’ve only done the initial skim of this chapter weeks ago when working on the vocab sheet. With that in mind, that was something that threw me while skimming as well, but my takeaway is that it’s a plate meant for toiletries: toothbrush, facewash, soaps, etc. so that those things aren’t sitting directly on the counter.
The author of this blog post I found when I was googling about it in confusion back then has some pictures and talks about some special plates for that purpose.
I think it’s a sign plate that you hang in front of the door to signal “bathroom currently in use” to keep Yamato-kun from accidentially entering.
Earlier it is described that Aiko-san made a plate with “currently bathing in progress” written on and a picture of a bathing girl, because, “you know, isn’t Yamato-kun here too”?
Then Hanabi mentions how she was seen by Yamato-kun in her pyjamas this morning, so Aiko-san answers with the sentence above, suggesting that a door sign plate for “bathroom purposes” is also necessary (to prevent that).
This is what I thought originally but kept picturing a plate and was rather puzzled…couldn’t find anything that meant ‘sign’ and then read that sentence where the plate was important and got even more thrown around started picturing commemorative places as something that Aiko-san might have been making for decorations… my imagination started running wild…
Think what confused me is that if there is already a sign that says in-use why do you need another one (if that makes sense)…which is why I thought maybe it really was a plate and then the post from @MrGeneric made perfect sense with a new person in the house…
Haven’t run across anywhere before ‘plate’ has been used for sign, but probably if it said nameplate wouldn’t have been puzzled… fun with learning Japanese I suppose
At least maybe it wasn’t as lame a question as I first thought…
I think there are two separate rooms, and that’s why two signs are needed. They very specifically refer to a room for washing one’s face, so maybe that room doesn’t have a bathtub, and there is a separate room that does.
I read that as just “have to do” grammar “(We) have to do our best Hanabi!” Since it’s “quoted” and spoken by Aiko, she is just speaking with contractions.
But maybe someone else has a clearer explanation (or I’m completely wrong again) hehe
Oh wow, I never thought of doing a search starting with the small tsu. Thanks to you, @MrGeneric, and @shuly! I feel like usually I’ve seen that written as 頑張らなきゃ. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it like this. Learned something new here!
On プレート:
A quick image search on Google for プレート shows tectonic plates mainly, but add お風呂 in there and you get exactly what Hanabi and Aiko were talking about
Actually I think it’s just the one sign, indicating that the bathroom is in use. You put it up when you go in, remove it when you leave. It would be easier to just lock the door, I guess, but maybe it doesn’t lock?
That’s what confused me then I thought there was already a sign drawn by Aiko already…and that they needed another one…(maybe I need to reread that part today)