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!
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.
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.
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Instructions for Spoiler Tags
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Proper Nouns
Name
Hiragana reading
Notes
Kindle location first mentioned
小川 洋子
おがわようこ
the author
cover
二階堂
にかいどう
doctor (?family doctor for the main character)
22
Discussion questions
What was your favorite new vocab word from this week’s reading?
Did you spot any interesting kanji this week?
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?
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I started previewing the pages this weekend and right from the start they are talking about charts. I’m just guessing several people will have no idea what these look like.
if you want to know what they are and look like (unavoidable biology details included)
This is referring to a charting method women can use for predicting when they might get pregnant and use it to time intercourse for pregnancy or contraception. There is a chart per menstrual period, hence why the sister is (second ish page) looking for 24 for the last 2 years. And she isn’t sure if she should take all, or just the one related to her current cycle/pregnancy.
So in the 90s when the book was written, before there were apps to do this, you would have a paper like this and plot the temperature from first thing when you wake up, an approximation of your basal body temperature. I couldn’t find a good pen and paper example but this is a good enough to see what each paper would look like (but Japanese! )
The main feature is that after ovulation day (vertical line) the temperature goes up. That’s pretty much all you need to know. The low temperature time length can be longer for various reasons, like stress. (The sister mentions on one of the charts she comes across she notices a cycle where there’s a longer than usual low temperature time, that’s what that is) I don’t know if it comes up, but if pregnancy happens (not on the chart shown) then after 18 days or so the temperature goes up again and stays up during pregnancy. If pregnancy doesn’t happen (chart shown) then within about 2 weeks or so the temperature goes down and then the next cycle starts with the onset of the period.
Anyway, knowing that helped me with the first few pages, otherwise I can only imagine that would have been quite confusing.
I thought it was interesting how the older sister’s temperature diary has led to the younger sister knowing when her sister ovulates, and which month she had a longer low temperature period.. It strikes me as interesting early evidence of an unusually intense and possibly too-close relationship between them…
I’m only half way through week 0 for now, but I felt that it wasn’t necessarily that their relationship is too intense, but rather that the older sister has a very strong… interest (obsession?) with getting pregnant, to the point that it just spills over to those around them. From the way she is keeping the charts, I wouldn’t be surprised if this topic dominated the conversations at home. But maybe I’m wrong - let’s see how it develops!
Lots of interesting vocabulary (some very specialised).
But for a favourite new word this week - I found 几帳面 interesting, partly because it seems to be derived from a very old style of (intricate/meticulous) fabric screens and woodwork decoration.
Another interesting word with a non Jouyou kanji
洗い晒し
And I was a bit torn for a favourite bit of description. I was intrigued by the description of the (?iridescent) blue green lawn as well as the insect like medical equipment.
But I was most struck by the closing image. I’m not sure what to make of 妹’s disquieting words
全然おめでたくない雰囲気の感じが並んだその一行を、指なぞった。
Is 妹 tracing with her finger her sentiment that she doesn’t feel like congratulating her older sister on her news?
Wow so helpful! I personally knew nothing about any of that before I tried myself to get pregnant at almost 30 year old. So I’m imagining this will potentially be new information for a lot of readers! Super well explained! Now I want to read the book just to learn all this vocab in Japanese (appreciating the spoiler tags too )
My book arrived on Monday so I couldn’t resist joining for the preview week.
Before we get to a favourite word for the week, my least favourite word was 二階堂 in the second sentence. Spent too long trying to work out what the second floor hall doctor was before realising it’s a name!
Favourite words for me were the medical devices 聴診器 and 血圧計. I love Japanese words like this that just tell you straight up what the thing is! And much simpler than the English word sphygmomanometer! 排卵日 can probably join that list as well.
I don’t always do it though, really makes it hard to resist joining the book clubs! Which I know I don’t want to do right now, don’t have time for everything:x
Finished the first week of the primer pace/half of week one. I was definitely getting eerie vibes while they were running around the hospital as kids. And I liked how you could feel the younger sisters dissatisfaction without her outright stating it. It reminds me of my middle school language arts teacher teaching us “show, don’t tell.”
I did not know this word in English. I just went “Oh that’s the… uh… blood pressure measurer thingy.”
I knew about the body temp stuff because a year or so ago I saw a commercial for a smart watch that claimed it could tell you when you ovulate, and I got curious and looked up how that was possible. I’ve never actually tracked it though, much easier to just use an app.
This is where I felt like I finally had 1 single benefit to a lack of kanji knowledge helping I try to read first without lookups and I mentally tagged it as ○○先生 as a name, which was lucky because when I look up the kanji and it was something like “2nd floor hall” I was really doubting that interpretation for a moment.
血圧計 won my heart, too
This was definitely my favourite description.
Another one that made me smile was when she was looking up at the women staring out from the 3rd floor windows and wondering why they don’t seem happier since they are surrounded by (well just above) such interesting medical equipment etc.
Thoughts so far (on the difficulty level, no spoilers)
I’ve been reading mostly books for kids or learners until now, so I feel relief that I can read this!
It takes effort, I read 1-3 pages to get the gist. Then read it again with lookups. There are so many (kanji) lookups that I just do a single page of lookups at a time and then sometimes need to do a third pass of reading that page in one go to then get it all to click before moving on. The grammar isn’t a challenge, fortunately. The sentences feel very straightforward. I’m chalking this up to killer kanji practice.
That said, the last two sentences took some staring and puzzling.
Overall thoughts (spoilers)
I liked the way this section sandwiched a flashback to give us a sense of who both characters are (from the narrator’s POV…). I’m so interested in the angle others have brought up, like, is the relationship too intense/close, or is it dominated by the sister? In the flashbacks, the sister was also dominating a bit.
The last page is so intriguing. What about the pregnancy isn’t worth celebrating? I’m wondering (just my speculation) if her feelings have to do with how the baby will change her life or whether she thinks it’s not in her sister’s best interests for some reason.
That took me a long time to get. But I got there I missed that in that recollection she’s no longer in the entry with her sister. I guess there’s a bit of a transitional cue that she looked it up in the dictionary and obviously that’s not in the entry way.
It struck me that 姉 has either been trying to get pregnant for two years, or else has been seriously obsessed with becoming pregnant (else why would she keep all those charts). So that might have coloured 妹’s feelings. (Though if 姉 had been trying for two years, it is curious that she announced the news in such a matter-of-fact way and then moved on to talking about Bouillabaise.
Did I understand correctly that 妹 is still at school? If so, maybe she isn’t terribly excited about the prospect of a small baby in the house…
The rolling on the grass part was a favorite for me too!
I’ve seen this sometimes with people who are having drawn-out fertility struggles. Matter-of-factness can be a way of protecting oneself emotionally. That said, I also think it’s to an extreme degree here, and it does tell us something about 姉. She seems emotionally closed-off about some stuff.
Yeah, maybe this is one reason for her ambivalence. I think she’s also taking cues from 姉, and perhaps has other unspoken reasons for wondering about her sister and brother-in-law becoming parents.
So 姉 has been nervous about going to the doctor, and ends up going to the clinic on the last day it is open before the New Year. 年末最後の診察日になってしまった。 (I presume that means that she didn’t have an advance appointment)
But I was reflecting that it is a mark of a different health care system (and a different era perhaps). It is sadly unimaginable that in the country I live in (UK) that you could just turn up for a same day appointment to see a GP (let alone an obstetrician) to have your early pregnancy confirmed…
It’s 漢字 which hopefully helps you understand 
(appreciating the spoiler tags too 
)
(thanks!)