銭天堂 | Week 8 Discussion

Japanese Language Reading
#1

Week 8 Discussion | Pages 74 - 83

Chapter 4: 釣り鯛焼き

Start Date: 22nd June
Last Week: Chapter 3 Part 2
Next Week: Chapter 4 Part 2

Zenitendou

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Last sentence for eBook readers:
慶司になにかかくしごとがあると感づいたらしく、なにかとさぐりを入れはじめたのだ。

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銭天堂 ・ Zenitendou, The Mysterious Sweet Shop! (Beginner Book Club)
銭天堂 | Week 7 Discussion
#2

I remembered!

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#3

Done for the week!

I think it’s a pretty common phenomenon, but it’s cool to learn something then immediately see it in reading. I just learned 軒 on Wanikani a day ago, and it showed up in this chapter. Then I literally learned めちゃくちゃ on Floflo this morning, and there it was as well. Pretty neat.

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#4

Done as well.

I quite liked the visual of the taiyaki swimming in the deep blue sea and had this weird vision of flounder in The Little Mermaid being replaced by one.

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#5

I loved this as well! I think this chapter does a fantastic job with visual descriptions. (Or maybe the whole book does and I’ve just gotten better and understanding and comprehending them along the way.)

I also love that while many of the other stories have involved some sort of suffering, this kid just happened upon the shop because he wanted taiyaki, the place he intended to go was closed, and he ended up with an infinite source of assorted taiyaki! The descriptions of them made me immensely hungry for one :drooling_face:

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#6

It is an interesting chapter so far! :fishing_pole_and_fish:

I am not sure if I am parsing the following part correctly. Can someone please confirm?

At 52%

水を入れると、バケツはとたんにそれらしくなった。ぴんしゃんと、しわがのびて、しっかりした感じになる。

水を入れると、when adding water,
バケツはとたんにそれらしくなった。 at that moment the bucket became bucket-like.
ぴんしゃんと、vigorously (?)
しわがのびて、the creases expanded
しっかりした感じになる。and it acquired a sturdy feeling.

So, unless I am missing something drastic, this is describing how the “foldable” bucket turns into an actual bucket?

Any help is appreciated!

image
image.jpg753×940 384 KB

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#7

That’s exactly how I read it. :grin:

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#8

I took this part as an onomatopoeia related to ピシャ, with the added ン’s for… some sort of effect. Essentially making it something like a rattle or clatter, similar to somebody pulling shutters closed. This is the site I’ve been using for them, and it’s been super useful for navigating this book. Somebody recommended it in a thread somewhere on here, but I don’t remember where.

http://thejadednetwork.com/sfx/browse/pisha/

#9

I’m finally catching up after falling behind in chapter 3 :tada: (and having no time to post before that anyway… :pensive: )

But I am just really struggling with this first page (74).

お父さんときたら、その約束をすっかり忘れて、仕事を入れてしまったのだ。仕事だといえば、なんだってゆるされると思ってるんだから!

Okay, so he’s supposed to have gone fishing with his dad, and presumably his dad has forgotten that promise and gone to work. So far so good. But I don’t understand what the ときたら in the first phrase can mean, and I have no idea what he’s talking about in the second sentence.

大物をつった気分で、むしゃむしゃ頭から食べてやる。

What?! Is this something along the lines of ‘feeling like he’s defeated a big opponent’? No idea what he’s talking about in the second part again though.

And finally - シャッターがそっけなくおろされていて - the shutters are… cruelly… lowered?

#10

Literally “when it comes to”, as in English, it’s a topic marker, similar to topic は.

Hm, I parse it pretty literally:
仕事 work
だ COP
と QUOT
いえ say
ば、 if
なん what
だって ever(=demo)
ゆるさ forgive
れる PASS
と QUOT
思っ think
てる -ing
ん NMLZ
だ COP
から! because
If he says it’s work, anything will be forgiven; it’s because he thinks like that!

I think 大物 is a big fish; つった is 釣った; to have caught a big fish.

I’d say it’s “brusque”, as in they didn’t care about him at all, while doing so.

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#11

Oooh, perfect, thank you!

Right, but… what does that mean?! It’s one of those cases where I don’t understand what he’s going on about, regardless of language :grin: I feel like I’ve been thrown into someone’s stream of consciousness with absolutely no context to guide me.

Just one question from page 75 and then I only have, um, 5 pages left to catch up :sweat_smile:

ふた口=?

Context: のこりの鯛焼きをぱくぱくとふた口でかたづけてしまった。

#12

My understanding is that the character is complaining that his father thinks that the fact that he had work is a good enough excuse to be forgiven for anything (including breaking his promise to go fishing).

From what I understood it means “two mouthfuls”, as in, he finished eating the remaining taiyaki in two bites. It is using this meaning of 口：

image

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#13

That makes so much sense, thank you :relaxed: (to clarify, I was confused because I thought the boy was being forgiven for something, which, obviously, didn’t make any sense)

And can’t really believe I missed the counter definition… I’m so out of practice :sweat_smile:

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#14

I’m only about a page away from finishing this week on time, but not sure I’m gonna make it before I have to post the next thread.

Hasn’t everyone missed me asking bazillions of questions? :sweat_smile:

Page 74

Not a question. Just wanted to point out for anyone else who got lost for a minute in the string of hiragana that the second sentence is:

もう その こと しか うかばなく

Is there any particular meaning to the が when he says / thinks ところがだ? I interpreted it as “this is the place”, but that could as easily be ところだ.

Page 78

The very first word (starts on page 77) is べちゃり, which I can’t find in the dictionary. Jisho does suggest べちゃんこ though, meaning ‘squished flat’, which seems very reasonable given that the next word つぶれる means ‘to be crushed’.

Am I right in thinking this is just a different way of writing that word?

でも、これをどうしろっていうんだろう？ (middle of the page)

I think I’m just being silly, but what is どうしろって?

Page 80

糸が切れたりしないよう、力の入れ具合に気をつけ、ここぞというときは、思いっきりまいた。

Just not sure what ここぞと means?

Totally agree with others that the description of the scene within the bucket is just beautiful. It made me want to swim around in there - sounded such a relaxing environment!

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#15

I thought it was ところが, just emphasized with the copula だ (and put in a separate sentence if I remember the part correctly)

ここぞというとき is sort of an expression, meaning in the critical moment
(literally “the time when you say ここぞ (now!!)”

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#16

Huh, just thought that was a strange thing to say at that point (it is indeed a complete sentence).

sigh my Jisho-fu fails me once more! Thanks for the answers Myria :blush:

Also, I’m really not sure that I would ever have bothered dropping the line into the obviously empty bucket of water… and thus I suppose I would have missed out on a pretty magical experience! That is some dedication to following the instructions.

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#17

Could be similar to べちゃべちゃ, something messy?

I think it’s just the imperative, quoted, “but, what is it telling me to do with that, I wonder”.

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#18

Ooh, I didn’t think of that! Thank you again :+1:

#19

Just two more questions! :bowing_man:

Page 83

鯛焼きは いつも つれる わけ ではなかった。

The first clause says ‘similarly to normal fishing…’, but then I’m not sure what this part means?

あんこの中に白玉が入っているやつが。。。

Just not sure which definition of 白玉 is intended here, as I felt like they were all plausible!

On to week 9!

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#20

釣れる is the potential form of 釣る, being able to catch / fish.
わけではなかった: this didn’t mean that…
Similarly to normal fishing, you couldn’t always catch taiyaki. (just because you have a magical bucket doesn’t mean you can always catch taiyaki)

I assumed he meant a pearl.

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