I’ve missed reading the entire second chapter because of my finals. Now they’re over, i don’t think i will be able to go ahead and finish the second chapter before we start the third so can someone please give me a short summary of the main things that happened so that i can at least understand the story going forwards.
We have just started the second chapter, and will be doing it for a full week more. So shouldn’t be a problem. We haven’t even started talking about it yet, more than my short comment about Jiji being male based on using Boku about himself. I’m guessing people are more busy than they assumed during these Christmas times. Good thing we decided on two weeks for chapter two due to length. The dialog made it fairly easy to read though =)
Just realized we decided on separate threads
Have we started the new one? Maybe we should put a reminder in comments when we start a new one. I completely forgot! I just realized now because of looking at top to double check schedule, and it wasn’t there (only time on first chapter)
I think the schedule has chapter 2 for only one week.
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Yeah the proposed reading schedule and poll had 1 week for chapter 2
I updated the home thread with the polls and such at the top for reference – the links to the next and previous chapter will be/are at the top of each chapter discussion thread (i.e. chapter 2’s is at the top of this thread)
Yeah, I wasn’t sure, which is why I went to top to look and that is how I realized we had moved =P
We talked about it, but after reading it I found it fast and easy enough due to the dialogs so agree one week was the right decision =)
What I propose is that when the next chapter start we mention it in a comment on the previous thread, on the bottom, so people are reminded that we now move. I completely forgot and kept looking here 
Should remember it from now on, but a comment doesn’t hurt =)
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Meanwhile I’ve been sick all week and haven’t had the energy to read the book. I’m concerned I won’t be able to catch up now…
Maybe we can write a brief summary for those who got behind this time around (considering the holidays and such)
Maybe we can do that for each chapter 
to make sure we’re all on the same page (literally heheh)
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I also translated くせ as habit.
(Kiki wasn’t ordinary) because she had a tiny habit of ringing the bell in the tall tree.
I’ve added “habit” to the vocab spreadsheet as I don’t think that “despite” is correct in this context.
UPDATE from the future!!
In 2020 when we re-read Kiki, I realise I was wrong in 2017, and くせに means “although”. くせ by itself means habit, but くせに has a separate meaning. Apologies to anyone I led astray.
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My Kenkyusha translates this as worried or anxious.
Their example sentence: 彼のことについて私は気が気ではない。= I am very anxious [very uneasy; worried] about him.
So Kiki’s father has said that if Kiki is not bothered, it is pointless to keep asking her, and in response Kiki’s mother says “Well that might be so, but I’m worried. I feel responsible.”
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I think maybe the last two lines mean something more like "In order for witches to survive, it was an important custom (i.e. so they don’t become extinct, particularly given their weakening magical powers and noticeable drop in numbers)
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Kiki’s mum is lamenting the fact she only knows two types of magic, and Kiki doesn’t like to do one of them, so inevitably that type of magic is going to disappear. I am guessing that かたっぱう is the same as 片方(かたほう) meaning one of a pair.
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Yes, I am happy to help with this. I’ve sent you a message!
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Sorry for being late to this chapter’s discussion but I have a couple of questions I hope somebody can help me with.
In the red book, on page 15, it says:
…キキのほうは鼻の頭と両足のひざっこぞうに合計三つもこぶをつくってしまいました。
I understand it says that Kiki ended with 3 bumps, one in her nose and one in each knee.
But I’m having trouble understanding the use of “ほう” at the beginning.
Also in that page, I have no clue what this sentence means:
ところが、もう一つの薬草づくりはどうもキキの性にあわないようです。
Something about Kiki’s gender and the medicine… but I cannot connect the two items together 
Hi @chofas, apologies for the late response, I didn’t see this earlier!
~のほう (~の方) is used to indicate comparison or directionality. So the sentence first talks about what happened to the broom, and then what happened to Kiki. Maybe in English you’d say " The broom was broken, and as for Kiki, she …"
In the second sentence, 性 is read しょう and refers to a person’s nature, not gender (same kanji, very confusing). 性にあわない means not suiting a person’s nature.
Kiki’s mum tried to teach her two things - how to fly on a broom and how to make the medicine for sneezes.
ところが、もう一つの薬草づくりは
However, the other one (ie other skill) of making medicine
どうもキキの性にあわないようです。
was somehow just not suited to Kiki’s nature.
My dictionary gives these related examples:
この食べ物は私の性に合わない。This food does not agree with me.
この仕事は私の性に合わない。Either: I don’t like this work. or I’m not suited to this job.
Hope that helps! Please post more questions as you have them!
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Thank you very much for the explanation. It all makes sense now!
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Repeat Club Discussion (Week 1) Starts Here!
Chapter 1
V1: Pages 9 - 17
V2: Pages 7 - 13
BookWalker: 5 - 10
We’re reading all of Chapter 1 this week.
27 June 2020
Please briefly check whether questions have already been answered above before posting them, but otherwise don’t hesitate.
- I’m reading along
- I’m planning to catch up later
- I’m not reading this book
0 voters
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I’ve already read this part because of the headstart schedule 
But yay! Finally reading the book that I had for a year and never got to due to lack of furigana 
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Yay! I got only a slight headstart (about done the first page). I’m using the BookWalker version of the V2 book. The page numbers seem to change based on the font size, but at the default size, the pages are 5-10 for me.
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Cool, thank you - other people using BookWalker, does this look consistent for you?
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Seems so 
Mine is also pages 5-10.
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