We are reading at the pace of one page per day. If a sentence crosses two pages it is read as part of the first page.
Daily reading schedule
Page turns at midnight JST.
Date
Page
Last Line of Page
Mar 13
137
Chapter title page
Mar 14
138
細長かった……かな。)
Mar 15
139
お母さんが なくなってしまいました。
Mar 16
140
かわりません。学校は、かべに
Mar 17
141
名前を きいたりするのです。
Mar 18
142
ことに おどろきました。 そして、
Mar 19
143
しらべきれていませんでした。
Mar 20
144
図かんを 作るんだ。」と、決心しました。
Mar 21
145
ひょう本に する じゅんびを します。
Mar 22
146
せいかと して すばらしいだけで なく、
Mar 23
147
ところまで、ていねいに かいてあります。
Mar 24
148
「ワルナスビ」……野さいの ナスの 花に
Mar 25
149
『牧野日本植物図鑑』を 作り上げました。
Mar 26
150
End of chapter
Resources
These spreadsheets are put together by the bookclub to help other readers. Feel free to contribute but do read the vocab sheet guidance on the first page before adding any words.
When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked
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I’m excited for this one! I jumped into this bookclub (my first!) in the Sesshu chapter, but was always a few pages behind. This’ll be my first chapter as an active participant.
よろしくお願いします
I do not know how Japanese names work but is this a case of nominative determinism (where your name determines the area you work in) or did he choose the kanji in his name because of his love of (pasture/field which made him a rich/fat/guy). Not that he seemed to end up either rich or fat
I might be geting the wrong end of the stick here of course
It’s more-or-less the same thing, but I’m going with “botanical field guide” as the translation. It matches the picture given, but I’ll need to read more to find out which is the most accurate. I don’t know anything yet about Makino or what he made!
“元” is more of a toss up. There are so many definitions and most seem to work…
「わあ、かわいい花だなあ。」
“Wow, that’s a cute flower.”
痩せっぽちの子どもが、ガサガサと草むらに入っていきます。
A skinny child is going into the rustling grass.
草をかき分けて、しゃがみ、じいっとお目当ての花を見始めました。
He pushed his way through the grass, crouched and began to gaze at the flower he aimed for.
(名前は、なんて言うのかな。)
(What is its name?)
(葉っぱのかたちも、おもしろいなあ。あれ、似たようなのを、前にも見たことがあるぞ。)
(Hey, the shape of the leaves is also interesting. I have seen something like that before.)
(いいや、あれは、もう少し細長かった……かな。)
(I wonder … wasn’t that a bit more long and narrow?)
Posting my attempt before looking at @2000kanji translation.
Page 138
「わあ、かわいい花だなあ。」
“Wow, pretty flowers!”
やせっぽちの子供が、がさがさと草むらに入っていきます。
Skinny child went into field of rustling grass.
草を掻き分けて、しゃがみ、じいっとお目当ての花を見はじめました。
He pushed aside the grass and crouched in front of his goal - a flower that he never saw before. (lit. flower to be seen for the first time)
(名前は、なんというのかな。)
I wonder, what it’s called.
(葉っぱの形も、面白いなあ。
The shape of it’s leaves is also interesting.
あれ、似たようなのを、前にも見たことがあるぞ。)
There, it looks like the one I saw before.)
(いいや、あれは、もう少し細長かった。。。かな。)
(No, that one was a little bit more long and narrow…hmm.)
This sentence
あれ、似たようなのを、前にも見たことがあるぞ。
is not easy for me to put together. I guessed ような is grammar point, and then it followed by のを, so it’s an direct object - of which verb?
Here’s my take. A few parts I wasn’t so sure of, but that’ll happen
Summary
“Wow, what a cute flower.”
A skinny child enters the dense grass with a rustle.
He pushed his way through the grass, crouched, and saw the motionless flower that was his target for the first time. What is this one called? The shape of the leaves are also interesting. Huh, I’ve seen something similar to this before. No, that one was much less long and narrow…right?
It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out what the 似た part was, much less the grammar point lol. If it were in kanji I’d have known right away!
But I’m pretty sure that whole clause is the direct object of 見たことがある.
Ok, I think this maybe be this grammar point: https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/63
Verb[ た ] + こと・が・ある -“have done before”.
I only need to advance 100 more pages of Genki I to reach it. Now I feel better about this sentence. Thanks!
Page 138. In this sentence
草を掻き分けて、しゃがみ、じいっとお目当ての花を見はじめました。
there is a word じいっと - motionlessly, fixedly. I think by context it describes a child rather than the flower.
I got two new (for me) grammar points from this one page (I’m only half thru N5 according to bunpro), and it’s super hard to guess a grammar point when you never studied it before
I’ll add some to grammar spreadsheet, I see it was being abandoned recently, but I feel that grammar is equally hard to identifying vocab.
Just checking you got the meaning of の in this sentence too. This is the の which acts as a pronoun and means “one”. (Chapter 10 grammar point 3 in Genki)
If this sentence was written in a longer form it would be あれ、似たようなの花を、前にも見たことがあるぞ (EDIT - あれ、似たような花を、前にも見たことがあるぞ - thanks for spotting my error @NicoleIsEnough). But because the fact they are referring to a flower is obvious from context, the 花 can be left out and just replaced with the pronoun の.