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ひらやすみ・Hirayasumi Book Club!
Currently Reading: Not Started (Nov 15th)
Introduction
After developing an unlikely friendship with the grouchy old woman who lives in his neighborhood, Hiroto suddenly finds himself inheriting not just her house but some rather difficult emotions as well. His 18-year-old cousin, Natsumi, moves in with him, but as a struggling art student, she has her own troubles to deal with and may just put Hiroto’s easygoing lifestyle to the test. (source: VIZ)
View the original nomination post here
How it works
We create a reading schedule, with a set number of pages to work through each week. Each week we create a new discussion thread for that week’s reading. In those threads we discuss everything from vocab and grammar to the characters and story. We try to help each other by contributing to the shared vocab list, by answering each other’s questions and by keeping each other motivated.
What to expect from the this book
This book seems pretty average for the Beginners Book club. There’s no full furigana, but the plot is all slice of life and seems to keep it pretty simple.
If you are a complete beginner to Japanese the Absolute Beginner’s Book club is likely a better place to start, but if you have been learning Japanese for a while and want to give yourself a challenge, then this will be a good book to read with the support of the group.
Where to purchase
-
Physical
CD Japan, Amazon Japan -
Digital
Bookwalker, Kindle
I opted to split the first chapter as a ramp up and it’s abnormally long - merged the final two chapters as the last is sort of a bonus and has a good deal of no dialogue
Schedules and Links
Start date: Nov 15, 2025
| Week | Pages | Chapter | No of Pages | Start Date | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | 3 → 21 | 1 | 18p | Nov 15 | Link |
| #2 | 21 → 45 | 1 | 24p | Nov 22 | Link |
| #3 | 45 → 77 | 2 | 22p | Nov 29 | Link |
| #4 | 77 → 101 | 3 | 24p | Dec 6 | Link |
| #5 | 101 → 119 | 4 | 18p | Dec 13 | Link |
| #6 | 119 → 137 | 5 | 18p | Dec 20 | Link |
| #7 | 137 → 155 | 6 | 18p | Dec 27 | Link |
| #8 | 155 → 190 | 7+ | 35p | Jan 3 | Link |
Resources
- Jisho is a popular online Japanese-English dictionary.
- ichi.moe is a tool for parsing out sentences. You can type/paste in a whole sentence and it will try and break the sentence down into its individual parts.
- Deepl will translate a sentence from Japanese to English. It’s obviously not going to be right all the time, so if you want to check your translation it’s often better to ask in the thread.
Discussion Guidelines
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.
- Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
- Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags
Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).
Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:
Example
This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.
The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.
This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.
Posting Advice
- When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.
- Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!
Membership
Will you be reading with us?
- Yes
- Yes, but I might start late
- Maybe
- No
Which version will you be reading?
- Digital
- Physical
P.S. Most of this post was stolen from past contributors. Thank you all who have built up this club over the years <3
