Somehow I totally forgot about that when she first called her ハチ in this chapter it was this weird feeling like it was both the first time I had seen that joke and I remembered that that’s just what her name is from now on
One of the things that I like about this chapter is that you start to see what ハチ () brings to the friendship for ナナ. It’s easy to think that she’s just found another person to be 甘える by, but there’s definitely two sides of the friendship and I think this is the first peek at that.
Just telling you the gist as it’s faster than opening the book, but if you prefer a detailed breakdown / if there’s a particular sentence tripping you up let me know
The gist that I understood is that Hachi says that she noticed they were not removing their shoes inside, so that doesn’t go so well with sleeping on the floor. She’s also a bit shocked when Nana said she’s used to doing that. But in the end they agree on buying beds instead of sleeping on futons / in sleeping bags because of hygiene reasons.
Okay, so I did understand the Japanese, I just fail to understand the logic of the discussion. As long as you don’t step on the bed, what difference does wearing shoes make whether the mattress is on the floor or not?
I often get this feeling too, why didn’t I understand it the first time around, when after reading the translation is seems so clear! But in this particular case, I do find it hard to understand, because 二浪 is used twice but meaning different things, the first time it’s the two years before you get in a university, and the second time is while you are in the university but fail your exams (if I understood correctly)
If you are not on a bed, when you lie down you are very close to where people walk with their shoes → gross. If you are on a bed it’s fine. At least I think that’s the reasoning there!
But in Japan usually they are even more peculiar about “no shoes ever in the house it’s not in the 玄関”. I read a VN once where two people entered a house of missing persons, presumed dead, and they debated for while whether taking off the shoes or not before exploring the house looking for the missing people, lol.
I love this. The only reason I don’t do it here is because I’m afraid that people will think I’m weird if I ask them to take their shoes off as soon as they enter.
I saw a drama once where someone was wearing high lace up boots but had to go back inside to do something after they had put on the boots so they crawled through the house on their hands and knees so they didn’t have to take the boots off.
I struggled with this (seemingly profound) sentence.
張る is one of those verbs that has a bunch of different meanings that I am constantly learning lol.
Is “意地ばっかり張ってる” essentially “if you just stick to your stubbornness” or something like that?
Also what function is と here? It seems to be acting as a conjunction, but I feel like が is more common in a place like this?
Other Thoughts
One of my favorite recurring jokes is how, after the name of every new guy Hachi meets, they include the man’s age. In this section the shopkeeper at Sabrina is introduced as Mizukoshi (29). It gets me every time!
It’s so sweet how Hachi brings Nana a burger and skips out on the rest of her date night with Shouji to bring it home to her. You can already sense a turning point is approaching in Nana and Souji’s relationship.
On a related note, I long to eat a Jackson Burger…I don’t eat meat but they make it sound so damn good. I didn’t realize that there was an actual Jackson’s in Tokyo or I would have gone the last time I was there. Next time!
SEVEN FLIGHTS IS SO MUCH FOR A WALK UP. I used to live on the 6th floor of a 6 story walk up and that was BRUTAL let me tell you. The day I moved out of that apartment, my step counter said I did something like 340 flights of stairs, lmao. How did Mizukoshi (29) get a vintage refrigerator up seven stories???
In the anime, the constant smoking is almost comical. It’s easier to ignore in the manga. But in the anime it’s like every single scene features someone chainsmoking. The last time I watched it was showing it to my partner (an ex-smoker) for the first time, and he said it was very triggering because it makes it look so cool.
My interpretation:
と is the “when” / “if”, so simply If you keep being stubborn, happiness will run away.
Of course Hachi doesn’t know too much about Nana’s backstory so she meant it for Yasu, but it might make Nana rethink that maybe she shouldn’t be too stubborn about not trying to be with Ren until she’s a making a living as a musician herself?
Thoughts
Love reading your thoughts!
Haha I lived for two years on the seventh floor with no elevator and I don’t remember it being that bad. I remember people not wanting to visit me too much for that reason though x) (too bad it was before the time of smart phones and smart watches, I have no idea how many steps that was!)
) brings to the friendship for ナナ. It’s easy to think that she’s just found another person to be 甘える by, but there’s definitely two sides of the friendship and I think this is the first peek at that.
