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I’ve definitely been doing more reading since starting this challenge, which I’m happy about (I’m also happy that it’s getting easier to read in Japanese!), though I was getting a little worried that I was letting my actual studies slip through the cracks, but actually it seems I’m doing about as much as I usually do on days when I have work, and I’m mostly just spending the extra time on days off that I wouldn’t have if I were at work to read, so I guess it’s kinda balanced out?
I read Seed 4 of GREEN, as well as the 特別番外編 where Ninomiya-sensei talks about how this series came to be, finishing vol 1! I’m definitely enjoying this series so far, and I hope the remaining 3 volumes hold up.
Live commentary:
lol Nozomi told more lies again trying to get Wako-chan to give up on Makoto. This time that Makoto left behind an ex-wife and 7 children in Tōkyō. And then a woman Makoto’s on good terms with drives up as they’re walking home together and whisks him off to her store to taste-test her new menu, making Wako think there may be some truth to him already having someone after all.
Baa-chan does want them together, so it is just that she doesn’t want Wako helping out on the farm and doesn’t want anyone wasting time teaching her to do it properly. She tries to comfort Wako-chan by saying that Makoto is a simple man and the only thing he thinks about is the fields (not helping when Wako wants to know if he ever thinks about her!) and then by lending her a yukata and telling her to wear it and go with Makoto to the festival tomorrow (which does help) with the ulterior motive of wanting them to hurry up and give her great-grandchildren lol
But then a big storm sweeps through and the festival is cancelled. Wako only has 5 more days until she has to go back and she still wanted to use this as a chance to go on a date, as when it clears up, they’ll just have to help out on the farm again, but Makoto doesn’t even think about that and just wants to read books about pests and crop diseases and the like (well, baa-chan certainly wasn’t lying lol), so she gets mad and shuts herself in the closet. While waiting for someone, preferably Makoto, to come find her in her purposely easy hiding spot, Makoto gets called by the fire brigade (who call on him in times like this as one of the few young people in the area) to help people who’ve been injured due to all the rain. Wako falls asleep waiting for him to come back and dreams he comes home (from a regular office job lol) bringing her a bouquet of flowers, which is how he finds her. He does actually have a small sprig of wildflowers he’s picked and gently tucks them behind her ear before curling up next to her and falling asleep as well… but it turns out it’s a poisonous plant and they both end up with a rash that takes a week to heal (whoops)
I read 17 pages of 夜カフェ, which is all of ch 2. This week I only needed to read the first half, but there was no way I was reading only part of it lmao I didn’t even look at which line we were supposed to leave off on.
I have Thoughts. (Well, not all of them are capital-T, but.)
I really don’t like Hanabi’s dad. I don’t care if you’re raised to think the women should be doing all the cooking and housework and child-rearing and whatnot and that’s how it was when you were young and that’s all you know, if you see your wife struggle to be able to do all of the cooking and cleaning and laundry and etc. etc. on top of her job (just as I assume you saw your own mother do when you were younger) and instead of offering to help all you do is feel sorry for your pre-teen daughter who can’t cook when she has to try and cook for herself or buy a conbini bentou (why don’t you try cooking when you get home before dinner, huh?) and get on your wife’s ass for not doing it all and demanding she somehow magic up the time and energy to do it when you are perfectly capable of doing at least some of it yourself, you are a grade-A dick. He either needs to grow up and stop being a child or Hanabi’s mother needs to find someone better.
「つかれてるのは、おれだって同じだ。」
Oh, so you’re allowed to kick back with a beer after work, but your wife isn’t even allowed to rest on the couch for one single second when she gets home before you’re hounding her to cook and clean? Asshole.
I’m glad her aunt’s place is a safe space for Hanabi. Aiko-san doesn’t try to make her go back even though she’s already received a call from her sister, just welcomes her in and makes her feel seen and heard and makes sure she eats (as Hanabi’d only had half a conbini bentou before her parents got home and started fighting). We also meet Yamato-kun, another of the main characters, who it seems took a big tumble off his bike in Aiko’s front yard and injured himself (though not seriously, thankfully) and has been staying with her for the two weeks since. For some reason. I wonder if we’ll learn why he isn’t staying with his family.
This chapter was Tina’s first appearance, too. I hope she’ll be a friend to Hanabi. She deserves to have someone on her side who’s her own age.
I read 2 pages of 2.43, putting me at pg 44.
Fanboying/rambling:
どどどどどっ、と上のほうから地響きが降ってきた。反射的に逃げ腰になって振り仰ぐと、脇にある階段から三村が飛びおりてきた。文字どおりの意味で、踊り場から飛んだのだ。スパイクジャンプのフォームと同じように弓なりに反った長身がビル半階分の虚空を舞った。ガラス扉から射す光の筋の狭間にその姿が一瞬消え、次の瞬間、光の中から突然現れたように見えた。
I had to include this whole paragraph because I love it, I love the imagery, and I love the scene in the anime too, and also, Subaru, babe, you are an idiot. You’ve injured both your knees and have had surgery twice already and you’ve gotta be careful on them (which is why he wears braces—called サポーター in Japanese—when he plays), and what do you do? You take a flying leap off of a half-landing! I love you, but you’ve really gotta listen to your voice of reason (which I know you have!!) more often. (Also, dashing down stairs? Not fun on your knees.)
Because this is a pattern, him doing dumb things (which I know he knows are a bad idea!!) because, I dunno, he thinks it’ll be fun? There’s this in first year, leaping off a stone breakwater into the sea chasing after a ball while playing beach volleyball in second year, a snowball fight right before the finals in the HaruKou prelims in third year. The first and third are the only ones in the anime (the second was mentioned in 途中下車の海). Yuni I know has no voice of reason, but Subaru I’m fully convinced does have one and he just chooses to ignore it.
Side note, but one of the reasons I’m really looking forward to getting to next 4 years is seeing how Yuni and Subaru get on when they’re on the same team, because I have a feeling they’d get on swimmingly, but not always necessarily in a good way lmao they definitely have the potential to cause trouble together.
lol and then Ochi internally a few lines later:
大事にしなきゃいけないんじゃなかったのかよ⁉
My thoughts exactly.
Ooh, we do get their heights! Well, not exact heights, but Subaru’s surpassed 180cm, as I’d somewhat suspected, and Ochi’s a little under 170 cm and has given up on growing any further. His height as a third-year is 168 cm, so he likely never does, unless he grows in college (I did, though only slightly). I think he was a setter though, or at least the image of him in the anime during the flashback scene where Subaru and Hata-kantoku are talking about the team they’re building suggests that he was a setter, so height wouldn’t have mattered much for him had he remained a player.
I read ch 11-20 of コナの大冒険. A lot fewer kanji to add to my known list, so it went more smoothly today.
Today I also picked up Holy Cow!, a book which explains (though not always in detail) the origins of many an animal expression that I picked up for like $3 at Barnes & Noble back in January. I’m happy they acknowledge bisexuality.
A gay dog used to mean someone pursuing an idle lifestyle while displaying the symbols of (usually inherited) wealth. Or it was a young man with an active romantic life. Now it would refer to a homosexual or bisexual canine.
Never heard that expression before. Although dogs being considered nuisances rather than “man’s best friend” for a significant portion of history explains a lot of the less-than-complimentary canine expressions. Also I don’t think at this point I’ll ever be able to come across “dog days” without thinking about my fic that I named “真夏 -the dogs days of summer-” lol. Pry doesn’t help either that Yuni’s ADHD ass reminds me of a dog (which actually didn’t influence the title; it was purely because it was hot as bleeping heck outside) and he’s even in canon compared to a border collie. (And even if Chika’s never compared to a cat in canon, I’ve already got that covered in another of my fics lol)
Some vocab of note:
土砂崩れ (どしゃくずれ) [noun] landslide
桧 (ひのき) [noun] hinoki cypress; Japanese cypress. It’s also written 檜 or in katakana; the name apparently comes from “火の木.”
毒草 (どくそう) [noun] poisonous plant
地響き (じひびき) [noun] subterranean rumbling; earth tremor. This was even used with what I’m assuming is the “to come; to arrive” sense of 降る.
袈裟懸け (けさがけ) [noun] wearing a kāṣāya (monk’s stole); wearing an article of clothing in the same manner as a kāṣāya (i.e. draped over one shoulder). I have come across this word multiple times in 2.43 but never did look it up until now. I never paid attention to how it was used, but I’d bet anything it was always used to describe how the characters carry their enamel sports bags.
ドツボに嵌まる (どつぼにはまる) [expression, ラ五] to find oneself in deep trouble
:「わたし、醜いんです」 とぽつりと言った。
:「みにくい？」 私は本当に、聞き間違えた。目を細め、顔を遠ざけて、「いや、見やすい」 と答えた。
Relatable. 
That whole thing was really funny. Santa really is something else huh
The streak must be kept alive at any cost.
I think I just finished the second part of the first chapter.
