The series of loose connections to characters of previous chapters is continued with a brief mentioning of Natsumi, now at Maples publishing company.. And perhaps at the end of the chapter we get a short glimpse of the last chapter’s main character consulting Ms Komachi?
BTW the English kindle edition of the book has a picture for each chapter. As those pictures are not included in the Japanese kindle edition, I provide them here:
Thanks @2000kanji for posting these pictures! That’s cool to see what they look like. Fu-chan is bigger than I imagined. But the enormous Miura Daikon does not disappoint!
Thanks for the pictures! None of the characters look anything like they do in my head, especially Tomoka! Like you I also wondered if we got a glimpse of the final chapter protagonist at the end of chapter 4, picture 5 seems to confirm that.
Enjoyed the last section of this chapter. Much easier than last week’s reading. Came together in a very nice and heartwarming conclusion. I can’t believe he’s now working with Komachi-san!!
In general, the way the stories are told - with the characters existing in the same space (near the Community House) and time (fall of one year, rolling into winter early the next year…and possibly spring(?) ) - adds to the feeling that we are just getting a glimpse of the characters’ lives and that these lives continue even after we close the book.
I also feel that Aoyama intentionally set her novel in the fall & winter time frame, and I suspect the last chapter will be spring, which is literally the season of rebirth. Each of these characters undergo a rebirth in their outlook on life and themselves. Who knows if these new outlooks will keep the characters on track or whether they will hit another rut down the road. I suspect the latter, since realistically life is full of endless problems to solve. Your goal is not to have any problems in life, but to have better ones!
For Hiroya, I am relieved at how welcomed he was at the Community House. Changing his outlook seemed the most challenging in the short time frame we saw. But maybe it was possible because he was not angry at the world (as is often the case when despair is projected) and he was still capable of being thankful (to his mom, etc).
I also liked the added details we are given about the Community House and Komachi-san. On page 247, there is a description of how the place came to be and its purpose. この街に住む人々が、豊かな時間を過ごすように、学びや娯楽を得られるように、安心して来られるように、考えられ、配慮され、広く受けいれられる場。Komachi-san’s role fits well!
My word choice for this week was ノルマ It is used on page 234 when Hiroya describes being unable to meet the ノルマ or his quota of sales calls when working at the educational materials company. I wouldn’t necessarily call this my favorite word of the week, but I was surprised to learn of its Russian origins. Returning Japanese POWs described time and labor quotas they had to meet under harsh conditions. The term was then adopted by the business world!
Finally, this is driving me a little nuts. I looked at the illustrations @2000kanji posted again, and I cannot find Tomoka’s 付録. I can spot everyone else’s.
It’s fascinating how caught up one can get in one’s own thoughts. When I read this chapter in particular, the character (Hiroya) would think something and it made me want to say “that’s not necessarily true, you could also look at it like this…” to provide a different perspective.
I wonder if I have any strong beliefs about my view of the world or about myself which aren’t necessarily true. I think the answer is ‘Most likely’.
A very personal example:
When I think back to some of the posts I made when I first started posting on here, I find myself cringing because I can only think of how awkward I was back then (angsty lil durtle, haha). But when I happen to come across some of those posts, I’m not really horrified/repulsed(?) as I would expect my reaction to be. It’s weird how distorted one’s perception of oneself can be.