Continued to enjoy the book this week. I’ve managed to keep up prelearning the vocab with the jpdb deck. Not sure I’ll be able to keep that up, I’m needing to review 40 new vocab a day to keep pace. Some of those go straight into “I’ll never forget” so it’s not too bad, but the daily reviews are starting to steadily build up.
I blacklisted ついたて when it came up on jpbb thinking it was a misparsing and an irrelevant word - it then came up several times and has been unblacklisted!
Week 2 potential spoilers
I was expecting the librarian to be old and wise. So I was a bit surprised when the first person she met in the library was very young. But it turned out she wasn’t the librarian, she was just front of house. The real librarian was suitably old and a bit odd!
I couldn’t work out what was going on with needles and ping pong ball sized balls until I looked up wool felting and then it made sense. Never heard of this hobby!
I listened to the English audiobook reading of this section afterwards. The main thing I’d missed is that the librarian speaks in a strange monotone way. 抑揚のない言い方. It’s really obvious in the audiobook as every time she speaks it’s read in a strange monotone way.
I like the idea that you get book recommendations, a bonus completely unrelated book recommendation, and a bonus wool felting gift!
Done this week’s section. Thank you to 2000kanji for the proper noun list! I had scanned the list earlier and was as perplexed as Tomoka as to why images of a children’s picture book was linked on the list. But all was revealed when I read this week’s pages
Thoughts about this week's reading
Also thank you to pm215 for pointing out the wool felt objects on the front cover of the book. Indeed I found the frypan on the cover! But I spent a lot of time searching for the meaning of 付録 (ふろく）in my dictionary and online for any images. My dictionary says this is an appendix, a supplement. I guessed it might be a bookmark, but by the description, it didn’t sound like a bookmark. I finally settled on it being some kind of “bonus” or gift. This must be common with book or magazine purchases? hmm…
Another vocabulary observation I had, was that the word 腰 (waist or lower back) is often used to describe a person’s emotional character or state, which is interesting. In last week’s reading, Tomoka’s colleague Kiriyama-kun is described as 物腰の柔らかい (mild-mannered) which a literal translation would be that he had a pliable or flexible back. This week when Tomoka watches Komachi-san type with blinding speed on her computer, her reaction was 腰を抜かしそうになった。(it made her unstable/off balance due to fear/surprise, according to my dictionary). Diving further into 腰 related words, I found 腰抜け(coward), 腰の軽い（cheerfully working), 弱腰(weak attitude), 喧嘩腰（beligerent). In English there is the expression “to be spineless” for someone who lacks courage. But I don’t know if our emotional character is so focused on the back - maybe the head or heart? I thought it was interesting that the lower back features somewhat. Or maybe I am just imagining it…?
As for the story development, I was pleased to see Tomoka take initiative so easily at the suggestion of her colleague and how quickly she seemed inspired by her fellow students. Despite being in a slump at a “dead end” job for awhile…
Lastly, side missions slow down my reading, but what I found is her neighborhood isn’t real? Hatori district in Tokyo doesn’t seem to exist… it also seems the Kuremiyado Honey Dome soft cookies (that gave Tomoka feelings of nostalgia when she saw Komachi-san’s repurposed wool felt box) also don’t exist. Fortunately for us, someone apparently went to the trouble to share a recipe for these cookies in case anyone needs a snack while reading:
Story-wise, I liked it again this week!! So far it’s been a little bit simple, but even so I still find myself wanting to keep reading the next and the next page! I’m curious to see how it progresses
I also looked up ぐりとぐら, and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this before!! In other bits of Japanese media actually haha, like in dramas or maybe YouTube or something
Haha I thought the exact same thing!!
Yeah, that’s what I thought of when I read it!! So I think you’re spot on :))
I was super confused about the location but I assumed it was made up. There is a Hatori in Ibaraki Prefecture though… Ibaraki is pretty inaka imo. I suspect that the place she works is similar to the giant Aeon in Shinagawa (the one along Rinkai line).
In my current feeble state of durtle summoning, the vocabulary was a challenge. I tried writing down every word that I didn’t understand that seemed like something I should know, but it took longer to read while I did this. It was easier to just read the book. Having the percentage amounts was nice because I bought this through Honto and the page numbers don’t match up.
I’m going to keep at it though!
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