Week 4: 雪国 - Snow Country ⛄️❄️

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雪国 - Snow Country :snowman::snowflake: Home Thread

Week 4

yukiguni

Start Date: Nov 21th
Previous Part: Week 3
Next Part: Week 5

Reading:

Week Start Date End Phrase End Page (角川文庫) End % Page Count
Week 4 Nov 21th 開いているように見えた 65 35% 16

Word lists - Learn the vocabulary for 雪国 - Snow Country :snowman::snowflake:

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Proper Noun Readings

Name Reading Notes Proof
島村 しまむら Our protagonist
葉子 ようこ The girl on the train Furigana
駒子 こまこ The girl in the village Furigana

Hey all, I did not get around to asking earlier, so here goes :upside_down_face:

Question for this week

I really liked this week’s description of the village and the surroundings, that brought a nice and fresh energy! Overall, I also found the story easy to follow this week, but at one point I think I took a wrong turn, so maybe somebody could help me along?

島村 and 駒子 went to her house, and her room was upstairs (reachable only by climbing up a ladder). I think that they entered her room as the description then went about her room’s details (like her dresser and her shelf and stuff) and how the room was right beneath the roof and everything. But then 葉子 appears through a sliding door, steps over the sumisen, and this seems to happen on the ground floor again as it mentions them being in the 土間 after that (and leaving the house shortly after).
What I’m missing is, how did they get down again? Was it that the two of them were upstairs, while 葉子 was downstairs and called up to them? And then the two climbed down, and they all left? That would make sense, as 葉子’s room was described as being downstairs. Or am I missing some important spatial information here?

Question for the overall plot

I guess I need to practice more “reading between the lines” :rofl: What totally left me puzzled so far is this:
In week 1 we had the “finger issue” which I took to mean that they had had sex. But in week 2 we had the cutback to when they met for the first time, and there was no mention of that whatsoever :thinking: I mean, I did not expect a detailed description à la Murakami, but this was a bit too subtle of a hint for me…
Or is the fact that a woman goes to a man’s room and stays the whole night (in the 1930’s or maybe even earlier) enough to understand that they did not just drink tea and play Bridge the whole time? - On the other hand she was dead drunk, and he expressly mentioned that he was trying hard to keep the promise he had made to himself for her (namely that he wouldn’t touch her because she was “too pure”) - or does the description of “he tried hard” already imply his failing to keep it?

Also, what is wrong with this lady btw? She likes to come to his room, to throw a racket, and then she stays overnight. :thinking:

Thank you for your help and insights, I’m looking forward to it!

4 Likes

I’m probably getting back to reading this tonight or tomorrow. I’ll get back to you then :slight_smile:

3 Likes
Summary

It’s not mentioned explicitly, but we know it happened because 島村 was about to leave.

門口を出しなに

I also think nothing happened the first time around. The finger thing is not clear to me either.
The second time around, though, I’m pretty sure they played something else than Bridge.

I found that nice, though. People get drunk and they make rackets. I wouldn’t say it make the story feel “real” just for that reason, but it gives more to her character (as far as I am concerned).

A weirder thing, from my point of view, was the attitude of 島村. Going to a girl’s place? Quick! I need a conversation topic! “So, about that other girl… she married or something?”
Smooth.

3 Likes
Summary

Ah ok, that makes sense. (First I thought the sliding door that Youko opened was upstairs and was a door to Komako’s room, and that made less and less sense going from there…)

I agree that it adds to the impression the reader gains of her, but the fact that she did this twice (although several months apart) felt a bit weird to me. :woman_shrugging:

The book is short, we need to get to the important information quickly :rofl:

Yeah, he seems to be surprisingly straightforward. Maybe that’s due to his upbringing, though…
I especially liked the scene when they went to the onsen and the other guy came in.
“No worries, we’re going to use the ladies’ bath.” - Like, WHAT?

1 Like
Summary

I don’t know. The second time around, she doesn’t really make a racket or anything. Also, they’ve been err bonding in the meantime, so it feels more natural to me. The first time around, screaming his name in the corridor and so on felt a lot more WTF than that.

Yeah, that also made me pause for a second. It is really late, so one might expect the onsen to be empty… but at the same time, that’s pretty damn bold. Well, so was going to the onsen together though.

2 Likes