Week 5: お探し物は図書室まで 📚📖 (Intermediate Book Club)

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お探し物は図書室まで :books::open_book: home thread

Week 5

Week 5 Jun 28 2025
pages 64 - 80
kindle locations 615 - 803
End % 25 %
End phrase 「何をお探し?」
Previous week Week 4
Next week Week 6

Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
  • When asking for help, please mention the chapter and page number. Also mention what version of the book you are reading.
  • Don’t be afraid of asking questions, even if they seem embarrassing at first. All of us are here to learn.
  • To you lurkers out there: Join the conversation, it’s fun! :durtle_the_explorer:

Proper Nouns

Name Reading Notes chapter week
森永 のぞみ もりなが のぞみ librarian’s assistant 1 2
小町 さゆり こまち さゆり the librarian 1 2
浦瀬 諒 うらせ りょう the narrator 2 5
神奈川 かながわ Ryou’s hometown 2 5
煙木屋 えんもくや name of an antiques shop 2 5
海老川 えびがわ antiques shop owner 2 5
田淵 たぶち Ryou’s boss 2 5
ナナメ coworker 2 5
紺野 こんの sales department employee 2 5
吉高 よしたか Ryou’s assistant 2 5
比奈 ひな Ryou’s girlfriend 2 5
鎌倉 かまくら Japanese city 2 5
由比が浜 ゆいがはま beach near Kamakura 2 5
茂木 もぎ lecturer on minerals 2 5

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2 Likes

And now for something completely different … (as Monty Python would say).

We start a new chapter with a new narrator and a new story. As I suspect that the only persons from chapter 1 who will appear in this chapter are the librarian and her assistant, I have deleted the other proper nouns of chapter 1 from the ‘Proper Nouns’ list.

In this week’s reading there are several names for which the kindle version doesn’t have furigana.

For two of them the English version of the book gives a reading that differs from the reading that Jisho gives:
Ryou’s boss 田淵 is called Taguchi whereas Jisho gives たぶち (Tabuchi).
The employee from the sales department 紺野 is called Amano whereas Jisho gives こんの (konno).

What are the names of those persons in other translations of the book?

5 Likes

It drives me nuts that some authors don’t furigana their character names on first use. Do they not care whether their readers might pick the wrong reading?

5 Likes

Finished this part.

I liked the story how Urase and his girlfriend met, it is cute.

Overall this story seems more appealing to me than the previous one, there are more interesting details like the English spoon or the sea glass.

3 Likes

Also finished this part. Enjoying this chapter so far. I like the romantic feel of the chapter so far - boy finds a love of antiques in a dusty old store, dreams of opening his own antique shop, meets a girl who hunts for sea glass on the beach. The store gave me Ghibli-esque vibes, perhaps it’s making me think of the shop in Whisper of the Heart.

バニラみたいなにおいがする。比奈のコロンだ。
I know he’s not really saying that his girlfriend’s colon smells like vanilla - but it made me giggle anyway…

蚤の市 - flea market!

I like how when you ask a girl out for a drink in Japanese you actually ask them out for a cup of tea…

2 Likes

So far, this story is really hitting a chord with me

Summary

being middle-aged, working in a job just to make money and thinking of “someday I will follow my dream”, without ever having the courage to take the risk, stepping out of your comfortable, mediocre life to follow a dream that you can’t be sure will work out. And the years go by…
Definitely looking forward how this story goes

3 Likes