I read this week’s section today and I figured I might point out some of the grammar that was not totally clear to me on first sight or that’s a bit more complicated.
14%: おばあさんは、リナを見ようともしなかった。
見よう is 見る in volitional form.
V-volitional + とする = try to do
V-volitional + としない = not making an effort to
thrown-in も = even
plus the whole thing in past tense
All together: The old woman did not even make an effort to look at Rina.
17%: あのおばあさんと二人きりというわけでもなさそうだ。
Let’s start from the back: なさそうだ is the combination of ない (negation) and そうだ (it seems, it loos like).
Before that, we have というわけでもない : It does not mean that (where も replaces は in the usual way)
All together: It does not even mean that Rina and the old woman are the only two persons (in the house), as it seems.
EDIT: The following one took me a while
18%: いうだけいうと、さっさといってしまった。
Sorry, this was all wrong. Please look at Belerith’s explanations in the next post.
BTW corrections and improvements are always welcome
だれがあんたのせわなんかするっていったね
Is it something like Obaasan is asking Rina who is she thanking? Or maybe, she’s asking “who did you say that you’re thanking because she’s going to help you”?
I’m not quite sure what to explain, so I’ll try to break the sentence down and hope the part that was making this difficult for you is in there.
だれが
Just marking the subject here, nothing to see.
あんたのせわなんかする
ｘのせわ（を）する means something like ‘take care of x’, where x is a person or animal. In this case, あんた＝リナ is the one being taken care of.
ピコっとばあさん omits the を, because she is not a polite person. This is not uncommon and not rude at all, just a bit casual.
なんか means something like ‘something like’ in this context, and it is a bit rude and sort of makes her sound derisive here, I think. So, ‘something like あなたのせわ’.
っていったね
って acts as a quotation marker. In standard, non colloquial/polite Japanese, that would be と. It marks the previous part as a quote.
いった=言った
ね is just a sentence ending particle.
Putting that all together, we have ‘who’ - ‘do something like take care of you’ - ‘said that, hm?’
In a bit more natural sounding English, maybe that would be ‘Who said I’d do something like take care of you, hm?’ or even ‘Who said I’d be taking care of you, eh?’, I don’t know. I’m not the best at explaining what goes on in my head, but hopefully you could follow along with my thought process.
I nearly gave up, but today I pushed a little bit and could finally finish chapter one (only one day too late). This is my first book and I read very, very slowly. I am not sure how long I will be able to keep up with you guys, but for the moment I’m still there. Even though it’s difficult for me, I’m really enjoying the book.
Sorry for going off topic, but I wanted to share how I feel.
I don’t contribute much to the thread, but I want to thank you all for your explanations.
Any talk about the book is on topic, if you ask me! The book club threads are a good place to ask questions about grammar/understanding of course, but discussion about the contents or the reading experience themselves are also valuable!
In fact those other things are the biggest draw to the book clubs for me!
@Belerith thanks! I wasn’t sure of that darega. I thought I had understood the meaning but wasn’t sure of the grammar, now the grammar it’s clear could you help me with the next sentence? Did I get it right?
昔、せわになったひとがいるから、霧の谷へ行ってみろ.
世話になった人がいるから there’s a person which has taken care of me
霧の谷へいってみろ let’s try and go to the kiri no tani
Yeah, I’d say you got it for the most part. One small thing, みろ is not the volitional (that’d be みよう)、but an imperative form. So it’s more ‘go to!’ or ‘try going to!’
You didn’t include 昔 or から. Your understanding seems solid though, so I assume you’re fine on those? ^^
Yes, I left them out to make it quick because I’m on my cell phone…thanks
By the way, what do you think of the book? I really like how it’s written and the atmosphere in there…I was reading Kiki but left it aside for this since it got me interested.
I thought it was a bit slow to pick up speed at first, to be honest. But maybe that’s because I read the first part when the discord reading happened and then waited till new years to start actually reading? That might have made it feel more dragged out.
I, erm, may be reading ahead a bit, and I gotta say I’m liking it better now that she’s actually in the village and it’s not just her walking around. ^^ I’m a big fan of character interaction.
The dialect is fun, though I profited of 3 weeks worth of other people’s efforts there, haha. I’m very grateful. (seriously I am. That saved me a ton of time and despair.)
I also really like ばあさん, haha. Poor リナ, getting such a cold reception. what do you think of little old ladies?
Since you mentioned Kiki, I read that one last year and had a similar experience to the one I’m having now. The longer I read and the more I got to know the characters, the more fun I had reading. Or maybe it just takes some time for me to get into the flow of the writers’ styles?
Is it the first book in the series you were reading? Were you very far into it yet? Do you have any thoughts yet on if you’ll read it alongside reading ふしぎな町, or perhaps wait until after this book to return to キキ?
I’m planning on reading the キキ books start later this year (read the first in English years ago, so will start with the first in Japanese). I don’t know when I’ll start reading, but it won’t be until after finishing ふしぎな町. I don’t know if either of us will have any questions to drop into the old キキ book club, but if so, we may cross paths.
I’m reading a little ahead also, and the characters are very well designed. Obaasan uhmmm…I don’t know but I think she’s gonna be better then we see at first. I hope
I’ll try to continue Kiki then, In my free time
As usual long strings of hiragana are so hard to parse for me =._.=
おばあさんは、リナがここにいるものときめてかかっている。
おばあさんは => (the topic is おばあさん)
リナが => (Rina is the subject of the sentence)
ここにいるもの => the things that are here (?)
ときめてかかっている => I have no idea. かかっている might come from 掛かる in ている form, but what’s with ときめて？ ときめる doesn’t seem to be a valid word. Unless that’s 決める, but then we have と connecting もの and a verb, and I don’t think that makes any sense…?
Edit: I haven’t reached this part in the book yet, so I have no context.
A Google search for きめてかかっている brings me to this page:
The definition given for 決めてかかる is:
「思い込んで疑わないでいる。」
思い込む = “to be under impression that; to be convinced that”
疑う = “to doubt; to distrust; to be suspicious of; to suspect”
=> “to be convinced and not doubting”
This meaning probably makes sense with 決める and an attached かかる. However, while I’ve seen かかる attached to other verbs a lot, I haven’t yet learned what it adds to the verb.
I took the liberty of adding the last line of each section to the vocabulary spreadsheet. I think I have a different edition, so the group’s “sections” can end in the middle of a page for me. Very confusing.
〜ものと＜思う or another verb of that effet>: to be convinced that 〜
As @ChristopherFritz said 決めてかかっている is “to be convinced without a doubt”
Combine both and The old woman was convinced without the shadow of a doubt that Rina would be (i.e. stay) here. That sentence contrasts the previous one saying that Rin
a was not moving because she still hadn’t decided if she would go home instead.
Edit: also, I missed most of the conversation in the thread. If there are questions that are still unanswered, let me know.
One small thing, 
(seriously I am. That saved me a ton of time and despair.)
I think having an antagonistic character helps show everyone’s characters better.