おじさまと猫 (Ojisama to Neko) Chapters 5 & 6 Discussion

Here is the Chapters 5 & 6 Discussion Thread!

Vocabulary List

Shoutout to @Sarabrina for starting this book club and @frayderike for starting us off with such a lovely vocab sheet.

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I love the way Fukumaru looks up at his human in chapter 6.I was already obsessed with exotic shorthair cats before, but this book is just solidifying my love and want for one :pleading_face:
Also my reading time was blessed. One of the school aids at my work came over to me as I was going through these chapters in the library (I try to do most of my studying during my down times at work) and gave me snacks.

Could anyone help me understand the grammar in chapter 6 on page 25, first panel?
I can’t make sense of the end of the first panel:

誰かに向けなゃいと出てこないものにゃ

I understand all of these words individually but can’t string them together in a coherent sentence

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Let me try my hand at this one.
Without the cat speech, it’s:
誰かに向けないと出てこないものな。

誰かに - To someone (else)
向けない - Not directed to
と - If
出てこない - Not come out/appear
もの - (Some)thing
な - Sentence ender like ね

Let’s split the sentence in two. 誰かに向けないとis "If not directed to someone (else). 出てこないもの is “Not something that will come out”. Remember, 出てこない is modifying もの.

So, all together:
“If (It’s) not directed to someone, it won’t come out, right?”

So, 出てくる is a bit hard to understand, but think of it as “appearing” for now. The thing Fukumaru is talking about is the old man’s gentle eyes and voice. Fukumaru can’t see who the old man is talking to, but he knows that it has to be someone, because that kind voice and those gentle eyes wouldn’t “appear” if he was just talking to himself.

Does that make any sense? I can try to clarify a bit more If necessary!

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Ahhh that does make sense! Thank you for the break down, so helpful!

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image

I probably laughed a bit too long at this bit :joy:

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Thought I’d go and translate one of the trickier sentences that threw me at first.

一緒にいられない場所もあるにょね…

There exist places where we cannot be together…

I think I might almost have been most confused by the cat speak. I can get through it pretty easily now but I’m not sure what にょ is supposed to be even.

I was surprised I got the meaning of いっぱい in this section. Only because I recently got 一杯 in WK, but I guess 失敗 stuck in my head too and so I made the connection.

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I think the にょね is just supposed to be よね. I wonder if it could be a contracted んだよね without だ, but it wouldn’t really matter so much since the meaning would be the same.

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I'm not sure I totally grasp what's going on in chapter 5

The chapter starts with a flashback when Fukumaru was still at the animal center. He always looked forward to getting his food and enjoyed eating. But then he suddenly stopped finishing his bowls. Somehow it didn’t taste good anymore.
Then we see the present time and how Fukumaru enjoys the food old man is giving him. (It’s um… super mircale crispy…? lol) He finished the bowl and suddenly remembers that back in the animal center he didn’t get any more helpings however much he asked for it. Still, he tries to beg old man for a second helping. First, old man kind of hesitates because the clerk lady warned him about giving too much food but still ends up giving Fukumaru a bit more. Fukumaru visibly enjoys it.

So… does this mean that because Fukumaru didn’t feel happy at the animal center he also came to not enjoy eating anymore…? In contrast, he’s happy with old man and so his appetite also increased again…?

Also on the last page of chapter 5 I don’t really get what 本当はふくまる同じカリカリだってこと知ってるにゃ means? I think I get all the vocab but I don’t know how to put the sentence together so that it makes sense.

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Yup, that’s exactly what happened, it seems.

It means something akin to "The truth is, is that I (Fukumaru) even know that it’s the same “crunchy stuff (food).”

本当は - As for the truth
ふくまる - I (Fukumaru is referring to himself in 3rd person, I think)
同じカリカリ - Same crunchy stuff
こと - makes the phrase able to be modified by 知ってる
知ってる- Knows
にゃ - Cat speech of な

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Yeah but I don’t really get what this means in context… :dizzy_face:

It’s the same food that Fukumaru’s always eaten when he was in the shelter, but it stopped tasting good because he was depressed. Now that he’s happy, the food tastes great again. He’s enjoying his meals again, even though it’s the same food that stopped tasting good when he was in the shelter.

He knows that it’s the same food, yet despite that, it tastes good to him, even though he shunned it previously.

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Thanks for confirming this! I was bouncing back and forth between this interpretation, and reading into it a little too much and wondering if he stopped eating because they changed his food, with the food recommended by the pet store happening to be the ‘original’ food from the shelter that he loved so much. :sweat_smile:

Left it a couple of days and went back to read again and wasn’t any the clearer - first chapter in this book where I’ve felt the interpretation to be a little more abstract for those non-native speakers who may be reading.

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The next thread is up!

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I’m struggling a little bit with 来にゃかにゃ、来にゃかにゃ (chapter 5 1st page) Is it something like “Not yet, huh,” like in the same way a kid would say, “Are we there yet?”

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So the full sentence (without 猫弁) is:
今日も早くご飯の時間来ないかな… 来ないかな

I think a direct translation might look like
“I wonder if meal time won’t come quickly again today”
Basically saying he wants dinner/meal time to come earlier than it usually does; it’s what he looks forward to.
I take the repetition of 来にゃいかな as this is his daily routine: wondering when the next meal time is, over and over.

Idk if that helps? I’m not great at translation, sorry :sweat:

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Thanks! That’s very helpful. Sometimes I need to remember to keep things in context more.

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What is the meaning of いっぱいいっぱい on page 25? I don’t really get the meaning of the bottom 3 panels on page 25 anyhow :sweat_smile: Is it somewhat along the lines of Fukumaru is filled to the brim with gentleness and the previously said descriptions?

Also that last page, oh my heart my cat used to do the same thing, so I had to leave the doors ajar for her. She would be so upset if she couldn’t follow me and so upset if she couldn’t leave exactly when she wanted. I miss her. :purple_heart:

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Maybe it would help to paste all the sentences you’re uncertain about? That way people that aren’t reading could still help translate the senteces. :cat:

I’m alright with not understanding everything 100% and this same part also gave me trouble so I can’t help, sorry :sob:

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I think いっぱい means “a lot; much​” (see jisho translation number 5).
So he’s talking about that he has been seing “it” a lot.
As for the next part, 数えきれない also means countless.

So I think he is talking about how he has been seeing other people looking at their pets with kind eyes.

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