ゆるキャン△ Vol. 10 🏕

The resolution of the big cliffhanger! Yes, they’re headed to the Oigawa (I’ve marked the dam here, but the whole thing is the Oi River). I don’t know precisely where Aya lives, but it turns out if you join Hamanako-Sakume Station (the nearest station to Grandma’s house) to Kai-Tokiwa Station (the nearest station to Rin’s house) with a straight line, the midpoint of said line is pretty close to the midpoint of the Oigawa Railway. It’s even closer if you connect Grandma’s house to Nadeshiko’s house instead. (The midpoint as the scooter runs appears to be closer to Shizuoka city, though).

In any case, Nadeshiko starts on a Minobu line train, before disembarking at Utsubuna Station. The onsen Sakura mentions on page 83 is most likely this place, based especially on this photo. This area was already on my list of places to visit, but boy, does it look pretty.

On page 93, Rin is travelling somewhere along this road. It probably be tricky to pinpoint precise locations, but there are spots that look quite pretty, like this.

Page 95, Rin arrives at Senzu Station. If you’re riding the Oigawa Railway (which I want to), this is where you need to change from the Oigawa Main Line (which is serviced by heritage steam trains) to the Ikawa Line (Japan’s only rack-and-pinion railway). The whole thing looks so incredibly scenic, and I still would like to know if it’s possible, timing-wise, to get off at every station and look around. The main line also has a replica Thomas the Tank Engine train, which appears on pretty much all the advertising. And a few of Thomas’ friends.

Page 100, Aya mentions riding along national road number one, and presumably it’s somewhere along this section (assuming she’s coming from somewhere along the northern edge of Lake Hamana and not the southern edge).

Page 104, Aya proposes heading for Lake Hatanagi. Considering how far they’ve already come (Rin’s travelled 108km; Aya, assuming she lives near grandma, has travelled 104km, though Google’s suggesting she could have managed it in 90km and avoided highway one) it’s a fair way upstream of them.


Page 81, I kinda want to see how the English version renders the ソロソロソロキャン pun now…

Page 94, any thoughts as to whether the number plate on Aya’s motorbike has some sort of meaning in goroawase or something? (Or Rin’s, for that matter - 376-66 is almost the height of Mount Fuji (that’s 3776)…)

And… you’re just gonna leave us hanging on the subject of あのハンバーグ? :stuck_out_tongue:


Proper nouns

Page 83
寸又峡=すまたきょう

Page 91
千頭駅=せんずえき

Page 104
畑薙湖=はたなぎこ

Page 105 is a big list of place names. Almost pondering if it’s worth leaving it as an exercise for the reader. Maybe finding them on a map will be the exercise. :stuck_out_tongue:
島田=しまだ
金谷=かなや
牧之原=まきのはら
藤枝=ふじえだ
清水=しみず
富士宮=ふじのみや

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I’m sure the english translators will do a great job. Judging from what they have done so far

That sounds to ominous, I’m a bit afraid

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I have no idea, but since eggs seem to be involved, I wonder if it’s the one where you put and egg and/or cheese in the middle?
But then that would not require to buy specific meat, so maybe not.

Unrelated, but suddenly バリバリシマリン

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Eggs? Nadeshiko’s making omurice, but I don’t recall eggs being mentioned otherwise.

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True! That was why. Somehow my brain just latched on to that idea.
Well, don’t know then. Maybe made from non-standard meat?

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And we are already at the last main story chapter of the volume.

57 - 吊り橋の国

Start date: October 23rd

  • I’m reading along :books:
  • I’m taking my time :camping:
  • I’m dropping out :no_good_man: :no_good_woman:

0 voters

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Well, this one’s got a rapid fire series of locations. Though the manga probably already shows them all on page 108. Here goes…

Rin and Aya’s total path this chapter looks something like this (though it’s not entirely accurate, as Google doesn’t seem to regard the ラブローマンスロード as being trafficable, even by pedestrians - the Sesso bridge doesn’t even seem to exist).

Meanwhile, for Nadeshiko, she shows up on page 114 at the Oigawa Railway Kanaya Station (there’s a JR station too, she’s probably changing from the Tokaido Line). You can see Thomas on this photo, and also in the first panel of 114. The ticket she’s buying is (in reality) the two-day version of the 大井川周遊きっぷ (you’ll need to do a page-text search for that, because there’s no anchor links) - gives her unlimited travel on both Oigawa Railway lines and several of the bus lines for two days. While the line does have steam trains, it also runs regular electric trains, and that’s what Nadeshiko is riding here.

(For Nadeshiko to have arrived here by 9am - the time on her phone on page 115 - she would have had to leave home at 6:16am.)

On page 126, she arrives at Senzu Station, which I linked last chapter, but here it is again. In the real world, there’s a train that departs Kanaya Station at 08:59 - it arrives at Senzu at 10:15. The next Ikawa Line train departs at 10:20.

The place selling Dam Curry is Uemaru. (I’ve had Dam Curry, at Kurobe Dam along the Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route.)

The place Nadeshiko spots selling butakushi is this building, though I’m having trouble spotting the window where she sees the shopkeeper cooking them on Google Maps.


Page 112 final panel, I’m pretty sure Photoshop has a slider which can do that.

Page 117 third panel, ラブロマンスロード is… “love romance road”? Can… can we have a chat with Japan about their wasei eigo? Is this attempting to invoke the suspension bridge effect?

Page 120, was Rin usually in the habit of saying やっぱし instead of やっぱり? Those are synonymous, right?

Page 123 third panel, heh, I was wondering what kind of tree Miyazawa was supposed to be. That doesn’t look 危なっ, Rin, that looks fun. (Oh wait, Aya agrees with me. I should stop making these comments before I read the dialogue.)

The cliffhanger intensifies! What happened to the eighth bridge? Will Nadeshiko get her dam curry? Just what is the deal with those hamburgers!?

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Nadeshiko as the parent is a great image image

I think that ship has sailed

Yeah

[副]「やはり」の音変化。

I can’t believe we have to wait another week for the ominous hamburgers…

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My sweet summer child, that was the last story chapter of the volume. Coming up next is a “special episode” (which is outside the continuity of the story) and the bonus week. So, assuming no break between volumes, we are looking at at least 3 weeks.

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Quite. I still need to actually buy volume 11, so I rather hope my local Kinokuniya has it when I’m in there next. Whenever that’s going to be. We’re out of lockdown now, so I actually can go, which is nice.

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So, I dunno if this is going to be explained in the next volume, but I did a bit more research into the Eight Bridges Problem. Found this photo of the signboard Rin’s reading at the bottom of page 118, and it turns out the eighth bridge - or rather, the first bridge - is to the right, where they turned left. Unfortunately, I can’t zoom in on the photos enough to read the bridge’s name, and nor does there appear to be a marker for it on Google Maps. It’s just barely visible on satellite view, though.

For a bonus, here is the sign from the middle of page 117, and here is the one from the bottom of 119.

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This week, Rin gets upgrades and goes twice as fast, reaching a whooping 60 kph.

Special episode - サウナとごはんと三輪バイク

Start date: October 30th

  • I’m reading along :books:
  • I’m taking my time :camping:
  • I’m dropping out :no_good_man: :no_good_woman:

0 voters

[/quote]

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Interestingly, this chapter has an anime episode - specifically, a special episode that came with the DVD release of the Heya Camp series. The episode came out at about the same time as this volume was released in Japan, so I admit I don’t know whether the chapter is manga-first or anime-first.

For some reason, the first time I watched it, it felt like some sort of weird hypothetical like they have in many of the 放課後 strips, probably because the opening line phrases it as “my scooter gained an extra wheel”. Three-wheeled scooters are, however, a real thing - specifically, it’s a Yamaha Tricity (Rin refers to the model name specifically on page 148, so one almost wonders if this is an actual sponsorship deal of some variety).


Page 136, Rin visits the Enmei no Yu hot springs - which appears to have (or at least had, in 2020) a three-wheeled scooter like Rin’s parked in the lobby. This place looks like it’s right next door to the Kobuchizawa Michi-no-Eki. On page 142, the restaurant is Takaoka. The supermarket on page 146 is here. Unusually, all three places’ logos appear in the manga exactly as they are in real life.

Unfortunately, however, there’s pretty much zero distiguishing features of the campsite Rin stays at in the manga, so I went a-Googling… and found this page on the actual Yamaha website, which as well as having the entirety of the chapter, also has all of the locations shown. Guess it is an actual sponsorship deal.

So apparently she’s camping on Mount Nyukasa. Possibly this campsite according to another website, but with only one shot of the administration building in the manga to go on, it’s not entirely clear.

(On further inspection, this Yamaha sponsorship might be a whole thing, all published under the heading of “ととのった Magazine” - i.e. exactly what Rin says in the second-to-last panel. Here is a “special chapter” of Bakuon, also on the Yamaha website, featuring one of the characters riding a Yamaha Tricity to a sauna, and ending with her exclaiming ととのった. I was about to complain about the lack of a Super Cub version, until it suddenly ocurred to me midway through typing “Super” that the Super Cub is a Honda motorbike…)

I guess if I did some actual research rather than hypothesising based on random Google results, I’d know for sure.


Page 134, I love how they sidestep a discussion about the intricacies of Japanese motorbike licencing while still reminding the kids at home that they do need a licence to drive these things.


I went to Kinokuniya today and picked up volume 10 in English and 11 and 12 in Japanese. To answer some questions I mused above: the ソロソロソロキャン joke in chapter 56 is rendered “I’ve been thinking of trying solo camping for so long” “So-long solo camp!” “So-long so-low solo camp!”, which is not a bad attempt, but misses the fact that Nadeshiko has already tried solo camping. As for the Eight Bridges Problem, a cursory flip through volume 11 reveals no resolution - they just move on to the next thing. Though it’s entirely possible I just skipped over it.

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Ha! I guess that explains the unending list of pros for the Tricity with zero cons.

Ena mentions it at least twice as well…

We will all remember the day they almost captured got the translation right.

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I just looked them up, and boy, okay, I understand why they skipped it. You could have two vehicles that look basically the same, but one would require a bike license and the other a car license. The point is whether you can tilt (? I don’t speak bike, I don’t know the word in English; make it go 斜め) the body when turning or not.

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Aye, the Tricity tilts. Guess when you’re basically making a sales pitch for a motorbike… thing… you don’t really want to get bogged down in fine print. :slightly_smiling_face: According to Wikipedia, the original model (released in Japan in 2014) didn’t sell well specifically because it couldn’t be driven with a car licence, meaning they weren’t catching most of their target audience. It feels like a weird thing to market to someone who wants a car, though…

“Tilt”, “lean” or “roll” are all terms that are used, it seems.

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That brings up memories of “do a barrel roll!”, but I don’t think that’s a good idea on a bike :rofl:

I do know someone who got the two wheels license when they were younger and now kinda want to get the car one, but don’t really have the time and money. I guess they could be the target audience? Getting something car-like they can drive with their current license.
At the same time, if they had the cash for buying that, they would probably get a driver’s license instead…

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Well, I just realised I didn’t actually read the chapter, just scanned the images for location clues. That’s been rectified. :stuck_out_tongue:

Also worked out what’s been bugging me about it - where’s Rin’s hair gone? She normally has it up in the Shimarin dango style when she’s in the bath. I vaguely pondered if it was set, say, a year before the main series starts - since she’s only shown interacting with Ena, there’s nothing particularly pegging it to any point in the timeline, aside from the fact that definitely appears to be using her “offertory box” camp stove, which she received shortly before the trip to Lake Shibire.

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That’s when you noticed? :joy: From the very first page, I was thinking “wait, something is off, we are in the wrong timeline”. To be fair, it did take me a couple of pages to pinpoint the problem though.

Wow I completely forgot about that thing already.

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I idly wonder if it’s the timeline where Afro is forced to do product placement somewhat against his will, so the featured character is not quite Rin - I notice, unless I’m overlooking something, that she goes completely unnamed in dialogue (though considering it took about three volumes before either of Ena’s names came up in dialogue, that may not be saying much :stuck_out_tongue: )

Came across a translation to gripe about - Ena’s text message ととのいへの道は近いようで遠くてやっぱり近いんだよ has been rendered “If you’re not sure how to feel about it, you’re further along the road to alignment than you realise.” I feel like the point of Ena’s line is that it looks deep, but it’s actually nonsensical.

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