おいしいごはんが食べられますように 🍲 - Informal Reading Group

Section 1:

I hate how さん gives no indication of gender. I started out wondering whether 二谷 and 藤さん were men or women, then wondered if it even mattered in the first place, only to be told by the book itself that yes, it does matter, lol. I suppose at this stage we’re not supposed to know the gender of anyone but 藤さん and 芦川さん? :thinking:

I was a bit confused about this part: 原田さんが、うわーもう捨てちゃえばいいのにそのお茶、と言い、藤さんがひどいなー、と笑い、芦川さんはうふふ、と口に出して言って、二谷は半笑いの顔のまま黙っていて […]. I am not sure how much store to put into the punctuation in the first place, but does 藤さん say “ひどいなー” while laughing, or does someone else say “藤さんがひどいなー”? I feel like if it had been the former, there would’ve been a comma after が, like with 原田さんが earlier on… But if it’s the second, who’s saying it? 芦川さん? How am I supposed to be able to tell…? Leaning toward the former interpretation, just because it makes sense for it to be an enumeration of the reactions of all the relevant characters, and Japanese commas are notoriously treacherous :thinking:

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Yep. I think in the other interpretation 藤さんひどいなー without が would be more likely.
He’s laughing because he’s the one who drank from the bottle and is reacting to 原田 who tells him he‘s disgusting (indirectly). Any other character probably wouldn’t be laughing while saying ひどいな. But I wouldn’t know for sure. :smiley:

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Ahh, that makes sense! I should really brush up on the nuances of が :grin: Now that I am looking at it again, I also notice that 原田さん and 藤さん get a が, while 芦川さん and 二谷 get a は. Down the が・は rabbit hole I go! :rabbit:

Section 2:

The plot thickens! I am excited (and scared) to see where the いじわる will go :grimacing:

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Section 4:

This actually really helped, lol. His actions seemed so contradictory I had trouble piecing the chronology together. But I guess he’s just an asshole :see_no_evil: I am a bit scared for 芦川さん. She seems like too much of a happy wee egg to see it coming :thinking:

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Section 5 (reading hella slow over here)

I read it the same way as @shishamo for some reason, and I was kind of impressed with 二谷’s restraint and respect for the importance of enthusiastic consent… but then I figured he probably didn’t really care that much in the first place, so whatever. He seems like the kind of guy that goes through life the way a rubber ducky floats on a river :sweat_smile:

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:joy: 100% agree, great imagery.

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:rofl: Yes, 100% A perfect description if there was one!

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Section 10

I am not entirely sure what to make of 芦川さん. On the one hand she is consistently portrayed as a bit of a loser (even her brother has a low opinion of her, ouch!), but on the other hand she seems like the only person who is living an authentic life and as others have pointed out, cutting the cake into 8 pieces was a hilarious power play. It seems like everyone is ‘in on it’ that they need to baby her, like the way they tell her to go home at 18:15, but are they also pretending to like her baked goods, or are they actually as delicious as everyone is always saying?

And as for 二谷, his aversion to food seems almost like a goal unto itself? I can sympathise somewhat with his opinion that ‘going to any effort to eat tastier food is nonsense’, but when it’s delivered to him on a plate and he can eat it in the privacy of an empty office, without the obligatory lip service and pretending to enjoy food, he still prefers to smash it and go out of his way to a konbini to get some other food rather than to simply eat what he has been given. He seems to have become some sort of dogmatic, militant deliciousness hater. Like he is so resentful of other people actually enjoying food that he refuses to eat what they like and purposely settles for konbini food. What a miserable bastard lol

I can see what made you say this. It seems ‘profoundly weird people trying desperately to be normal’ is my favourite genre :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

I nearly fell off my chair laughing - so well put! :grin: :+1:

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I would join that book club :raised_hand:

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So that’s what I liked about the book! :rofl:
Why isn’t this an official genre? I’d probably read everything.

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Same. I wish there was a list of recommendations, but I don’t even know how I would look that up.

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I went looking for ‘similar’ books to おいしいごはん and then checked summaries. Only one seemed plausible for our newly coined genre:

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Section 11

This remark by 二谷 puzzled me: 「強いとか弱いとかいうことと、猫を助けるとか助けないとかのことは、違うと思うから、おれだったらそんなこと言われたら、ちょっと許せないかもな」So he’s saying that there is a difference between being strong or weak, and whether or not you (can) save a cat? The そんなこと言われたら refers to what 芦川 had said to 押尾 earlier, I imagine? 芦川さんはわたしのことをすごいすごい尊敬する、って褒めていました。さすがチア出身だね、とも言われました。わたしには絶対できないって。わたしも押尾さんみたいに強くなりたいって。Why would he find it so offensive to be told that?

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He is saying that being strong or weak has nothing to do with helping the cat. Being praised just because he has done that (which is apparently trivial based on his tone and, to be fair, kinda is in this case) would make him annoyed. I can understand his point, since it was annoying to be told 日本語上手 just because I said こんにちは. That being said, I wouldn’t get mad because of it, though.

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Ahhh, fair enough! I thought it was pretty impressive myself… :see_no_evil::stuck_out_tongue:

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Section 13

I guess section 13 answered that question :grin: I love how it’s all very trivial and very dramatic at the same time. I think that is what makes it so relatable. I am strangely invested in getting to the bottom of this dessert chucking mystery!

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I need some major help with the conversation in section 13.

Oshio approaches Nitani and tells him about how that other worker found the “thrown away” sweets (which are the sweets Nitani later says he finds in the trash and puts it on Ashikawas desk?). She thinks it’s him and then he tells her when he goes to work early and throws away his breakfast in the big trash can in the hallway he found the untouched sweets on the bottom? Then hides it in his desk until end of work and then puts it on Ashikawas desk?

「ですよね。左手でゴミ箱のふちを摑んで、右手をっていうか右腕全部をゴミ箱の中に突っ込んで、肩くらいまで、全部で、なんとか届きました」

押尾さんが右腕を床に向けて伸ばしてみせる。

This is Nitani speaking and Oshio trying to see if it’s BS or not by trying to reach the floor with her arm?

「ビニール袋の中身は、タルトでした。ぶどうが載ったタルト、覚えてません? 真っ白なのにぶどうの風味がするクリームの。あっ、食べてなかったら分からないですかね。でもみんな、その場で言ってましたよね。このクリームぶどうの味がするって」

食べてなかったら、と言った時も押尾さんは深刻そうな顔のままだった

I have a hard time understanding who says what here. Not sure who is saying this. Oshio, I guess? Implying Nitani doesn’t eat the sweets.
Later Oshio(?) says Harada came in earlier and saw the sweets on Ashikawas desk. Also Nitani says he isn’t throwing away those since he crushes everything he throws away.

Oh, does Oshio eat sweets? I can’t remember if it was said or not or if I missed something in this conversation/

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The 丁寧語 + わたし pronoun is all 押尾 speaking. She tells Nitani about how she started putting the sweets from the trash can on Ashikawa‘s desk. He asks, since when? Then she tells the story about how she first found out that someone was throwing them away. She got to work before everyone else, saw them in the trash can, etc.
He says, wow that trash can is pretty big, how did you reach the bottom?
Then she explains how she did it and demonstrates for him.
And yes, the last part you quoted is still 押尾 speaking.

Oshio did mention that she does eat the sweets, right at the beginning of their conversation. When she tells Nitani how Harada confronted her, she told Harada:
わたしの席、芦川さんの隣ですよ? お菓子をもらったらすぐに食べてるし、それは本人に確認してもらったら分かります、ってちょっと怒ったら、とりあえず納得してもらえましたけど。

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It seems I wasn’t too far off in terms of what happens, that’s a relief lol. A couple of things in the beginning (lots of quotes) and the general confusion from not knowing who said what made it make less sense. I completely disregarded the pronouns while I was trying to figure it out, should have caught that since I was looking at them for an earlier conversation :sweat_smile:
I’ve also reread a couple of parts and now it all falls into place. :grin: Thanks!

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