木曜日にはココアを Week 10

木曜日にはココアを

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Week 10

Start Date: June 14
Previous Part: 木曜日にはココアを Week 9
Next Part: 木曜日にはココアを Week 11

Reading:

Week Chapter Page Count
10 8 (Orange) ~11
List of characters from previous chapters

Chapter 1: Brown (from ワタル’s point of view, Tokyo)

  • Young male waiter, ワタル, just got a job at the cafe マーブル・カフェ
  • Young woman, customer at the cafe, likes to drink cocoa, has an English speaking pen-pal called Mary

Chapter 2: Yellow (from 朝美’s point of view, Tokyo)

  • 朝美, working mom, usually full time, not housewife type
  • 拓海 (たくみ), her son, goes to kindergarten (5yo)
  • 輝也 (てるや), the dad, is a stay at home dad, also an artist and showing his paintings in an exhibit, also did some daytrading
  • えな, teacher at the kindergarten
  • 添島瑠々, one of the kids at the kindergarten

Chapter 3: Pink (from えな’s point of view, Tokyo)

  • 萌香 (もえか), kid at the day care
  • 泰子 (やすこ), teacher who’s been at the kindergarten for 15 years
  • マコ, cousin of えな, studied in Australia during highschool, now an English conversation teacher

Chapter 4: Blue (from 泰子’s point of view, Tokyo)

  • 理沙 (りさ), 泰子’s friend, now married
  • ひろゆき, the husband, recently divorced

Chapter 5: Red (from 理沙’s point of view, Sydney)

  • Couple married for 50 years, daughter is ピー

Chapter 6: Grey (from 美佐子’s point of view, Sydney)

  • 進一郎, her husband
  • ヒロコ、their daughter, nickname ピー, had her at 36歳, 36 years ago, has a lingerie shop on the same river as the Marble cafe (where 泰子 bought lingerie in chapter 4), 美佐子 has been to the coffee and had friendly chats with ワタル, thinks he might like a customer that wrote 秋の桜 on a Tanabata wish
  • 幼なじみのあっちゃん, got married in Sydney 2 years ago
  • 陽介, someone she liked / dated at work where she met her husband
  • A waitress, long black hair, wearing a green bracelet

Chapter 7: Green (from 優’s point of view, Sydney)

  • Was interviewed for(?) an article called ワーキングホリデー体験記 for CANVAS
  • Likes a writer called MACO from CANVAS (see characters from chapter 3)
  • Sandwich seller older man (おじさん) with an orange apron at the botanical garden
  • Was told by the gallery owner of a gallery she was visiting in her home city of Kyoto while in her second year of college, that the green painting she liked was of the botanical garden in Sydney, a friend of his had painted it. The man (MASTER) had a big mole in the middle of his forehead and the exhibition was not of famous artists but of people the owner liked (see chapter 1 & 2)
  • man in late 20s who gave back her handkerchief that fell on the floor at the botanical garden

Character name readings

kanji reading

Discussion Guidelines

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4 Likes
thoughts

I found it interesting that (as far as I could tell) we got a unknown narrator for Ralph’s chapter… is it because he doesn’t speak Japanese, so we got things “translated” from his thoughts? Until I got about half way through the chapter I kept on expecting our narrator to introduce themselves :joy:

I guess we’ll probably find out next week if my theory is right based on the likely protagonist of Turquoise :wink:

4 Likes
reply

Not sure what you mean by an unknown narrator? I didn’t feel any different with the previous chapters.

Thoughts on this chapter: I found this chapter a bit weird. 40 year old man sees his next door neighbor, 25yo woman, a few times, falls in love with her, they have 1 conversation, she moves away, finds him 3 years later and they hug? Did I miss something? Maybe the next chapter will bring some answers…

5 Likes
replies

The narration was third person and talked about ラルフさん, whereas as far as I can remember all of the previous chapters were first person narrations. I was expecting someone to pop out and introduce themselves until I realized it was just third person. :joy:

No, that’s also what I got from it :joy::sweat_smile: As soon as I saw the next chapter color name I figured that it was really a two chapter story (probably?)

4 Likes
Reply

I see, didn’t notice that! Would make sense that it’s due to EN VS JP, I like that theory :smiley:

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reply

I was reading the first third of the chapter like “man, this worker at his sandwich shop knows a lot about his daily food prep and inner thoughts” :joy::joy::joy:

I feel like I maybe should have cued into it a bit sooner :sweat_smile:

4 Likes
full chapter thoughts

I got the impression that they had talked many times, I recall something about him always resorting to cracking jokes. But we were only shown this one last, (and possibly the only) serious conversation. (Also, I’m not certain if the age gap is that extreme.)

But otherwise, completely agreed that it seemed we were missing the emotional depth of their relationship before she moved. I feel like more was needed to support the intensity of their reunion. I bet if this was a Western book they would have had a “magical night” the night before she left. :joy:

But I feel pretty confident that the next chapter is going to be from her perspective, so perhaps we’ll learn more. This chapter felt similar to the Grey chapter in that the narrative voice felt really different from the rest of the book and it was short and had little to no conflict, so I feel like it might be just preparing us for Turquoise.

Yeah, hopefully! :slight_smile:

:joy:

4 Likes
reply

20+7 > 25 so it passes the half your age plus 7 test :joy:

Edit: wait I’m dumb and it does not pass :joy:

4 Likes
chapter thoughts and responses

I agree with other comments, the narration was quite distinct and more distanced / third persony. Who is at the window in the last page, is that the narrator? It feels like someone in a building watching Ralph and Cindy through a window.

夕陽が窓から差し込んでいました。

I ended the chapter feeling like, did I miss something? It felt like there wasn’t a lot of build up or reason why Cindy and Ralph should have such a connection, and it was a bit weird.

Oh good, not the only one

Yes, that’s it. I’m curious if your theory is right that we’ll get more depth in the next chapter. Also, I must have glossed over what you caught there with some hints about habitual jokes or something

4 Likes

I went back and looked to make sure I didn’t just imagine it.

middle of page 141

しかしラルフさんは、エントランスや道端でシンデイに出会うことがあってもその香りのもとを訊ねることもできず、くだらない冗談を言ってシンデイを笑わせてばかりでした。

4 Likes

Ah thanks for the quote! That does ring a bell now, I’m not sure why I didn’t put more emphasis on that.

4 Likes