I read the first part of the chapter and it sure brought back memories.
Going to the daycare to pick up the kids, trying to avoid talking with the other parents, trying to remember what the teacher’s name is, trying to juggle the kids’ lunchboxes and jackets and… All while dead tired from work, tired kids exhausted from a long day at the daycare… Seems so long ago, but reading the section in the book brought it all back.
It also got me thinking about all the parents in the world, having the same experience of picking up kids from daycare all over the world. So unique to each family, and still so universal for everyone…
Excited to read the next part of the chapter tomorrow!
I have to say I was a bit worried with the first half of the chapter - I guess the frustration that the narrator was feeling really got to me. Also that her husband had started day trading without telling her - it just felt a bit foreboding? I was scared this would end up with a divorce or something! So I guess the end was a relief to me I guess this is what the writer was going for - the story is of course told by the wife’s POV, so we cannot see the bigger picture (that both her husband and child are supportive of her). I found the way her kid saw the failed tamagoyaki’s particularly sweet.
This chapter almost made me cry. Almost. Still waiting for the day a Japanese book brings me to tears.
Chapter thoughts
I got the same feeling. “He loves being a stay at home husband, he’s a great cook, he keeps the house clean, and he takes care or our son.” My only thought: He’s cheating
I really liked the way that this story intersected with the first story … Asami’s insecurities are really relatable … I loved the way that Takumi viewed her efforts … And that Asami didn’t suddenly make a big declaration about how her worldview changed, but instead said to herself “I’ll start with tomorrow” …
The secret day trading was pretty concerning, but I feel like there’s a chance that somehow later in the book we’ll learn more about this … Like maybe through other characters we’ll learn about why he would keep it secret? I dunno, but it seems worth following up on.
It’s only the second out of twelve chapters so it may yet happen …
Still working on this one so I haven’t read the spoilered replies so, sorry if someone brought this up - I was surprised that one of the kanji that appeared didn’t have an entry in my kanji app or jisho.org
剝 = 剥
At 17% through:
皮を剝けば
Which I figured out 剝 = 剥
My kanji book Kodansha Kanji Learners course says this left one printed in our book is the official one (not standardised) although it advises learning the right hand one where the radical appears standardised as we see in characters like 緑 and 録.
Isn’t that odd that the standard one doesn’t even appear on resources that have many thousands of kanji beyond joyo? Or is that not accurate?
A HiNative user says:
剥 is a commonly used character (like in textbooks),
剝 is a standard printed character (used in print).
I actually hate this kanji for that reason. When I encountered it in a physical book for the first time, I couldn’t figure out what it was and was searching desperately on https://kankan.pt/ for hours. Don’t remember how I ended up finding out what it was but now it’s burned in my mind.
Here’s a pic from the book where I read it, looks like the version you describe:
Chapter thoughts: nice twist as others pointed out, I like how it didn’t take an easy path to drama like a fight over the day trading but instead showed how he insecurities ran wild in her head, while meanwhile her other family members see the sunny side. Yes - so relatable how getting stressy can make something simple feel like a failure
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I guess this is what the writer was going for - the story is of course told by the wife’s POV, so we cannot see the bigger picture (that both her husband and child are supportive of her). I found the way her kid saw the failed tamagoyaki’s particularly sweet.
