⛩ Week 2 | 神様たちのお伊勢参り 👧

Japanese Reading Book Clubs
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Welcome to the reading club for 神様たちのお伊勢参り!

kamisamatachi

Home Thread | week 1 | week 3

Reading Schedule

Week Ending % Ending sentence
Week 2 16% End of prologue.

Discussion Guidelines

  • Spoilers should always be hidden using spoiler blur.
  • When discussing a specific section, please mention where you are in the book, ideally by chapter so people reading different versions have a clear point of reference.
  • Feel free to read ahead if it’s exciting, but please refrain from spoiling ahead of the appropriate week.
  • If you have a question about grammar, vocab, cultural things, etc - ask! That’s a welcome part of the discussion too, and other readers will be happy to help.
Are you reading along with us?
  • Yes! :smile:
  • I’m reading at my own pace :smiling_face:
  • I’m just here for the discussion :popcorn:
0 voters
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general prologue thoughts

I’m enjoying this so far. The premise sort of reminds me of Spirited Away, except instead of childhood innocence and magical whimsy there’s the crushing reality of being broke and homeless and the honestly reasonable interpretation of (my future job supervisor) = 中二病.

I did a bunch of googling because while I remember learning about the Ise Shrine in college back in the day I couldn’t visualize any of it, and this particular picture (https://www.isejingu.or.jp/en/img/i_p05.jpg) struck me as one that fits the prologue really well.

I hope we get to learn more about various deities in the upcoming chapters!

5 Likes
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Speaking of which, if 市杵島姫 really looked like the illustration, I would immediately believe 天 when he said she is a goddess :joy:

4 Likes
4

Finally caught up. Felt very emotionally/psychologically realistic, and seems like an interesting setup. Curious for the next portion.

2 Likes
5

I read through the prologue last night; this was a fun beginning. I liked that it pretty quickly got the main character into the supernatural side of things. It definitely does kinda require the “doesn’t think ahead at all” aspect to make it work though :slight_smile: I wonder if she gets to have days off to go back to the “real world”, or is going back and forth not that easy? Also, does Mei have absolutely no family at all that she could fall back on? I can’t remember if that was mentioned.

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6

I forgot the exact wording, but it sounded like she ran away from home (week 1, so not a spoiler).
No reason was given, so it’s unclear if it would just be awkward to go back, or if there’s a deeper (darker) reason.

3 Likes
7

Mmm, on the first page it has 高校卒業とともに滋賀の実家を飛び出し、名古屋へやってきて三年。I just looked up 滋賀 and it’s the prefecture surrounding Lake Biwa, just west of Nagoya. So this isn’t even “other side of the country” and I guess we’re supposed to infer that they didn’t leave on friendly terms.

1 Like