Week 3 of Christmas Tina ‐泡沫冬景‐ ❄️🐈‍⬛

Japanese Reading Book Clubs
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tina
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Week 3 January 13, 2024
Character Count ~13,360
Stopping Point After Chapter 6
Previous week Week 2
Next week Week 4
Home Thread Home thread for Christmas Tina ‐泡沫冬景‐ :snowflake::black_cat: (Visual Novel Reading Club)

We’re playing this VN as part of the Visual Novel Reading Club.

After each chapter you are brought back to the menu to select the next chapter to play, so it should be easy to tell when you have reached the stopping point. This week covers the Prologue, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2.

Discussion Guidelines

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Participation Poll

  • I’m reading along
  • I have finished this part
  • I’m planning to catch up later
  • I’m skipping this VN
  • The club has already finished, and I’m reading this VN now
0 voters
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Chapter 5

I’m getting lots of Onii-san vibes from 江…

Also: Not much progress in the communication department, huh. And I’m a bit disappointed that you’re even thinking about telling on her regarding the crutches, Jin :confused:

And… I’ve been noticing that before, but the days sure seem to be super short? They’re leaving, doing like an hour or two, and suddenly it’s time to sleep again.

Chapter 6

I think it might’ve been nice to talk to your daughter before deciding that her little sister can live with her, haha.

What was the point of that whole countdown before putting the time into the time table, thereby making Kanna lose 5 minutes? “Teaching” her that she should do it herself on time? Does Jin want to be seen as a bad guy?

取り急ぎ、あの部屋には布団が無いので、厚手の毛布を一枚購入する。

Wait, what? Are you telling me that Jin still hasn’t shared his futon closet with her? :expressionless:

And, uh, I’m glad that the second time he goes into her room while she’s sleeping didn’t lead to a super annoying misunderstanding either. I hope that’s the last time :>
(Also, what happened to the lock?)

Questions

それから買い物を続け、再び駅舎へと帰るわたし達。 結局、お弁当は３つ買った。 不本意ながら彼の分もだ。
例の松葉杖を黙ってくれているらしいお礼。 そして、今後の彼との接触を、可能な限り減らす為。 余計な波風さえ立てなければ、当面は大丈夫だろう……

“And to reduce the contact with him as much as possible.”? How would buying a bento achieve that?

「ふう、疲れた……」 慣れないことはするもんじゃない。 夜に女性の部屋に忍び込むような真似だから尚更だ。 だけどこれで、彼女達も少しは寒さに凍えることもないだろう……

What does 慣れないことはするもんじゃない。 mean?

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Ch 5

江 is super sus. I don’t really know what he’s aiming for here. I feel like Jin is going to get involved in some Drama regarding him at some point…

I’ve noticed that too. Maybe their place is pretty far from Harajuku that it takes a while to walk? Idk. Maybe the writers didn’t feel like thinking about what else they could be doing :person_shrugging:

Ch 6

I liked this chapter a decent amount (with heavy suspension of belief about their parents letting a literal 7 year old with a heart condition travel to the big city alone lol) until the misunderstandings-as-conflict started again at the end. One step forward, two steps back? I think I’m just super not a fan of that trope even if it makes sense for the characters. I would be more okay with the trope if they were characters I actually cared about which is not really the case here… The miscommunications between Emi and Jin are fun and wholesome and I wish this VN was more of that, I guess. Maybe in the upcoming chapters?

I like the idea of having Emi around to sort of mediate Kanna and Jin’s inability to be decent people regarding each other, but like… it makes me feel like the writers decided on this bc otherwise the two of them alone would never advance the plot. I wish the two of them were more active than passive and had more chemistry than “help we are forced to live with each other”. The really short days don’t help, and the fact that their job is to literally do nothing doesn’t either. Like, the scene in Ch 5 with them sitting on the bench talking at night was actually pretty good!

One thing I thought might happen was if the cat came into the picture and they started bonding over that. Maybe it will still happen? But if it does Emi is definitely going to cause it lol.

Anyway I feel like I’ve been kinda negative about this VN for the last two weeks even though it’s early on, I should probably stop lol. I’m still reading bc I think it has potential if only they get over the miscommunication-conflict stuff :sweat_smile: (and because I need the language practice…) Probably if I were reading this in English I would have more patience for it because I could just skim and it wouldn’t take up as much of my time and energy lol

good question!?

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How about reading a few chapters in English then until they start warming up to each other a bit? It’s pretty much a given they’ll start getting over it at some point in the near future, and it would be a shame to drop the VN for something that’ll only happen a bit at the beginning.

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Might be useful to check this out since it’s a “grammar” thing to use ものじゃない like this: JLPT N2 Grammar: ものではない (mono dewa nai) Meaning – JLPTsensei.com

Basically “You shouldn’t do what you aren’t used to”

Yeah a bit odd, maybe like in an “avoiding conflict” way? Just buy it and then you don’t have to worry about talking about food or fighting over it

Not an answer to this question… but the whole timetable thing got me thinking: why are they treating this like they can’t leave the place unattended for even a second :thinking: (or they seem to be for the most part so far). Surely that can’t be the case if it was going to be a one man job

Also, new thread is up!

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that’s probably a good idea, i’m going to keep with chinese for now bc at least i’m getting reading practice. I know I’ve complained a lot but I’m more likely to drop bc of traveling next month (and therefore lack of texthooking) than my nitpicking about plot lol

tho, if you’ve read ahead, lmk if you know when it starts being less, er, wave hand

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Ah, so more or less just the opposite of ものだ (JLPT N3) | Bunpro – Japanese Grammar Explained. Thanks!

Yeah, maybe. I was also thinking that it might be something like “reducing friction/conflict”, which I think would fit well, but I can’t find anything online to suggest that it can have that meaning.

(Pity that the English version is a separate download. I wish I could easily check what they translated it as. It doesn’t seem like there are any English Let’s Play’s either…)

Good question! It has been empty for a long time, they aren’t guarding it, and it’s not like an hour of staying empty will suddenly make it uninhabited. Maybe they just figured that if they are two people it’s “reasonable” that there should always one at home? Or maybe they want to make sure nobody breaks in and steals their stuff. Either way, I don’t think it’s ever mentioned.

Will do once I know!

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Running late. Will hopefully have a bit of time for reading this evening, then will catch up properly with this and week 4 on Wednesday.

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Out of curiosity I checked the English version.

We ended up buying three bentos. I hadn’t wanted to buy one for him, but he had kept my crutches a secret, at least.
I wanted to limit contact with him as much as possible.
As long as nothing disturbed the status quo, we were probably going to be fine.

Which… doesn’t really clarify the situation lol.

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Hmmm. With that version it feels a bit like it’s just her general sentiment. She bought a bento as thanks for him (even though she didn’t want to), but in general wants to limit contact as much as possible. So not something she wants to achieve by buying the bento, but something she wants despite buying the bento.

Not quite sure I get that from the Japanese version though.

Thanks for checking!

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:+1: lmk if you all need anything checked against the english version, I have it downloaded separately.

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Thanks for the offer!

Actually, I’m curious now… what’s the meaning you got from the chinese version for that part? Did it make sense to you?

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Chinese version:

最終還是買了三份便當。雖然不情願，依舊買了他的份。 就算是他幫我瞞著腳傷的謝禮吧。 同時也為了盡可能地減少今後的交流。 暫時只要不出什麼麻煩事就沒問題吧……

I think it has the same implication as the Japanese version, i.e. “by buying a bento for him now, I can reduce interaction/contact with him later” which didn’t really make sense to me, but I didn’t think too much about it. It’s probably an “avoiding conflict” thing but :person_shrugging:

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Yeah, probably. I guess in the end it’s not really important, it just made me really curious. Thanks for checking one more version for me :slight_smile:

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I am caught up. Not much to add except wait, he’s only just turned 19? From the intro I got the impression he’d been working for years after not getting in to uni.

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Overall Thoughts

I understood it as, he didn’t want to lie on his precious timetable but he’s so stingy he didn’t want to round it down either (and lose out on a few dozen yen), so he waited for it to become xx:x5 before marking it :roll_eyes:

I agree that it would have been nice to see the two find a way to get along together without Emi. The little bonding moment on Xmas Eve was sweet, and I liked seeing Jin’s perspective of women in JP + Kanna change a little, despite the shady lesson from 江. It was nice to see some effective communication for once between Jin and Emi.

I still have suspicions around this cat. I wonder if there’s a reason why Emi can see it and the other two can’t… or maybe it’s just a normal cat and I’m being paranoid :joy:

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