I’m pretty sure “something four” is just the Japanese term for it, but otherwise I was familiar with it. iirc, my aunt made me put a penny in my shoe to stand in for the sixpence at my wedding. I hadn’t heard that part of it and only had my “something four” prepared
(just a heads up @Mara , a link to this thread is missing from the first post in the main thread)
The cast so far, that is up to and including chapter 3
Alright, by now it seems obvious that the characters are connected to each other.
It’s been a while since I have read chapter 1 and I feel like I will be missing out on something if I don’t get it sorted out before continuing the reading!
So here’s what I remember that we know so far, please correct me if I’m wrong or forgot something
Chapter 1: (from ワタル’s point of view)
Young male waiter, ワタル, just got a job at the cafe マーブル・カフェ
Young girl, customer at the cafe, likes to drink cocoa, has an English speaking pen-pal called Mary
Chapter 2: (from 朝美’s point of view)
朝美, working mom, usually full time, not housewife type
拓海, her son, goes to kindergarten (5yo)
輝也, the dad, is a stay at home dad, also an artist, also did some daytrading
えな, teacher at the kindergarten
添島瑠々, one of the kids at the kindergarten
Chapter 3 (from えな’s point of view)
萌香, kid at the day care
泰子, teacher who’s been her for 15 years
マコ, cousin of えな, studied in Australia during highschool, now an English conversion teacher
Thank you @Akashelia
This is so useful.
I’ve forgotten the names of the characters by the time I started Chapter 4 Blue yesterday haha.
I’ve just finished chapter 4.I feel that the author kept using the same formula of making a mountain out of a molehill, and then ending the story to prove that it was indeed a molehill.
I learned this from my friend in the early days of our conversation practice and it was so odd I remembered it all these years. But I’m not sure I’d say it’s common, I’ve not heard it from her again or ever seen it in anything I’ve read until now!
She said it’s one of the traditional names for months. I don’t remember the details anymore, I think she said most aren’t used anymore, but I seem to remember she said April might still be relatively common (from their perspective)
first few pages サムシング・フォー
Ooh, thank you! I was googling it expecting an idol group
Regarding the poem, I only knew the first 3! It’s fun reading everyone’s stories about that.
I did not know there were 4 when I got married, my mom told me the rhyme with the first three and sewed in something she wanted back to fasten my dress. I had a new necklace, and oddly enough my shoes were too big (my BF bought them for me the day before and her feet are bigger ) so I had a green hair tie holding the slippers on my feet. Which at the time I thought, close enough to blue! (Funny enough, way before I know a Japanese person might actually call that shade of green - 青)
The end of this chapter really sucked me in! I’d been only getting through 2 pages a day for a few days, then all of a sudden today I read 9 pages in order to finish the chapter. I kind of just loved the kookiness of Yasuko racing out to the handmade lingerie shop across the way to find blue panties for her friend, and then telling her: “be greedy. make lots of love. make a baby. congratulations.” It was simultaneously very touching and kind of hilarious.
Does anyone else think that the lingerière (not sure if this is a real word – just wanted a fancy way to say lingerie-maker ) could be Cocoa-san?! After all she named her 自信作 Maria …
@Akashelia thanks for the character overview! It would be fun to keep this up throughout the book. Would you mind if I add it to the OP for future weeks?
I think I can see what you mean. I think the reason it doesn’t feel too repetitive for me is that each scenario is so different. I get to learn about what it might be like to be a working mom, or a kindergarten teacher, or how monogamous values might affect a friendship … But also, the resolution, even though it’s always been an honest conversation between two people, always feels a little different to me. One thing I’m finding that I love about Aoyama-sensei’s work is how she represents the way that people can feel and be different from those around them, but they’re always able to find a resolution that doesn’t require them to change who they are. Like at the end of this chapter when Yasuko’s like “got a problem with that?” and then feels bad about it, but Risa just laughs and their happy resolution continues.
No problem! I let you decide on the formatting
I have kept up! Will post what I have so far in the thread for chapter 6 but let me know if you want something in chapter 5 too
33% into the book and fairly early into this chapter still: I’m at the part where 泰子 and 理沙 just finished their argument before parting ways and getting out of touch for a year
Summary
I don’t have much to say, but it is relatable in how conversations around major life events can turn into hurt feelings due to giving advice and showing the underlying assumptions we make about each other. Oops! I’m looking forward to seeing how they patch things up (hopefully)
Edit: I’ll keep adding to this.
16 June:
The chapter ends at 40.7%, so seeing as a week has gone by and I’ve made it to 34% I think I’ll try to speed up. I haven’t been totally consistent on reading this everyday, even though that’s my intention so… that would help as a start. The problem is I do other challenging but more bite size reading first and sometimes run out of time for this novel.
I really enjoyed reading everybody’s “something blue” stories!
Thoughts
Firstly, when Ena was talking about the “older”, experienced head of school, I was picturing late 40s/early 50s; not 35 My brain had to do some serious recasting for Yasuko.
Also,
「私だったら、結婚してる男を好きになったりしない。」
I found this really interesting. Not “I would not fall in love and get married”, its “I would not love the man I’m married to,”
I know it’s a significant cultural difference, but I cannot wrap my head around getting married just to tick off a societally accepted box. That mixed with her saying the idea of living with her friend didn’t sound bad, her strong, shock/betrayal adjacent feelings towards her friend dating…I wonder if the author is maybe hinting at her being gay?
Or maybe I’m reading too much into it!
well done, she remained in her 40s in my head despite that sentence
I might be wrong - I think she’s rather saying she wouldn’t fall in love with a married man, as in the man is married to someone else (since there was the whole opening argument based on her being judgmental that that the guy was married at the time Lisa and him started their relationship)
never heard it before!
I kind of just loved 
) could be Cocoa-san?! After all she named her 自信作 Maria …
Will post what I have so far in the thread for chapter 6 but let me know if you want something in chapter 5 too
My brain had to do some serious recasting for Yasuko.