Week 5 of Christmas Tina ‐泡沫冬景‐ ❄️🐈‍⬛

[Bijak]

Week 5	January 27, 2024
Character Count	~13,360
Stopping Point	After Chapter 12
Previous week	Week 4
Next week	Week 6
Home Thread	Home thread for Christmas Tina ‐泡沫冬景‐ (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

• Please blur / hide any major events in the current week’s portion (however early they occur), like so: text here (that’s: [spoiler]text here[/spoiler]).
• Don’t hesitate to ask questions! I know that some of you might be feeling shy, or don’t want to bother others with their questions, but you don’t have to worry: People love answering questions. You’re making the thread more lively, and you’re also helping anyone who has the same questions. So please, ask a lot of them!
• Join the conversation — it’s fun!

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

[Legato]

I’ve been a bit swamped with other reading stuff, but I’ll catch up next week!

[kuirin]

Same, it’s been a hectic week for me, hopefully can catch up later.

[ioric]

I came here to say just the same thing

[Bijak]

And I swear I made the new thread, but am in the same boat as well - here it is anyway: Week 6 of Christmas Tina ‐泡沫冬景‐ ❄️🐈‍⬛

By the way - we are starting to get into the bit of the VN where I had to start guessing slightly which chapters were which because the script names stopped matching the chapter names. If anyone notices a week being really long just let me know and I will go back and figure out how to adjust the schedule

[kuirin]

Ch 10 & 11 comments

I literally just finished reading this and already forgot where the delineation between chapters is (I think it’s Emi’s birthday and then a month later?), but I continue to enjoy interactions with Emi hehe. The part where Jing finally feels happy while cooking for once was pretty heartwarming.

Also, I’m glad that they are finally using writing to communicate. And Jing is learning Japanese, nice. His hiragana handwriting is so neat e.e

Time is skipping pretty quickly now, huh. I think from Ch 9 to 11 there’s a gap of 3 months already? And the cat remains very mysterious. It really could be something supernatural…

[ioric]

@kuirin

The part where Jing finally feels happy while cooking for once was pretty heartwarming.

This was a really cute and lovely chapter overall!

I’ve decided to keep notes as I read along rather than trying to remember/summarise later, so with that, here’s a glimpse into my mind:

Chapter 10

Emi saying haroo continues to be adorable
I’d forgotten Jing worked in a kitchen
「すごいね、景って。本物のコックさんみたい」 - I think I’ll forever mishear this as something else
“Emi’s Notebook” in English?
Kanna cute

Chapter 11

On the once-yearly occasion I cook with one, I like drying pumpkin seeds too
Surely you just draw an adult as much bigger than a child, rather than as smoking?
「わ、すごい、グワシ出来てる」 - thankfully I have pixiv dictionary in my yomichan setup to catch グワシ
Come on, you know the work he’s offering will be nothing good!

Chapter 12

I thought this before but I find it hard to believe they’d so flagrantly bully a stranger in the street
「あ、えと、わたしは、おいしいと思います……」 - good example of an unagi sentence
What’s the onegai that’s conditional on having seen the cat?
I also really like sunflower seeds
「たとえば、写真に撮るとか、捕まえておくとか？」 - I feel like I’ll never truly understand ておく and why it’s used here instead of just 捕まえる
Despite everything, I can’t help but think Jiang looks cool. Would his accent come across as obviously Chinese to a native Japanese listener?

This chapter was a good one for word lovers:
このあたりの事情はよく分からないけど、少しだけバツが悪そうな顔をしていた。 - バツが悪い is an interesting phrase
「随分な言い草だな、仕事に決まってるだろ」 - first time I’ve seen 随分 used in this way
そこは、どこかの港の外れらしく、どこまでもコンビナート倉庫が並んでいた。 - コンビナート, a Russian loanword!
とはいえ、辺りは真っ暗な堤防だけ。- 堤防, a word I’ll never forget thanks to mataona
その声と共に、沖からこちらへと向ってくる一隻の漁船。 - first time I’ve seen the 隻 counter, I think
真っ暗な海から、煌々と光るライトが眩しかった。 - 煌々, a たる adjective!

[kuirin]

Ch 12

@ioric

I thought this before but I find it hard to believe they’d so flagrantly bully a stranger in the street

Agree… and don’t they have better things to do?

It was pretty interesting how Shiori has clout around the neighborhood too. She said it wasn’t technically the yakuza but…

I also really wonder what’s up with her and the cat. She’s so evasive about it clearly the cat is the reincarnation of her arch nemesis in a past life and she’s doing the bare minimum to keep track of it

@ioric

Despite everything, I can’t help but think Jiang looks cool.

Same lol. Too bad he’s an ass.

Man, driving out like 3 hours to a shady place in the middle of nowhere to do something clearly illegal should be setting off Jing’s red flags. I’d be concerned that I was being kidnapped… Can’t run away from suspicious activity when you’re 100 miles away from home.

[em]

Ch 10

It was heartwarming seeing Jing continue to warm up to Emi, even giving her ice cream/a notebook and cooking dinner on her birthday despite the cost.

Ch 11

I’m so glad that Jing did not tell Kanna about the shady work. I was afraid it would trigger Kanna’s memories of the お兄さん while she’s still working up her courage to open up to him.

Also nice that Jin’s finally studying. I don’t know how he can survive those past few months without anything to do. I’d probably get cabin fever if I didn’t at least have a book or some other source of entertainment.

I was so confused about グワシ at first, and it didn’t help that the first image that showed up on Google was 5 people flipping the bird lol! I was wondering why Kanna was like 「すごい！」to someone flipping her off

Ch 12

よく分からないけど、佐倉さんにペコペコとする二人。

I’ve never seen ペコペコ used for anything other than “hungry”, so I found this term interesting!

Curious to learn more about Shiori and the cat as well. She doesn’t seem to care that Emi can see it so I wonder why she specifically wants to know if Kanna and Jing can see it too.

@ioric

Would his accent come across as obviously Chinese to a native Japanese listener?

That’s a really interesting question, since I can kind of recognize certain accents in English! He seems to have a problem pronouncing the ‘r’ sound, which can be difficult for Chinese speakers, so maybe?

I hope Jing doesn’t get in trouble for these little side jobs. I wonder if he feels like he can’t refuse Jiang, because he must know by now that whatever he’s being tasked with is going to be shady.

[ioric]

@em

I’ve never seen ペコペコ used for anything other than “hungry”, so I found this term interesting!

Huh, I read that, completely understood what it meant from context, but missed that it was the same ペコペコ!

[Legato]

Chapter 10

今まで、佐倉さんとも筆談はしたことがあったが、 あれは彼女の方が、中国語で書いてくれていた。

Ah, so it seems that Sakura-san really gave the impression of writing in Chinese. I guess that explains a bit why he never made the connection to try it with the other girls in the hopes that kanji meaning comes across.

That was a comfy chapter. Apart from Emi’s happiness, it’s nice that Jin found more pleasure in his former profession this time!

And it’s nice to see that they finally started to actually communicate.

I think that’s the first time Kanna doesn’t look unhappy. Only took 10 chapters!

Chapter 11

Woah, Jin is really studious. Despite not being close to the test (there’s still like 9 months or so at least?) and probably having studied all day on account of not having much else to do, he studies until 2 at night?

He and Emi really get along - or rather, he really gets pulled along by Emi, haha. I mean, with her just coming into his room to hang out, and then falling asleep. She must really like him despite the language barrier.

And we finally get him using the notebook with Kanna too. About time!

@ioric

Surely you just draw an adult as much bigger than a child, rather than as smoking?

Haha. I thought that too! I’m actually surprised that it was so readily understood.

@ioric

pixiv dictionary

A what now?

@ioric

グワシ

It was the hand gesture you find when you google image search it, right? It confused me a bit, but I assume he’s showing it to demonstrate how well he can move his hands?

Chapter 12

And there we have it, Sakura-san is “something like the mafia” - so she’s probably somewhat taking part in what 江 is doing. Glad that unlike 江 she’s really nice to our protagonists so far, and the weirdest thing she’s getting Kanna into is that cat business!

@ioric

I also really like sunflower seeds

大好きなのは
（はい！せーのー）
ヒマワリの種ー
（俺も！）

…and yeah, I really like them too!

@kuirin

Time is skipping pretty quickly now, huh. I think from Ch 9 to 11 there’s a gap of 3 months already? And the cat remains very mysterious. It really could be something supernatural…

At this point I’m less curious about the nature of the cat and more about Sakura-san’s behaviour regarding it

@em

Curious to learn more about Shiori and the cat as well. She doesn’t seem to care that Emi can see it so I wonder why she specifically wants to know if Kanna and Jing can see it too.

That’s… huh. That’s an interesting point, actually. I wonder if there was another child who was talking about meeting that cat, but Sakura-san never managed to, just like Kanna and Jin now?

And btw, this chapter had some nice kinetic text animations.

にゃー

…and also the time when Jin was thinking what he wanted to tell Kanna… but then decided otherwise, and the letters were falling down. Good stuff.

Also I really like the music. I start the VN and I feel right at home, haha.

[ioric]

@Legato

A what now?

Pixiv is an image-sharing website similar to deviantart, but it also has a wiki, the pixiv dictionary, which is like a Japanese Urban Dictionary but far better and especially good for otaku slang and references.