It would be interesting to ask a native speaker. If I get a chance, perhaps I will ask once of my 日本人 friends.
Incidentally, I was thinking about the distinct 昔懐かしい feel to the story. There is a double layer to this, since the story is set in the early seventies - corresponding to a period in Ogawa’s childhood (I think when I worked it out in the first chapter, Ogawa might have been close to Mina’s age when the story is set), but the house and its fittings date back to the first half of the twentieth century.
I think that maybe adds to the fairytale element of the story.
(Incidentally again (anyone have a theory on this?) the time period of this story is very similar to the time point that the Professor’s memory is stuck at in 博士の愛した数式. Coincidence?)
That’s what severe hypoxemia feels like : tunnel vision, hallucinating, elevated heart rate, palpitations ….
Even though every one downplay them, these attacks must be quite severe. I have a bad feeling about this ….
Yes, that was my first thought. Especially how everybody is tiptoeing and make-pretend-ing aroud the subject. This does not sound like a business trip to me…
Chapter 6
I must confess I kind of glossed over it - so thank you for the comprehensive list!
I showed the list to one of my Japanese language partners. For the record, he is in his fifties, so he was already alive - albeit a small child - in the time the book is set. While reading it, he started smiling, and when he finished, he said that these are all famous Japanese medicines, and commented on a few of them, like “you can see the age of the text as 赤チン of course isn’t in use any more because there is mercury in it” and told me which ones he had taken and which not (but I forgot the details). So basically exactly the feeling that @Magyarapointe had envisioned.
A minor detail of this week but the english localized title is Mina’s Matchbox. I wonder if it will make an appearance again or the english localization just took it from this chapter.
And speaking of 乗り物 at the start, all the english covers also feature a girl on the back of a hipo.
Chapter 6: More on the pharmacopoeia
You and @nikoru are right - these are apparently very familiar and commonly used. Here were a couple of responses from HelloTalk
It is an interesting comparison. I hadn’t looked at the JP cover in much detail.
Presumably that is Tomoko plus Mina (with her wavy brown hair) perched on top of the books. ( Are they in their underwear as they were in the scene in the solarium)
The books all look very European (one of them appears to be in German). We haven’t had any description yet of the books that Mina reads. Perhaps that is significant in a way that is not obvious yet. I wonder if the European books give an exotic feel to the setting (which they obviously wouldn’t to an English speaker).
As for the matchbox I think there was a description earlier of it containing Mina’s ‘collection’. I think there is more for us to learn about it
