Listen to the Rain

Last Sunday the Anime Club had a book discussion for ヨコハマ買い出し紀行 (yokohama kaidashi kikō, "Travelogue of a Yokohama Shopping Trip") volumes 1 and 2, and I read them in Japanese and took a bunch of notes. Here they are for posterity:

Volume One

Closed, shopping trip
Popular cafe
She’s a robot
時代の黄昏がのんびりと来るとのだったなんて
Got a gun from her owner for self-defense but it’s not loaded
Old man thinks Alpha is very humanlike. Almost human
Takahiro sees mysterious fanged woman by the beach. Misago
Wants to play with children but they’re scared of her fangs
オーナーは谷がもっと深かった頃見たっていうから
Caught in rain and hugged!
Farmer delivering watermelons and fish
Watermelon omiyage. But gas station had too
Lightning strike! New skin
Celebrating recovery. Mikans!
One sip of sake and she dances
突然始まった見たこともない舞に全員度肝を抜かれた
New year’s day trip
寒い夜にバイクで走った時の缶コーヒーって異常においしいよ
Doesn’t feel like winter
今は昔ほど季節がはっきりしないけど
The world has moved on

Volume Two

Package from owner! 初瀬野 (はつせいの)
Delivery person is robot!
Robot smooches (for message delivery)
君にとっては十年も一日もさして違うことはないかもしれないが
Same model of robots
Kokone vs Alpha
Ayase with his flying barracuda
Talk about Misago. But Ayase is old
年の離れた男が同じ女の事を考える。会ったのは別の時代知ってるのは同じ姿だ
Alpha drinks the milk
It’s rough but she manages
Put camera in gun holster
First photo of uncle. But can’t quite do it
Can’t even take a single photo
The ruins and lights, purple filter. Moment is chosen. Can’t do it
Maybe it’s not the time for pictures
One photo—the scooter she went out to take pictures with
それに今日の風景はいつもより鮮明に思い出せる
Offered booze at fireworks but 今日はパス！
Giant missile used for fireworks
Dives into the sea, retrieves a bottle
Glass bottles very rare
砂の浜と海の色のビンー今日の収穫です
The bottle—見たかんじは別の場所またいだけど
Flashback!
Sensei and uncle riding the wastes together
Sand-covered road
先輩がよく俺に見せたいのはそんな「旬のもの」の風景だった
時代をよく表し別に注目されず二度と見られないもの
この時からの記憶3人の光景が「続編」でした。気がつくのは後になってからです



Excellent manga, by the way, and now finally available in English. Highly recommended.