my favorite part was Kiki’s flight and all the nature descriptions. It was also the easiest to understand for me and it’s a big part of what I enjoy in fantasy (just the worldbuilding)
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Hi all!
How did everyone find this past week’s reading?
This week, we’ll be continuing Chapter 4 and reading the next 8 pages. As always, if you’d like to confirm start/end sentences, please reference the Pace section at the top of this post.
For those wanting to double check their comprehension after reading this chapter, please feel free to read over the summary below:
Week 8: Chapter 4 - Part 2 Summary (SPOILERS)
Climbing up the stairs of the building, Kiki sees a door open, which makes it easy to understand she's in the right place. Inside, the woman from earlier is standing in front of a mirror, holding a sky-blue suitcase in one hand and putting on a red hat with the other. Seeing Kiki, the woman tells Kiki to come inside and starts to speak to her rapidly. She says she heard from Osono that Kiki delivers things in exchange for a small fee. She makes a comment about Kiki being cute, saying she would have thought a witch would have fangs and horns. Noticing her discomfort, the woman apologizes, explaining that she's never seen a witch before and that all the stories about them are scary.Moving on, the woman asks Kiki what counts as a small fee, saying that it must be expensive since she’s flying. Kiki says just something small in exchange is enough. Misunderstanding her, the woman says she’s a seamstress, and that she’s always hemming and unhemming people’s clothing. (Note: this section doesn’t translate well to English, since the woman mistakes おすそわけ (sharing with others what you have) as something to do with Kiki’s skirt hem (すそ). Looking Kiki over, she declares that in exchange for delivering something for her, she will hem Kiki’s skirt for her, saying it’s too long and the current fashion is to have the knees showing a bit.
Speaking even faster than before, the woman explains that she had a request from a client who lives far away who she needs to go see right away because they’re impatient. Gesturing to a lace covered bird cage sitting on the table, she explains that it’s her nephew’s fifth birthday and that she promised that she’d give him a bird cage and a stuffed animal by 4pm today. She tells Kiki the address, #10 Apricot street, which is located on the road behind a big flower shop, on the outskirts of town, and says if you ask for the “mischievous boy” that people will know who she’s talking about. In a hurry, she hands Kiki the cage and bustles the two out of the apartment.
Looking inside the cage, Kiki sees that sitting on a silver cushion, there is a black cat plushie with a mint green ribbon tied around its neck. She remarks that it looks just like Jiji. Putting her broomstick through the handle of the cage so it’s hanging behind her radio, and telling Jiji to look after it, Kiki sets off to delivery the present. As they’re flying, Jiji makes snide remarks about the plushie’s cushion and ribbon, which Kiki takes to mean he’s jealous. He tries to pull the cage closer to him with his claws, causing the broom to jerk. Frustrated, Kiki tells him to sit still, saying she’s surprised he wants to go in the cage to which he replies that it’s pretty.
They start to fly smoothly again, but Jiji opens the cage door and tries to climb in the cage, causing the broom to rock violently. As she’s trying to get control of the broom, the cat plushie is jerked out of the cage. Although Kiki tries to catch it, she isn’t fast enough and it falls, spinning like a black whirlpool as it plummets into the forest below. Plunging downwards into the forest, Kiki is stabbed by small branches as she chases after it. Landing in a small clearing, she tries searching for the plushie but is unsuccessful. Kiki is obviously upset, as this was the first job she’d received and the woman trusted her to deliver the present on time.
Just as she starts to get mad at Jiji, she has an idea. She tells Jiji to get in the cage instead, so he can pretend to be the plushie until she is able to find it again. Although reluctant, Jiji is guilted into it. Being more careful this time, Kiki hangs the cage in front of her before setting off again on her broom…
Poor Jiji! He did it to himself, but I can’t help but feel nervous about what’s in store for him when he gets handed over to the kid!
We’re now officially a third of the way through the book! Yeehaw 
Read next week’s chapter to find out what happens to Jiji!
Not related to this week’s reading at all, but I found out recently that there was a live action version of Kiki made in 2014. Youtube’s Auto-Dubbing of it (English) is hilariously bad. Feel free to watch it if you need a laugh:
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It’s impressive how much context the translation misses.
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once I start reading I don’t want to stop:D I still miss some things while reading, but it feels great to get some experience reading Japanese especially with this amount of hiragana seriously. give me some kanji 
I also want to learn when to use kanji or not… light novels and children’s books don’t seem to be a reliable reference
and again I loved the descriptions of the flight. I want more descriptions:D
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For the number thing, it’s a whole rabbit hole: look up 語呂合わせ. It’s a super interesting topic, and yeah it allows Japanese to remember numbers much more easily.
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Ah I didn’t realize that was the term for it, thank you! I love how there are tools online to help people turn words into numbers
Very relevant topic considering it was just 猫の日!
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Hi all!
How did everyone find this past week’s reading?
This week, we’ll be finishing up Chapter 4 and reading the next 9 pages. As always, if you’d like to confirm start/end sentences, please reference the Pace section at the top of this post.
For those wanting to double check their comprehension after reading this chapter, please feel free to read over the summary below:
Week 9: Chapter 4 - Part 3 Summary (SPOILERS)
Flying along the river while paying attention to street names, Kiki is quickly able to find the right house. Ringing the doorbell, the door is answered by a young boy covered in band aids who is very obviously the seamstress' mischievous nephew. Kiki apologizes on behalf of the aunt for not being able to come herself, then hands over the cage with Jiji inside. The boy immediately starts jumping up and down. Seeing Jiji's scowl, Kiki warns the boy to be nice to the cat. The boy cheekily tells Kiki that he'll take good care of him by folding him up and putting him in his pocket.Setting off again, Kiki returns to the forest to search for the missing stuffed animal. Although she continues to search until evening, she is unable to find it. Worrying that Jiji will need to stay with the boy forever, she grabs her skirt and wonders out loud about making a stuffed cat herself from the fabric. Just then, she hears someone singing a song about black things (smoke, cat, witches, etc.). Looking behind her, she notices a small house surrounded by an overgrown hedge.
Through an open window, Kiki can see the back of a woman with tightly pulled back hair painting something. Kiki decides to ask her if she’s seen the missing cat plushie. As Kiki gets close to the window to call out to the woman, she notices that the woman is painting a picture of a black cat and, looking beyond the painting, the missing plushie is there! Hearing a noise, the woman turns around and notices Kiki. This starts a chain of the two talking at the same time and saying nearly the same thing. Eventually, Kiki is able to ask the painter if the cat plushie she has fell from the sky. The painter replies that she isn’t sure if it fell from the sky or if is came up from the ground, but that she found it in the forest. She explains that she’s been searching for a good “black” to use as inspiration for her exhibit, preferably a “witch’s black” and decided to use the stuff cat for now. This prompts the painter to ask if Kiki is a witch.
Hearing that Kiki is indeed a witch, the painter gets excited and tells her she can have the stuffed cat if Kiki will sit for a painting. Kiki agrees, but says that while she can’t right now, she’ll be back soon and will bring a witch’s cat with her too. Promising to come back, Kiki sets off again back to the seamstress’ nephew’s house.
When she arrives at the boy’s house, it’s already completely dark outside. Stealthily, she looks through each window until she finds the right one. Inside, she sees the boy curled up in bed with Jiji, who has been folded up under the boy’s arm with a band aid on his nose. As she quietly opens the window to call out to him, Kiki is struck by how great a companion he is for having pretended to be a stuffed animal for her. Placing the stuffed toy on the boy’s stomach, she softly calls out to Jiji, who bounces like a ball into Kiki’s arms and starts purring.
Before returning home, Kiki and Jiji stop at the painter’s house, where the two sit for their painting. Afterwards, when the two are back home, Kiki writes her first letter to her parents. She tells them about the town she lives in and how she’s started a delivery business, but decides to leave out the part about her feeling depressed. She ends the letter by telling them about how even though the seamstress offered to hem her skirt for her, she thinks she’s going to ask her to make a silver cushion for Jiji instead. She also wishes them well and tells them not to worry about her.
That’s all for this week! Let me know if there was anything in this week’s reading that you found difficult or if you had any ah-ha moments where something finally clicked. Happy reading all~
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As I read I try to add useful words to my bunpro reviews. Sometimes the words I add don’t turn up again, but I felt vindicated in adding ふと, 素早い (which I doubted would come up again), and ふりむく. these words have showed up a lot more than expected.
on page 83 (in my edition) I was confused for a while at the expression:
「ひっこそうかって考えてたくらいなのよ」,
kanji would have made things much clearer:
「引っ越そうかって考えてたくらいなのよ」
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This might be the first time I’ve seen みんな in the meaning of “everything”, not “everyone”.
Also, Jiji really took one for the team… even though it was his fault in the first place.
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Jiji recklessly messing with the cage struck me as odd, though I guess we’re still learning about him as a character. The sequence of events in this section was pretty fun to follow. It’s nice that Kiki is finding her footing, and I’m looking forward to seeing where the story goes.
There were a couple parts that were a little difficult for me. I didn’t know 垣根 so I assumed it was a type of tree and was confused until I looked it up. The すます in キキもいっしょにすましてすわりながら… and ジジのすました顔… seems to be a somewhat uncommon meaning of すます, with different kanji than the more common 済ます? My best guess is that it’s the “putting on airs” meaning? Would love if someone could confirm or clarify that.
I also didn’t find much for まり in まりのようにはずんでキキの腕に… Just “ball” which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me as a simile for how Jiji jumps into Kiki’s arms. So if anyone could help there too I’d appreciate it.
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He’s a bit of an odd character! Pretty petulant, if we’re being honest. (I still like him though).
I couldn’t find the ジジのすました顔, so won’t comment on that without seeing the context, but for the キキもいっしょにすましてすわりながら you’re correct about the meaning being different from 済ます and instead being the “putting on airs” meaning. However, I think a better translation/more natural way of thinking of it is “to be prim” or “to be proper”. So this sentence translated to English would be roughly along the lines of, “As Kiki sat there primly, she became quite pleased.” (The pleased part is from the second part of the sentence which we both omitted).
For the case of まり, you’re correct that it’s referring to a ball. はずむ can also be used to show bounciness, so in this case the sentence is trying to say that “Jiji bounced like a ball up into Kiki’s arms.” Not sure if that makes a bit more sense?
For me, it wasn’t in this week’s reading, but earlier in the story when Kiki was first talking to the seamstress, I could not for the life of me understand 「ちょっとでもおくれたら九十四回もさかだちさせられちゃうんだから。」 Even though I knew all the words, I had to read it like three times to understand that, yeah, she is saying she’ll be made to do 94 headstands. I think just based on the rest of the conversation and context, it seemed so random that it threw me off. Not sure if anyone else has run into anything like that in the book so far.
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Happy Friday! I don’t know about you guys, but this week felt long 
How is everyone finding this week’s reading?
This week, we started Chapter 5. This chapter isn’t as easy to break into chunks compared to earlier chapters, so we’ll be reading it in two longer parts of 12 pages each. As always, if you’d like to confirm start/end sentences, please reference the Pace section at the top of this post.
For those wanting to double check their comprehension after reading this chapter, please feel free to read over the summary below:
Week 10: Chapter 5 - Part 1 Summary (SPOILERS)
Kiki opens her shop's window and is blinded by the sun. When she first arrived in town, the sun was gentle and pretty similar to how it was in her hometown. But now, it is much more intense, like a ball that's been thrown at you. As she starts to stand on tiptoe to see if she can see the ocean, she chides herself, as she realizes she's only doing this because of the letter she recently from her mother Kokiri.Back home, she used to be able to stand on tiptoe at her house and see the peak of the eastern mountain. In the letter, her mum recounts how when she would send Kiki out on an errand, she would always stop by the mountain and take forever to come back home. Running a recent errand of her own, she decided to stop by the mountain on her way home. Sitting in the grass and looking up at the sky, she accidentally fell asleep for who knows how long. Rushing back home, her husband Okino laughs, saying she looks just like Kiki used to, with grass imprints on her cheek. Thinking about her hometown, Kiki is hit with a wave of homesickness.
To snap out of this, Kiki starts preparing for work by wiping down her broom. Calling out to her from the nearby bakery, Osono tells her that she shouldn’t bother working today, as it’s Sunday and everyone’s probably gone down to the beach to swim because it’s so hot out. Osono encourages Kiki to take a day off and go to the beach as well. Kiki initially protests, saying she’s never swam before. Osono insists, saying she’ll lend her an old bathing suit from when she was young.
While Osono is retrieving the bathing suit for her, Kiki talks to Jiji, who is laying on the stairs like a glob of melted butter. She convinces him to come as well, saying it’ll be nice to feel the sea breeze while flying. Osono comes back with the swimsuit and tells Kiki to put it on under her clothes. Trying it on, Kiki is embarrassed by how tight it clings to her, but Osono reassures her that this is how it’s supposed to look and tells her that everyone else at the beach will be wearing the same thing. She even pulls up her own skirt to expose her legs, just to show Kiki what she means.
With her radio playing a cheerful song, Kiki sways along to the music while flying towards the beach. Looking down at Koriko, she is struck by how with the river splitting it down the middle, it seems to look like a butterfly moving in time to the music. Pulling her attention back to the radio, Jiji tells her that there’s some kind of announcement. Interrupting the music, there is a special weather warning, saying that the wind is going to pick up and that anyone swimming in the ocean should be careful.
Hearing this, Jiji and Kiki quarrel a bit, with Kiki saying the weather report must be wrong. Kiki is also annoyed at how Jiji always expects the worst when they’re out enjoying themselves. Jiji responds to this by telling Kiki that being too merry is also a fault. The two continue on to the beach anyway.
Trying to avoid sticking out as a witch, Kiki lands in an isolated area. Looking sidelong over at the more crowded area, she sees everyone caught up in various activities enjoying themselves. Some people were throwing sand at each other, others were buried up to their necks in sand, suntanning their backs, chasing waves at the ocean edge or swimming in the ocean. As she’s looking out at this, the wind starts to pick up a bit, causing nearby sun umbrellas to flap in the wind and for the waves to get a little bigger.
Taking off her dress and shoes and hunching her body to hide a bit, Kiki starts to walk over to the more crowded area with her stuff clutched in her arms. Caught off guard by how hot the sand is, she ends up jumping from foot to foot, with Jiji hopping behind her while trying to stay in her shadow. He complains that they look ridiculous, like beans being fried in a fry pan. When they finally reach the crowded area, Kiki imitates everyone else by digging a small hole in the sand and laying down in it on her stomach. The sand is pleasantly warm, like a bath, and Kiki lies there watching people’s legs pass by.
With her chin propped on her arms and looking out at the sea, Kiki wonders aloud if she should go in the water. She also realizes that her mother never really taught her anything about the ocean, but she guesses that makes sense since her mother has also never seen the ocean before. Jiji anxiously replies to her that she shouldn’t, as witches might melt if they go in the water. Kiki denies this, saying there’s no way that would happen just to witches. Sitting up in the sand, she notices a mass of dark clouds on the horizon that hadn’t been there before.
Suddenly, a voice calls out to her. Turning towards the voice, Kiki sees a woman lying nearby smiling at her. The woman asks if Kiki brought her broom with her to play with or if she’s going to use it instead of a floatie while swimming. Finding this idea ridiculous, Kiki can’t help at laugh at this. Shrugging, the woman laughs too and explains that she heard a witch arrived in town recently and that she guesses it’s now popular to pretend to be a witch. She’s been so busy taking care of her young son that she’s behind on trends, but she mentions she saw another boy at the beach who was also carrying a broom around.
Looking behind her, the woman points out the boy she was talking about. Kiki sees a boy carrying a bag and a broom, looking towards them. Kiki remarks that he must just be cleaning up the beach. As she’s about to reply, the woman suddenly starts shouting at her son to not wander so far and stay where she can see him. She laments that while children a cute, being a mother is tough.
That’s all for this week! Let me know if there were any new words or phrases in this week’s reading that stood out to you.
To wrap up this week’s reading, here’s a picture of Kiki and Osono from this week’s chapter. Jiji’s reaction is a little harsh!
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I haven’t quite finished this past week’s reading (planning on doing so tonight) but I thought it would be cool to share this little anecdote.
A coworker of mine recently got married and brought omiyage to the workplace. The note they attached to the box of omiyage said 「二人の幸せをお裾分けします」. It’s always fun to see words you learn in books show up in other contexts, but especially so since おすそわけ is quite rare as far as I can surmise.
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I guess am late to the party 
as it seems, from the table, that this is the last week?
Will there be another book club after this? If so what book would it be?
This week’s ending passage takes us to the end of Chapter 5, so I imagine the plan would be to update and continue on into Chapter 6 and beyond.
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Hi @ibrafarzat! As @nmillerche mentioned, we are still reading through this book. We are currently on Chapter 5 of 11, so if you are interested in joining and are open to catching up, then feel free!
As for the next book club, I can’t say, as this is not an official Bunpro book club, but just a community one I started after a few people expressed interest in reading Kiki.
If you’re looking for other Japanese book clubs, I would suggest checking out Wanikani or Natively as they seem to have pretty active book clubs!
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じゃ，追いつくように頑張ります！
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Oh that’s awesome! Always the best when you learn a word and then see it shortly after out in the wild.
I don’t think I’ve come across おすそわけ at work, but I was pleasantly surprised to see it pop up in a video game recently.
I’m currently playing 牧場物語 Let’s 風のグランドバザール and there is a mechanic in it where you can give things to characters in exchange for upgrades (screenshot above).
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Happy Saturday! How was everyone’s week? The weather in Kanto has been a bit all over the place recently. We got a bit of snow at the beginning of the week, but things are sunny again and the sakura are starting to blossom 
This past week, we finished off Chapter 5 and will be starting Chapter 6 tomorrow. Chapter 6 is a slightly longer one, so the next two weeks’ reading will be a little longer at 13 and 12 pages. If people feel like this is too much, let me know and I can err on the shorter side for future chapters. As always, if you’d like to confirm start/end sentences, please reference the Pace section at the top of this post.
For those wanting to double check their comprehension of reading this chapter, please feel free to read over the summary below:
Week 11: Chapter 5 - Part 2 Summary (SPOILERS)
Raising her voice again, the woman yells at her son to not go far. Turning back to Kiki and smiling, she makes a comment abut how it would be nice to be able to, at the very least, relax while at the beach. Seeing Jiji, she then suggests to Kiki that he should go and play with her son so that he won't wander off by himself. Poking him in the stomach, Kiki tells Jiji to go play with the boy. Muttering to himself, Jiji walks over to where the boy is playing by the waterside.Both Kiki and the woman go back to lying on the beach. Closing her eyes, Kiki is able to hear the various sounds around her more clearly. She also notices the salty, slightly fishy and seaweedy smell of the ocean. Suddenly, she hears the roaring sound of the wind, which is completely different from how it sounded before. She also hears shrieks from here and there. Blinking the sand from her eyes, Kiki looks around and sees the once peaceful beach completely transformed, with straw hats blowing through the air, inflatable tubes rolling around like wheels, people grabbing their kids and running towards the trees at the outskirts of the beach or running after their stuff that had been blown away.
Screaming, the woman next to her starts to run madly to the water’s edge. Following her with her eyes, Kiki sees Jiji and the woman’s son, floating on the water on an orange inflatable are being pulled between two waves. The woman tries to grab them from the water, but they’re pulled by a strong whirlpool out to sea. Shouting at Jiji to hold on, Kiki tells him and the woman that she’ll save them. Running back up the beach, Kiki goes to grab her broom. However, the moment she grabs it, the colour drains out of her. The broom she grabbed isn’t her mother’s broom, but a cheap one that looks nothing alike.
Heart pounding, Kiki wonders when the broom could have been swapped and what she should do. But with no time to think, she tries taking off on the broom. However, she struggles to fly, with first the tip of the broom and then the back dipping into the water. As if she’s riding a bucking horse, Kiki desperately tries to reach Jiji and the boy, who have been pushed by the waves even further out to sea. Finally, she’s able to catch up with them. Kiki extends out her hand while lying flat against the broom, but the boy is crying too hard to take it, so instead she grabs him by his swim shorts and pulls him up. She then grabs Jiji by the tail and pulls him up as well. This is met with cheers from the beach, as people looked on.
Somehow, Kiki makes it back to the beach and hands the boy back to his mother. While still carrying an exhausted Jiji in her arms, she hurriedly pulls on her dress over her wet bathing suit, grabs her radio, and takes off again. The bystanders tell her to rest a bit, but there’s no way, as she needs to find her broom and she has an idea of where she can find it. Furious, Kiki remembers the boy she saw earlier, realizing that he must have wanted a witch’s broom and swapped them at some point. Unable to stop shaking at the thought of what would have happened if she had been unable to rescue Jiji and the woman’s son, she determines that once she catches him, she’s going to make the boy apologize a million times.
Knowing that the first place someone would go if they wanted to try flying would probably be somewhere high like a cliff, Kiki flies from hill to hill between the beach and Koriko in search of the boy. Eventually, Jiji spots a person dressed all in black standing at the top of a small hill, looking like they’re about to try flying any moment now. Jiji urges Kiki to stop them, saying they’re going to hurt themselves. Kiki tells Jiji to be quiet, saying that if they want to fly, they should let them fly and that ff something bad happens to them while doing it, maybe they’ll learn their lesson.
Finally, the person on the hill jumps off the hill, landing on their butt with a thud, and rolling down the hill like a rock. Flying after and landing next to them, Kiki sees that it is indeed the boy from the beach. Covered in scrapes, glasses broken and askew, he seems to be about the same age as her. Seeing that he even put on a black dress like her, Kiki can’t help but laugh and tease him. Embarrassed, the boy scowls and stands up, pulling off the dress, then blushes and looks down. Kiki starts to chew him out, telling him he should apologize. When she asks him if he has any excuse for stealing, the boy starts to protest that he took it for research. He explains that he’s in an aviation club in town that’s researching new ways of flying and that they’re currently split into three groups that are researching, respectively, flying shoes, flying carpets, and flying brooms. He reveals that he was also the boy she saw near the shop earlier today and that when he overheard she was going to the beach, he followed her.
Kiki explains that even with the broom, he wouldn’t have been able to fly, as you need to have witch’s blood. However, she admits that she isn’t really sure how it works and adds that the broom you use does make a difference. She then berates him for the broom he swapped with hers, saying she embarrassed herself in front of people riding it. When she starts to ask for her broom back, she finally looks around her and notices that her mother’s broom is lying on the ground, snapped in half. Distraught, she picks it up and hugs it to her chest. On the verge of tears, she tells the boy that it was her mother’s broom and that it as given to her when she left home. The boy apologizes in a quiet voice.
Eventually, Kiki realizes there’s nothing she can do about the broom at this point. Pushing down her tears, she tells the boy that she’ll need to make a new one. The boy offers to help, but Kiki turns him down saying it’s a job for a witch. The boy comments that flying seems difficult. Finally looking up a bit and smiling, Kiki replies that it is, but that not being able to fly would be miserable too.
That’s all for this week! I’m curious to hear people’s thoughts on week 11’s reading, as it ends on a bit more of a serious note. I personally feel like if I was Kiki, I’d be a lot more pissed off, but maybe that’s just me 