I have a vocabulary question, about おじさん in hiragana:
When Reiko addresses 信用金庫の課長さん as おじさん in hiragana, does it tell us definitively if this is an actual uncle or just an acquaintance? Or does it leave it purposefully unclear?
I feel the way she is talking to him could work either way.
edit: but since the story is told from Koguma’s perspective, if she doesn’t know, it would make more sense that we don’t know either
おじさん can be used affectionately, rather than signifying family. I don’t think they’re related.
Hi!
I’m about to reach the middle of chapter 12. I have just met 信用金庫の課長さんまたの名をおじさん, who is now pushing something out of the corrugated iron enclosure.
I liked the expressions 痺れを切らす, 奢りで, 暇つぶし, 禿げ上がる and ‘よう来たな’, which I guess means something like ‘[It’s] good to see you here’ or ‘[How] nice of you to come’.
I have also looked into the 信用金庫 (or 信金 in its abbreviation) and what the 菓子 that 礼子 chooses are:
Let’s see if 小熊 finds her way with 礼子, such a forceful girl.
Hi!
Just finished chapter 12.
小熊の原付 is now full equipped for carrying things, and 小熊 is maybe getting into 礼子 little by little. She is happy happy, light and happy, almost like Eliza Doolittle.
Let’s see now what the safety speed is and what does it bring.
良い週末を
Hi all.
I’m having a difficult time to understand the usage of 乗る here
とりあえず今必要なのはヘルメットの防風。前回の箱に引き続き礼子に解決を委ねるのは良くないと思ったけど、本人が乗りに乗って調べてくれるから、それに乗っかることにした。
I feel I ALMOST got it, but its like my brain refuses to.
乗りに乗る is a common phrase. The verb 乗る itself can be like “to go with [a decision, the flow, something]”. Just as a pedagogical overly literal translation you can imagine it like “get on board with [a decision, a situation, something]” although the usage is a bit different in practice. It can be used when someone gets into a situation or enthusiastically goes along with something. The nuance of 乗りhere is often rendered in katakana (ノリ) and can be used on its own and the word ノリノリ is also related. It refers to a specifically positive situation or atmosphere, especially one that has some kind of momentum. In my experience it is also something ephemeral. You can think of it as being similar but different to 調子, referring to a “rhythm” of something or a situation. 乗っかる just means 乗る but is more informal. So putting 乗りに乗る together it means something like “to get into the swing of things”, etc. In translation it will be contextual but hopefully you can see the general idea.
So if I were to translate this with no context,
本人が乗りに乗って 調べてくれるから、それに乗っかる ことにした。
Since she herself is [in the mood/into it/on a high/whatever contextual nuance] and is gonna look into it for me, I decided to [just go along with it/get on board with it/go with it/whatever contextual nuance].
Hope that is useful.
I hadn’t look up until you asked, but I kinda felt like it was what CursedKitsune gave as explanation when I initially read it.
I think the second 乗る felt a bit like the English idiom ‘join for the ride’. I can’t think a way of saying the first one that fits, while keeping the ride connotation.
I always find it interesting where idioms overlap. I’m always surprised how often there are connections (although maybe that’s just my confirmation bias).
That was the feeling I was getting from it, but it didn’t click fully until I read your explanation. Thank you so much! 
Hi!
Just starting chapter 15, Internet. 小熊 is now preoccupied with her helmet and wants to solve the open face problem so she can increase her speed in safety, no wind, no flying debris, no bugs, no nothing.
I had a doubt in chapter 13 with this sentence: 中古で買ったガブながら不調らしい不調も無く、まだ余力を残していることは小熊にもわかる。Does it mean that despite buying the scooter second-hand, regarding poor condition it doesn’t seem to have any and Koguma knows the bike still has a lot of power left in it?
Still have this feeling. まだ友達かどうかもわからない礼子…
Aらしい A
seems to mean something like an “an A that seems to be a real/proper A”, or “an A that you would call an A” (if A is a noun or something similar with a な adjective).
So Aらしい “attributes” the A, and specifies what kind of A it is: an "Aらしい” kind of A.
And here it says that such an A does not exists (such A もない).
Thank you so much. That’s just it.
It would be like saying that, although it was second-hand, one couldn’t say that the scooter was in bad shape…
Hi!
Just finished chapter 15.
Both 礼子 and 小熊 are really resourceful girls:
前者は in a full-勝手に-way (生活に必要な用件のために使いたいんですが),
BTW, 呼び止める, which she does to call the teacher, is the verb used to hail a taxi. 勝手に indeed this 礼子 girl.
後者は in a more subtle-need driven-creative manner. 
小熊はカブで幹線道路に出たばかりだ. I guess now she is ready, in need for スピード.
Continuing the discussion from スーパーカブ discussion (Intermediate) April 2024:
Hi folks, I was thinking to join a Japanese book club and found this (and also found I had a dormant account here), so will briefly introduce myself with this one sentence. I started late but will catch up. So far my favorite line is from chapter 2 where Koguma
Cheeky but not insolent–I’ve enjoyed her character so far and just wanted to share the laugh I had.
I just wanted to post a status update. Finished chapter 20 earlier this week. Couldn’t come up with any questions more interesting than my usual meta questions about why the author decided to use this or that out of all possible options.
Also, missed just two days of reviews playing chrono ark, and this is my punishment 
In chapter 7, Reiko seems to have missed an exciting feature on Koguma’s Cub 
しばらく駐輪場で人疲れしたように突っ立っていた小熊は、カブのエンジンをかけてヘルメットを被った。スタンドを上げたカブを駐輪場の外まで押していって跨り、エンジンをかけて走り出した。
Chapter 21
牛乳をたっぷり入れたインスタントコーヒーと焼かない食パン、丸ごとのトマトの朝食を用意する。
Is this…normal? Do japanese people just eat whole ass salted tomatoes for breakfast or is Koguma just a weirdo?
Dunno about it being Japanese, but I eat whole tomatoes all the time. Tastes better than an apple and the surprise juice explosions make for a suspenseful meal. 
Same here! Oranges too (when they’re juicy enough and of a reasonable size 
).
Finished reading chapter 21 and have a few things to mention about next week’s reading.
There’s a new proper noun: 甲信越 (こうしんえつ) Kōshin’etsu [Region]
There’s also a phrase that didn’t appear in a Japanese-English dictionary, 渡りに舟. The literal meaning could be translated as “boat for crossing (a river),” but it is used as a figure of speech. After reading a Japanese dictionary entry, I would translate the figurative meaning as “perfect timing, serendipitous." It describes a state of conveniently finding a boat to cross a river when you need to cross.
Both of these appear in chapter 19.
