(Ms.) Tomo Kimura’s Translation/Tokyo Notes

Kura

Mitsuki’s Grandma locks Mitsuki up in a “kura,” a warehouse. Rich families had these kuras to store food, or precious pieces of artwork, for example.

A couple times a year, there are TV shows where famous (Japanese and Western) antique dealers visit a “kura” of a rich family. The “we haven’t opened the box ever, we have no idea what’s in it” occasionally contains expensive pottery or painted scrolls.

Names

Mitsuki（満月）, Hazuki (葉月, Mitsuki’s mom), and Fuzuki (文月, Mitsuki’s grandma) all have the same kanji as the second character of their name.

This sort of naming names is fairly common. For instance, my mom’s named Chieko , and her sister is Michiko. The “chi” part is the same kanji, 智. The character for my “tomo” is also the same kanji, but read differently.

Shibuya Locations

The BIG sign of Ange is in the JR (Japan Railways) Shibuya Station.

The round building with the Ange sign is the Shibuya 109 building. It’s a fashion mall for young women, a short walk from Shibuya station.

Negi Ramen

Negi = leek. In Kanto (East), the negi is thick and white. In Kansai (West), the negi is thin and green. Ramen are Chinese noodles, usually in soup. Thus negi ramen is noodles with lots of negi on top.

I grew up in Kobe, so I prefer the green negi. It was kinda a shock to see all the white negi floating around in the udon and soba soup (these are Japanese noodles, udon made from wheat and soba from buckwheat) when I started living in Tokyo ^_^;; They just taste too different.

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