Futari Bus - Ch. 24 - That's Right!

[xdsagecat]

It will be my birthday in a few hours anyway, so yay, I'm twinsies with Shunpei!

Hbday

 

[Sheza]

Didnt this guy slimmed down and got a japanese wife? This dude is a legend

 

[sillybear25]

My suspension of disbelief couldn't handle the idea that An could speak perfect english just learning from school. There's just no way

It could be good enough that a foreigner who knows a bit of Japanese could understand her Japanese-flavored English though. Especially if he's throwing around a lot of katakana eigo.

 

[sillybear25]

I love how Japanese books portray Americans XD. As an American myself, I wouldn't say that they're entirely wrong haha, but I'm just so confused on why Japanese people think 90% of Americans are blond lol

Hyperforeignism. The most stereotypical foreigner exhibits every stereotypical foreign trait, which is why they always have blond, curly hair, blue eyes without epicanthic folds, and a mother tongue of English.

 

[jubuttib]

My suspension of disbelief couldn't handle the idea that An could speak perfect english just learning from school. There's just no way

Do we know it’s just from school? At her age I had been fluent for a few years already, formal education was just school, helped by copious media and internet consumption, and reading books.

 

[jubuttib]

Hyperforeignism. The most stereotypical foreigner exhibits every stereotypical foreign trait, which is why they always have blond, curly hair, blue eyes without epicanthic folds, and a mother tongue of English.

Very rarely fat, though… Which is not just an American thing, being overweight is very common all around the west.

 

[jubuttib]

My friend's uncle traveled all over Europe speaking neither English nor any language they speak in continental Europe, and also typically drunk on the cheapest booze each country could offer. I don't even know how he booked the tickets.

I am a firm believer in the universal language of alcohol. Some of the best multi hour conversations I’ve had have been with people I don’t share a language with, completely plastered.

 

[jubuttib]

Good chapter, but an adult dude asking an elementary schooler to go around with him and taking pictures of her without asking por permission sounds so creepy.

Middle schooler, but your point stands.

 

[24HourCinderella]

I love how Japanese books portray Americans XD. As an American myself, I wouldn't say that they're entirely wrong haha, but I'm just so confused on why Japanese people think 90% of Americans are blond lol

Exotic and flashy uncommon hair color.

I say this as someone who had their blonde hair played with back in like middle school by a few people (in this case at least two I remember were Asian immigrants).

Also yes about 10-15 years later I realized a few of them were flirting with me.

 

[ColorfulSongbird]

As a 188cm Dutch-man who lived in Okinawa for some years, I smiled the whole way through reading this chapter. I really, really enjoyed seeing an author depict a big, tall blond-guy visiting (politely) a quiet Japanese town. Good stuff!

 

[FearlessDawg]

In a different context it could be cute to have their candid photo taken like that by a friend or something but why did this grown ass man just take a photo of these two kids like it was nothing

 

[milfjuicer45]

Is the Hachiman shrine a real place? Going to Japan next year might stop by if it is

 

[Brewers90]

Totally unrelated but Epstein was from New York wasn't he?

I would encourage people not to start chatting to 13 year old girls, asking them to go with you to remote areas and then taking pictures of them without their knowledge.

 

[ColorfulSongbird]

Is the Hachiman shrine a real place? Going to Japan next year might stop by if it is

A very real place, yes. 44 thousand real places, in fact. There are well over 2000 Hachiman shrines in Japan, alone.
It's a Shinto religious shrine built in honor of the Emperor Ojin. When Shinto+Buddhist religious beliefs merged in Japan, "Hachiman" became a sort of god/avatar (especially for samurai/warriors) to pray to in order for more protection or better success for future fates.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachiman_shrine

 

[milfjuicer45]

A very real place, yes. 44 thousand real places, in fact. There are well over 2000 Hachiman shrines in Japan, alone.
It's a Shinto religious shrine built in honor of the Emperor Ojin. When Shinto+Buddhist religious beliefs merged in Japan, "Hachiman" became a sort of god/avatar (especially for samurai/warriors) to pray to in order for more protection or better success for future fates.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachiman_shrine

Yeah I was going to go to the one in Sendai, but I meant if the town in the manga is real and if the shrine there is real. If it is and it's between the shinkansen line from Osaka to Akita or anywhere in East Hokkaido I might pull up and visit

 

[pir0zhki]

Having been a foreigner in Japan multiple times by now, this one made me cringe a bit. What foreigner needs someone to accompany them into a shrine, much less a kid?? My guy, the path is always clearly marked, you can just walk there! Also like, as a foreigner you're gonna have all kinds of eyes on you to begin with; I wouldn't be caught dead talking to a random kid, nevermind leading them off a bus into an isolated location. 100% that guy's getting reported by that bus driver the moment he steps off.

 

[ColorfulSongbird]

Yeah I was going to go to the one in Sendai, but I meant if the town in the manga is real and if the shrine there is real. If it is and it's between the shinkansen line from Osaka to Akita or anywhere in East Hokkaido I might pull up and visit

Their town, "Azeno," is not a real location in Japan, no.
Also, "Hanatani" town they both reference in this chapter, while not a real-place, is a Japanese referential play-on-words for "Nagatani Village" which was famously abandoned 20 years ago.

Incidentally, to everyone mocking the foreigner to "taking a picture of the Japanese kids" in this chapter, the Japanese film "The Village Album" (2004) is a story where they take photos of all the families living in the fictional village of Hanatani in order to preserve their history and love for their town. I'm unsurprised most English readers would never have gotten that reference, but it's not meant to be seen as anything "perverted" or "spiteful." It's intentially referential.
https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/339593

 

[Kirin-kun]

The American tourist: my AI assistant told me to come here, so I went.

Also the American tourist: "surely, everyone speaks English there, including random bus drivers and middle school kids, and my AI assistant would be useless to translate my speech."

Ie, author just wanted An to flex and Shunpei to embarrass himself.

 

[mutanbiru]

If the tourist hadn't mentioned AI, I would have forgotten that this story was set in the present. I'd have thought it was set in the 2000s or 2010s, given the serene atmosphere and pristine rural setting. There might have been beetles or fireflies, too.

 

[HippoPilot]

Phenomenal accidental game from Shunpei