(repost from our website)
This chapter is full of puns, and rather than clog up the pages with translator’s notes, I’d figured it’d be better to list the explanations for the puns here. Read them if you like or just jump straight into the chapter and know that there’s some wordplay going on, but here we go!
Page 7
November = 11th month, the 11 looks like two capital i’s, which reads as ii (good). Could also be that 1 is read as ichi, so you take the i from both 1’s to get ii.
November 46th = 11/46. As above, the 11 can be read as ii (good). 4 can be read as shi, and 6 can be read as mu. Putting it all together, you get good shimu(ra day).
Page 8
11/1 = Stomach is 胃 (i), and 1 can be read as ichi
11/2 = Boil is 煮る (ni.ru), and 2 can be read as ni.
11/3 = Sleep is 眠 (min), and 3 can be read as mi. Drop the n and you get the same sound.
11/4 = Poem is 詩 (shi), and 4 can be read as shi.
11/5 = The 5 can be read as go, which is the same as the game (碁, go)
11/6 = Nothingness is 無 (mu), and 6 can be read as mu.
Page 9
11/7 = Vegetable is 菜 (na), and 7 can be read as nana.
11/8 = Leaf is 葉 (ha), and 8 can be read as hachi.
11/9 = Paragraph is 句 (ku), and 9 can be read as ku.
11/10 = Comma is 読点 (tou.ten), and here we combine the Japanese pronunciation of 10 (tou) with the English pronunciation (ten)
11/11 = Same as 11/1, we’re just doubling up on stomach.
11/12 = Stomachache is 胃痛 (i.tsuu), which uses the i of 1 with the English pronuniciation of 2 (tsuu)
11/13 = Stomach acid is 胃酸 (i.san), which uses the i of 1 with the reading of 3 as san.
11/14 = Doctor is 医師 (i.shi), which uses the ichi pronunciation of 1 with the shi pronunciation of 4.
Page 10
11/25 = Same as 11/2, Boil is 2 (ni). After is 後 (go), and 5 can be read as go.
11/26 = The imperative (command) form of boil is 煮ろ (ni.ro). As before, the 2 is read as ni. 6 can be read as roku.
11/27 = Same as 11/2 and 11/7, boil and vegetable
11/28 = Same as 11/2 and 11/8, boil and leaf
11/29 = Meat is 肉 (niku), a combination of ni (2) and ku (9)
11/30 = Sugar is 砂糖 (sa.tou), a combination of san (3) and tou (10)