Ugetsu

It wasn't clear but they took the Shinkansen to get there and it's on the coast, so I believe Aoki's house would have been very close to the tsunami area. And I think KW doesn't want to trivialize the tsunami by including it in the manga, or complicate the manga by including the tsunami, so we didn't get to see them revisit. No more Chika.

rin

soooo....that's bologna sausage looks like....(@.@)...
i'v been wonder all this time what's Bologna sausage looks like....(none in my country, geeezz)

私は私が行くことを目的としたものがなかったでしょおが、私は私があることを目的としたものが終わったと思 います。

Forsaken

/facepalm

oh god there is a rule 34 for this unholy packaged meat product... and knowing that one day i might stumble upon it terrorizes me.

day_alien

Since it's fall 2010 in the manga, the tsunami is still several months in the future in the KNJ timeline. Chika could still make another appearance (maybe visiting her brother during Christmas?) without references to the seashore.

Ugetsu

Good point. Looking at the map I would say Aoki's home town is probably close to Sendai. Have we had an explicit clue that they are on the east coast? No sunset over the water I think.

10megaman

I think it already is an internet meme. X3

In any case, we can't quite predict where the story goes next with any margin of accuracy. It's simply up to the author.

Mystery

I thought Aoki's homeland was more to the south. Couldn't it be somewhere between Tokyo and Nagoya?

Ugetsu

Yes -- the Tokaido shinkansen was the first part of the network, built in 1964, and today it is still the most heavily used. So that is quite possible. It is also rather sunny and warm in Aoki's home town, but I don't think the climate is all that different in northern versus southern Honshu.

If there are cultural clues (making vegetable horses for O-bon?) that would tell us that Aoki's town is in Kansai rather than Kanto, I am not recognizing them.

rin

@Ugetsu
i got trouble to understand what really Kokonoe feel ..
from way back to vol.1 to vol.11, Kokonoe seems to like/love (?) Aoki (for who he is)
but, sometimes there a moment Kokonoe said something contrary to what she really want..
it's different with Aoki feel...many explain what he thing before he do, decide,say something..and for the others like Reiji,houin,shira it's the same as Aoki.
(maybe this a stupid question anyway..)..

私は私が行くことを目的としたものがなかったでしょおが、私は私があることを目的としたものが終わったと思 います。

Ugetsu

Well, Rin is a child, and does not consider the consequences of anything.

So she tends to go off half cocked. Remember when she convinced herself that she was going to marry Reiji when she got old enough, and deleted Aoki's phone number from her cellphone? And strongly considered pushing Houin down a flight of stairs, and ran away to wander the dangerous streets in the evening...

All of these naked episodes with Aoki are also brash and compulsive. At his parents' house, in the "love hotel" and in the baths -- any of those could have had terrible consequences. But it's the art of KW to keep things on a tightrope, to have Rin teetering on the brink of disaster but always finding a way to come through.