Shibuya Near Family chapter 137: Ikko aims for dams

>Mmmm...
>Negative ions.
Many Japanese people put a lot of stock in the potential health benefits of negative air ions, which are generated from waterfalls among other things.

>My reason for coming to this dam
>Sign: Dam management office
>is something else entirely.

>Here you go.

>A dam card.
>Card: Kingu dam
Kingu (written with the kanji for "fungus" and "tool") doesn't seem to be a real place as far as I can tell, so I suspect Kumeta just made up a word to have a pun on "kingdom". Dam cards, however, are a real thing that you can collect by visiting Japanese dams, set up by the government to promote tourism and dam knowledge.

>If you want to know why I suddenly got involved in a hobby like this...
>(Heh heh...)
>Book: Album
>It was all because of *Abiko*.

>Let's get on.

>Sign: Abiko

>Wagashison... "My descendants"?
Abiko is a town in Chiba. The kanji in the name do roughly mean "my descendants", though "Abiko" is not a standard reading for them and in this order they only occur in this one name. Ikko mistakenly reads them with the more common pronunciations, and also accidentally flips the two last kanji around (which doesn't actually alter the meaning very much).

>(*Kthnk kthnk kthnk*)

>(*Nod nod*)

>(*Fwooooom*)

>Left arrow: Itoko (cousins). Right arrow: Sofubo (grandparents).
>Next stop, Wagashison. Next stop, Wagashison.

>(Ah!)

>I need to get off!

>Hm?
>Where's mom?

>Why,
>you *are* the mom.

>Who are you?
>I am your descendant.

>(Hmmm...)

>In other words...

>Visiting Wagashison lets you meet *your own descendants*.
>You catch on quick.

>Are you my descendant, too?

>That's right,
>grandma.

>"Grandma"...?
>This is Wagashison, after all.

>There are a whole bunch of your descendants here.
>Honored ancestor!

>Honored ancestor...

>I think this is the first time
>anyone has ever called me "ancestor".

>Oh well.
>I'm just happy that my descendants are thriving.

>Honored ancestor.
>(Namu~)
>She looks like she's doing a grave visit or something...
"Namu" is a Japanese Buddhist phrase, derived from Sanskrit "námas", meaning something like "devotion" or "reverence".

>Plus,
>they seem to be giving me offerings.
>Why?

>Ah!
>That's right!

>Since I'm an ancestor to these guys,
>I must have been summoned to Wagashison for Obon!
Obon is a major religious festival generally celebrated around August. One major component of the festival is the idea that ancestral spirits are called by their descendants to briefly visit the world of the living again.

>But I'm still alive! Isn't Obon supposed to be a system where the living do the summoning!?
>Honored ancestor.

>The descendants over there would like a visit, too.
>Honored ancestor!

>The ones over there, as well.

>(Huff huff)

>(Huff huff)

>Getting summoned by all those descendants...
>I don't think any amount of ancestral spirit would be enough for this.

>(*Kthnk*)

>Sign: Abiko
>Next stop, Abiko.

>Hm?

>Ah!

>Oh no! She didn't get off!
>(*Fwooom*)

>(Bwaaah...)

>Thinking about it, if we're forcing our ancestors to go through all this hard work...
>Isn't Obon actually a pretty crummy system?

>You still have plenty of descendants left to visit.
>(Family tree)
>Guh...

>Perhaps the declining birth rates are simply the will of our ancestors, too.
>They don't want to deal with all those descendants.

>(*Fwooom*)

>Huff...
>Huff...

>There's *still* more descendants...
>Honored ancestor!

>If I have to visit all of them,
>my summer vacation's going to be over before I know it!

>Hm?

>Wait. For me to have descendants,
>they have to be descended from *this* guy, too.

>And he foisted the whole thing on me! How unfair is that!?
>Honored ancestor!

>Ah!

>Oh, it was just a dream...
>(Phew)
>Last stop. Last stop.

>There's no way the train would stop at a place like Wagashison...

>Sign: Abiko
>Left arrow: Kitakashiwa . Right arrow: Tennoudai .

>It WASN'T a dream!
>It's actually real...!

>Wagashison!
>It's "Abiko", you know.

>Huh!?

>Why are you here?
>Why, she asks...

>I came to get a manhole card.
>Why else would anyone come to Abiko?
Manhole cards are also a real collectible, set up to improve public understanding of sewerage or something like that.

>THAT'S your reason!?
>That's why you made me deal with Obon all by myself!?

>How did I "make you deal" with anything...? Also, don't look down on this stuff.

>Collecting manhole cards is actually a lot of fun.
>It's kind of like a stamp rally for adults.

>Ah... That actually sounds kind of nice.

>But if I start doing the same thing as Eru-kun,
>it would feel like he beat me, somehow...

>Shibuya Duty Diary - Seems like there's an Abiko station in Osaka, too.

>Sidebar: It's very cute how Ikko-chan inserted Eru-kun into her family tree like it was nothing.

Thanks for reading! Do you ship it? I ship it.

Chapter 136: Ikko and the strange medicine

>>280904417
>Do you ship it?
I most certainly do.

>>280904036 (OP)
They look like Mother characters...

And that's all for today. Thanks for reading!

>>280905093
No idea how that happened.

>>280905273
Thanks for typesetting! Good you're staying sharp.

>>280907155
Here's to hoping.
>>280904417
Yes. I mean, why wouldn't I? Even the author seems to want it.
Thank you for translating, as always. Do you think Kumeta will go further with this relationship?

>>280908712
I hope there's a chapter where they go on a Valentine's day date (as a joke of course)

Is this a romcom?
Can I get a quick rundown?

>>280912033
It's an episodic comedy about a bunch of kids doing silly things in Shibuya.

How do you think this manga will end?

>>280914111
mass suicide

>>280914111
Ikko'd daughter enrolls in a Shibuya elementary school

>>280904036 (OP)
Live

>>280912033
South Park + Sazae san

>>280904417
>>280905135
Finally caught one of these threads. Thanks for your hard work!