Maria Sama Ga Miteru:Volume12 Epilogue

Afterword

Soft serve ice-cream.

Scones filled to the brim with homemade jam.

Grilled sweetfish.

Tempura mushrooms.

Fresh homemade tofu.

They're not mentioned in the main body of the story, but plain omelets where the inside is all sticky (completely different to rolled egg omelets).

Crispy rice. Financier pastries … (in no particular order)

These are just a few examples, but that's how I write about food.

It's often pointed out to me that my stories typically have scenes where the food is explicitly mentioned. It's probably because I love food myself that I lay out the menu.

And then, when I write these scenes, I'll often find myself craving those foods. Naturally, I won't usually have that food on hand, so I have no choice but to endure the cravings. It leaves me feeling kind of ashamed to fall into a trap that I've set myself.

Perceptive people may have caught on by now. That I'm currently in that exact situation.

Hello, this is Konno.

As you can see, the illustration on the cover of this volume of "Maria-sama ga Miteru" does not feature a school uniform!

– In other words, it's the summer vacation issue.

Yumi has left Lillian's Girls Academy to go on a summer holiday with her onee-sama.

If that's all you heard then you might feel a bit jealous. But it's not all fun and games. With Sachiko as her onee-sama, she's not going to have a peaceful life. Living under that star, it's just something that she'll have to resign herself to :) But, in that regard, it seems like she's got better at rolling with the punches recently – You're getting used to it, aren't you Yumi-chan?

By the way.

High-school students still have some sort of homework they have to do over the summer holidays, right?

I seem to remember that back in my day, we had to do things like English to Japanese translation, conversion from ancient Japanese into modern Japanese, book reports, and things like that. Ah, more and more is coming back to me. Having to paint a self-portrait with oils for art class, and sewing a summer dress for home-economics. Thinking back on it, I really put a lot of effort into those things.

At any rate, the book report is a staple of summer vacation.

Suffering is a common theme with the assigned texts, don't you think? It often comes up in the story itself too – Dazai's "Tsugaru" and Souseki's "Kokoro" both have this sort of ill-fated characters. Especially with "Tsugaru" where you have to read to the end before you can write your report, I remember grudgingly forcing my way through it. But it gave me something I could use in a story, so I guess I should be grateful.

I've heard that some schools don't set a specific book, instead you can write a report on any book you want. Still.

I just imagined what a Japanese language teacher would feel if she saw, "I read "Maria-sama ga Miteru: Vacation of the Lambs,"" written on a book report. It feels like I should apologize to her.

Instead of that, how about a book by Dazai or Souseki? I think they'd make a better topic for a book report. But in that case, rather than just one book you're better off reading multiple. Rather than struggling through to the end of a book that you just don't get, isn't it better to ask, "Well, what should I try next?"

When I get some free time, (and when will that be!?) I'd like to have a proper re-read of "Tsugaru" and "Kokoro." I might experience them differently now that I'm an adult.

– Well, that's what I say, but it'll probably be a couple of decades until that happens.