jiku: words and phrases

[a2plusb2equalc2]

I was noticing the use of certain words in the Ai Yori Aoshi manga.

In Vol 4, the chapter called "Channel Marker", we see that Aoi, age 5, spelled her name "Ao" in hiragana.
Ao means blue in Japanese. It also means green.
Aoi means blue in Japanese, and green. It also means "inexperienced". Wonder if Kou Fumizuki has been commenting on Aoi's character from the very beginning.

In Vol 4 another chapter is titled "Mayu" and translated "Cocoon". In that chapter Mayu Miyuki is introduced into the story. Again, wonder if Kou Fumizuki was commenting on character. It suggests to me an image of Mayu as a butterfly just emerging from its cocoon.

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More words.
In vol 9 ch 72 "Promise" Mayu confronts Tina and Kaoru and reports Tina's statement days earlier that "I will go back to the U.S." We see two frames of Tina at a shocked stand-still. I was curious what the Japanese kana on those frames meant. Here is my best interpretation:
First frame, h, "ba": "If ... then"
First frame, k, "fu": I think it is short for "fufu", heavy breathing. Perhaps a sharp intake of breath.
Second frame, k, "jiku": "word and phrase". Tina is at a loss for words and trying to think up something. -- Oct 26 revision: Tina had JUST thought up something to say.

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Oct. 26 revision. I was mistaken on Vol 4 ch "Channel Marker". Aoi age 5 spelled her name "Aoi" in hiragana. I missed the hiragana "i", on the tree trunk.

And on reflection about the katakana "jiku" in Vol 9 ch 72, I now think that if Tina was still at a loss for words then "zekku" would have been more appropriate. "Jiku" probably meant that Tina had just thought up something to say. Something like a light-bulb over her head.

[I tried cutting and pasting some hiragana and katakana from another site. It pasted in looking just fine, but after I submitted to this website it CHANGED.]

[Kona]

I stand in awe of anyone who can make any sense of Japanese. Thanks for the insights.

[a2plusb2equalc2]

I sometimes like to take apart the meanings of words.

Take vol 13, chapter 104, its title="Souyu", translated "Bathing together", a present participle in English.
That seems an easy one to try and interpret.
The two online Japanese-English dictionaries I use don't have "souyu" in them. So let's take it by parts.

"yu" seems easy. We have seen the hiragana for "yu" repeatedly on the outside of baths in Ai Yori Aoshi. One on-line dictionary says that it means "hot water".

"sou": I have seen that before. The people in 'Love Hina' live at the Hinata Sou, or boarding house. The on-line dictionary returned many meanings for "sou". Two seem applicable. The first I found is "whole (pref), all, general, gross". The second meaning is "cistern, bath, tank." It looks like the pasted together word has a long history, with compound meaning, as a noun for a public bath. ...

By-the-way, it was fun looking at all the words that Jeffrey's Japanese<->English Dictionary returned for "Begins with 'yu'". Many many of them are borrowings from English. Elsewhere I passed on information that the Japanese have a word for "I" but rarely use it, and a word for "you" and use that even less. That is what brief Berlitz outlines of Japanese say. I was pleasantly surprised to discover the word "yuu", which translates as "you".