Who comes over to a house?

Chiikawa shows Hachiware a winning notice from a yogurt sweepstakes and smiles, holding a key. The house wasn't bought with savings.

When a house comes up, we tend to look at how it was gotten. This time, let's look at how the house gets used after that.

Hachiware and Usagi say “Sorry to intrude” and come into Chiikawa's house. They hand Chiikawa a good-luck charm the two of them made, hoping Chiikawa will pass.

On another day, everyone is eating Shisa's homemade Rou-style ramen in the dome-shaped house. Shisa says it might taste a little different from their master's, but someone says it's practically the shop's.

On both days, the house belongs to Chiikawa. But the ones who made the charm and made the ramen were the ones who came over. The house seems to be less a place where the owner does things and more a place everyone brings something to.

One morning, Chiikawa comes to the cave where Hachiware lives. The entrance is an open arch with no door. From outside, you can see Hachiware sleeping inside.

Chiikawa has brought a sweet shaped like Hachiware. Asked if it's to celebrate Grade 5, Chiikawa nods.

The visits didn't only go one way, toward Chiikawa's house. To bring a celebration, Chiikawa is the one who visits the cave. The dome house and the doorless cave look very different. Even so, both are homes people come to.

Chiikawa's Grade 5 celebration was by a tree-stump table. Kurimanju makes a special celebration drink with Calpis and soda.

On the day they follow Usagi to find Usagi's home, they end up at a place where little creatures in acorn caps are dancing. But in the end they say it wasn't a “home” after all, and that's that.

It seems you don't need anyone's house to celebrate. Usagi's home still isn't shown in this episode either. Whether Usagi has no home or it just isn't drawn, we don't know. Still, Usagi, whose home we can't see, is one of the ones who made a charm and visited Chiikawa's house.

A house won in a sweepstakes, and a cave with no door. The difference in where they live is plain to see. But line up the scenes of coming and going, and the house is used less as a place for the owner to shut themselves in and more as a place people come to and bring things.

Still, if people always gather at the same house, the job of offering the place might keep falling to the same person. In these scenes, people come to the cave too, so we can't go as far as calling it lopsided. Next time you read a scene set in a house, try looking at who says “Sorry to intrude.”