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────アキバからの帰り道のことだった。

It was on the way home from Akiba.

Would the "だった" here cover both grouping everything that came before it and
making it past tense?

"のこと" seems to generally translate to "(things) about ____", which I can't
seem to translate naturally to English here. Is this an example where there's
no good English equivalent and it's best to think of it just in terms of
Japanese, or am I misunderstanding how ~のことだった is being used?
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2023-06-11T04:37:19.450
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grammar
Any meaning lost by not translating~のこと in this sentence?
As far as I know こと doesn't really have a translation in such sentences. But
there is something lost here as the sentence would work with and without the
こと. The difference would be the emphasis and range.

A good explanation about range can be found in
[this](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/2216/41223) answer by Ento.

Without the こと you are talking specifically and only about the 「アキバからの帰り道」-
the way home from Akihabara. With the こと you are talking about the whole
experience of the way home from Akihabara - the train station, the tracks, the
view, the walkways and everything that comes along.

So without the こと that might imply that whatever it was, it was RIGHT on your
way home from Akihabara but with こと the implication is that it was SOMEWHERE
in the vicinity of your way home from Akihabara. This notion is usually lost
in translation.

You could force the English translation to reflect that by saying: "It was
somewhere in the vicinity of the way home from Akibahara" but that is somewhat
unnatural and cumbersome in English.

There is [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoP6sFyTsIk) video by Cure
Dolly that might help (Disclaimer: Haven't seen it yet as I'm following the
lessons mostly chronologically) but generally her explanations are very
logical and well explained.

Hope this helps!
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2023-06-12T07:00:14.630
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> アキバからの帰り道 **のことだ** った。

～のことだ can indicate 時, time, when an event occurred.

From [こと -
ウィクショナリー日本語版](https://ja.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8#%E5%90%8D%E8%A9%9E%E3%83%BB%E4%BA%8B):

> 名詞・事  
>  こと  
>  5. 事実。実際に起きた、あるいは起きているできごと。  
>  1. **（「のこと」「のことだ」などの形で）時を表す。**  
>  ところがその次の日 **のことだ** 。あの畜産の担任が、助手を連れて又やって来た。  
>  （宮沢賢治「フランドン農学校の豚」）

「その次の日 **のことだ** 。」 means "It was the next day" "It happened on the next day."  
「アキバからの帰り道 **のことだ** った。」 means "It happened when I was on my way home from
Akiba."

* * *

This のことだ indicates _time_ rather than _place_ , because
「(それは)アキバからの帰り道のことだった」「昨日の放課後のことだった」「ある日のことだ」 sound okay but 「(それは)アキバのことだった」,
「学校のことだった」, 「山田さんの家のことだった」 etc. do not. To mean "It happend in/at [place]",
you should say 「(それは)アキバ **で** のことだった」「山田さんの家 **で** のことだった」, adding で.
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