Asian Drama

Shokudo Megumi is an oden restaurant run by Megumi, a popular former fortune teller who lost her powers. Now she still helps her regular customers in other ways, by advising them through their various troubles in their marriages. In this way, the customers of Shokudo Megumi will find happiness.

Adapted from the novel series "Konkatsu Shokudo" (婚活食堂) by Yamaguchi Keiko (山口恵以子).

Azumi, a manga artist, is staying at the guesthouse "Sun Plaza Asanuma'' with the cheapest accommodation. However, she can't concentrate on her work because she is bothered by the lively voices of the house mother, Mariko (Kikuchi Momoko), and her daughter, Misaki (Ohara Yuno), coming from the common space. When she looks up the reputation of Sun Plaza Asanuma on the internet, she finds a list of bad reviews, but among them she finds a mysterious comment: “A door opens.” Then, when Azumi is stuck at work, a “door” suddenly appears in front of her that leads to the backstage of Hello! Project...

Miyata Ayaka works at a stationery manufacturer and is engaged to her colleague Hiyama Yuichi. However, she is reluctant to inform her mother Harumi. Ayaka has lived apart from Harumi ever since they had a big argument when she was 20. Harumi has dodged the identity of Ayaka’s father from the time she was a child. One day, Yuichi forces Ayaka to inform her mother, and Harumi appears at the company the next day to assess whether Yuichi will make a suitable husband. Yuichi happens to show up and she takes him to a pub. The two of them get along very well and it is decided that she will come for the wedding dress fitting. However, on that day, Harumi is rushed to hospital after collapsing from a sudden brain haemorrhage. She does not regain consciousness even after three months. Meanwhile, Ayaka learns about her mother’s living will from a nurse and discovers that she had been exchanging diaries between her classmates from high school days. She travels to her mother’s hometown of Kaga City in Ishikawa Prefecture with the diary as her guide. The lies and hard facts written in the diary by the women, lead her to true happiness.

The story is based on the life of a japanese composer named Yuji Koseki from Fukushima in the Showa Era.

In 1909, a long-awaited baby boy was born to a family which has run a dry goods store for generations in Fukushima Prefecture. He would later become the talented composer Koyama Yuichi who wrote many famous songs. Although Yuichi was brought up as the heir of the business, he was rather dreamy and considered a child with no redeeming traits by the people around him. However, when he encountered music, it sparked joy and unleashed his gift in composing music through self-study. As a youth, Yuichi secretly put his name down for an overseas songwriting competition. This would change his destiny. He won runner-up for the song he entered for the competition. As a result, he got to know a female student who wanted to be a singer. Despite the long distance between them – Fukushima and Toyohashi – the two of them tied the knot. When they came to Tokyo, they met all sorts of people and weathered a dark period to produce a number of hit songs. However, war broke out and Yuichi had to compose wartime songs at the army’s request. It pained him that young men died in battle after singing the songs he had written. After the war, the country began to recover amid the chaos. The couple made a new era of music in an attempt to encourage the wounded through the power of music.

Himekawa Reiko became an assistant inspector with the Tenth Homicide Section at the young age of 27 even though she was not on the career track. As the only female section chief in the First Investigative Division, she leads Team Himekawa, armed with her intuition, dramatic ideas and energy, and has solved many challenging cases. Her older subordinate Kikuta Kazuo , a sergeant, is initially skeptical of her when he is transferred to the team. However, he gradually comes to realise her competence and charm, and special feelings begin to grow. Reiko’s nemesis is Katsumata Kensaku , an assistant inspector with the Fifth Homicide Section. Although he boasts an overwhelming lead in the number of arrests, his illegal investigation methods have also drawn suspicion.

10 years have passed since legendary F4 members Tsukasa Domyoji, Rui Hanazawa, Sojiro Nishikado and Akira Mimasaka have graduated from Eitoku Academy. Since their departure, the school has been on a steady decline.

Correct 5 is formed at the high school with Haruto Kaguragi (Sho Hirano) as the group's leader. They are worried about the school's steady demise. They decide to find deadbeat students and kick them out of the school.

Haruto Kaguragi likes ordering stuff that makes him look bigger physically. He uses his butler's name for his online orders and receives the items at a convenience store. Oto Edogawa (Hana Sugisaki) works part-time at the convenience store. She also attends the same school as Haruto Kaguragi. Oto Edogawa is actually from a poor family, but she pretends to be from a rich family to fit in at school. Her fiance is Tenma Hase (Taishi Nakagawa) and he attends a rival high school.

Morita Sae (Takimoto Miori) lives in the town of Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture. One day, when she visits Spa Resort Hawaiians with her family and their pet dog, Choco, she sees girls doing the hula dance and gets completely engrossed. Time passes. Sae joins Spa Resort Hawaiians. She fulfils her dream to become a hula girl and enjoys her days to the fullest. But on 11 March 2011 at 2.46 p.m. when she is taking a break back stage after the end of a show, the Great East Japan Earthquake hits. Her peaceful, regular life undergoes a sudden change. Transportation and telecommunications are disrupted due to the earthquake. At the hotel, the manager Haseda Takeshi (Ihara Tsuyoshi) issues instructions to staff to take care of guest needs as much as possible. Sae and fellow dancers, Takezawa Kasumi (Haru) and Shimano Hikari (Sasamoto Rena), wait for their families to contact them. She focuses on her family and Choco. At the Moritas at that moment, her father Zenko (Taguchi Hiromasa), mother Ayano (Nakahara Kannan) and elder sister Ami (Sato Megumi) are all safe, but a temporary evacuation warning has been issued because of a second earthquake alert. Sae finally gets hold of her family. The next morning, she rushes over to the evacuation centre where they are waiting. However, Choco is not there. Sae dissolves into tears at the memories of Choco. She had always had her family and Choco by her side. It was Choco that cheered her up each time she came back home after she joined Spa Resort Hawaiians and got yelled at by the instructor, Yoshimoto Minako (Kikuchi Momoko), for not being able to dance to her satisfaction, and whenever she had difficult moments. Forced into harsh circumstances because of the earthquake, Sae and the hula girl members grow depressed. But they also believe in resuming their dance and begin to practice with Minako’s encouragement. Meanwhile, taking Hikari’s suggestion, they pay visits to evacuation centres as well as start the Hula Girls National Kizuna Caravan to hold free performances nationwide to cheer up and bring smiles throughout Japan with the hula dance. The hula girls including Sae transform their sorrow and pain into smiles for the sake of Fukushima’s rehabilitation and Spa Resort Hawaiians’ reopening. Like the hula girls 46 years ago, they head to various parts of the country. However, adversity beyond their imagination awaits them.

Fujiwara stars as a man who was in an accident on a snowy mountain 46 years ago. His frozen body is discovered in the present day, and despite being actually 71 years old, he has the appearance and personality of a 25-year-old. He also learns that at his old home in Oshiage, Tokyo, his son is now 52 years old and is raising two children of his own – a 25-year-old son and a 20-year-old daughter.

Episodes: 8

Duration: 22 min.

Ratings: 7.2

Aired On: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday