(Home and Away)
Number of Episodes; TBA
Beginning October 7, 2002
Links: English page, Japanese page.
Japanese episode synopses: Link 1, Link 2
This is the story of a woman who sets out on a trip with a friend one month before her wedding day. As a result of being caught up in one freak accident after the other, she is unable to return home. This woman, driven by emotion, meets many people on her journey, and touches the hearts of each one.
In December, just a month away, the heroine of this story Kaede is to be married. Her husband-to-be is an elite businessman. The two of them are just as happy as can be.
Kaede has a problem though...she hasn't talked to her father in 10 years. When her mother suddenly fell sick 10 years ago, her father was too busy with work to go to the hospital. That night, her mother passed away. Furious at her father for not being at her mother's side at her time of need, Kaede let him have it after he arrived at the hospital just before dawn. Because of her father's negligence, Kaede hasn't laid eyes on him since the Buddhist ceremony held seven days after her mother's passing. Even with all that has happened, her brother insists that this is all water under the bridge and that she should invite their father to the wedding.
Although it doesn't appear that way, Kaede is actually a very kind-hearted person, who can't turn people down when they come to her for help. She is also sentimental, gets flustered easily, and is really bad with directions.
After suddenly being caught up in several freak mishaps on the way home from a trip, Kaede finds herself stranded in all sorts of unfamiliar places throughout the country. She meets many people along the way; some ask for help, some are in pain, and others sad. Seeing this, Kaede begins to help them, and brings a little more happiness to the lives of each one. To those that she comes in contact with, Kaede is like an angel, who leaves after her deed is done. But to Kaede, it is not like that-all she wants to do is go home.
Kaede's experiences help her to find her "real self," which makes her grow as a person.
By Micah Sittig (mistakes and omissions are mine!)
I watched the second episode of Home & Away tonight. Kaede had set sail to Tokyo on a boat, but at the beginning of this episode she lands shipwrecked on a desert island. She crosses through the island, only to discover that it is truly deserted. Carving out a big SOS on the sand, she can do nothing but settle down to sleep for the night. She is awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of a motorboat, and discovers a group of five girls sneaking into Japan illegaly with the help of a smuggler. She is wearing her Chinese souvenir clothes because her real clothes got wet, so she tries to pass as one of the girls. This is her plan to get off the island. But at that moment, a police-boat comes by, catches them and takes them all to jail!
After arguing with the policemen (who think she is Chinese) for hours, Kaede remembers that her passport was in her bag, so she shows it to the policemen and they go off to check it. She goes and sulks in the cell with the other girls. The policemen come back and apologize. She is let go, and finds out that she is in some place far away from Tokyo. At the bus station she buys a ticket, but her bus is postponed/lost/delayed(?) until the morning. Looking for a place to pass the night, she finds an empty traditional Japanese bar tended by a cold-hearted man in a yukata. As she eats and drinks some warm sake, a drunk young man enters the bar and begins to bother her. She pushes him away, and he exits in a huff. Suddenly, the bartender takes off (oh, if only I could understand Japanese!) for some unknown reason, but she has his permission to stay at his place that night. After he has left, a friend of the bartender comes by and has a heartfelt talk with Kaede. He leaves.
Upstairs, she finds a little boy asleep. She falls asleep sitting next to his bed, and he wakes her up in the morning. As she runs out the door to catch her bus, the kid demands breakfast. In a change of heart, she stays to fix him some vittles and see him off to school. By this time, she has missed the bus. So she wanders around town, stops by the police station, but they will/can(?) do nothing for her. At a local park, she finds the little boy, who is not in school! He says he has problems with bullies, so she marches to the schoolyard with him in tow to confront the bullies. She pretends to be his mom, reluctantly, but settles the conflict.
That night, businessmen come to the bar to have dinner. Kaede tries to shoo them away, but they insist that she make them dinner. All of the sudden, the young man who bothered her the night before shows up with his father. The father is very angry, maybe the young man told him a made-up story. Kaede sticks up for herself, speaking some strong words. As part of her speech, she says that she is the mistress of the bar. The father of the young man, realizing what happened, apologizes and drags his son off. The businessmen, pointing out that Kaede had said she was the bar-mistress, again playfully demand dinner. So she goes into the back and put on a kimono, and makes some fantastic dishes, wowing the customers.
The next morning, she scolds the boy for not being ready for school. He reminds Kaede that today is Saturday. Embarassed, she tells him to eat breakfast and they will go to the fish market. At the fish market, the boy leads her around the tells her what fish to buy. Kaede is slightly annoyed that people think she is his mother, but gets used to it. Kaede sees some delicious looking mollusks and intends to buy them, but the boy says they are expensive and takes her down to the pier where he dives into the water and catches his own mollusk. They sit together to watch the sunset and the young kid scoots closer to her. Kaede is like his mother, and she is happy with that.
My memory is getting fuzzy about what happens next, but the father (bartender) shows up and is nicer to his son. The boy cries and chases after the truck when the father's friend takes Kaede aboard his truck to head to Tokyo. She falls fast asleep, and wakes up thinking she has met another disaster. But she is still in the truck and they are in Osaka!
THE END