Kind of a hard show to describe, watched it without subs but it wasn't as difficult as other shows to follow. It wasn't a drama nor a documentary nor an educational show, actually a bit of a mix of all of them. It's a five part show that started on February 19th on UHB which is a station in Hokkaido, second show just aired a few days ago so will be hunting that episode down, this first show was actually easy to find.
The main theme of the show deals with famous Japanese writers and some of their stories which have to deal with Hokkaido. Nanami was picked as the actress/narrator of the show as she comes from there. This first episode though I don't think had anything to do with the Island, this show was based upon the 1987 book "Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami.
That novel was set in Tokyo at the end of the 1960's, honestly don't think any of the novel was set in Hokkaido plus Murakami was born in Kyoto. Won't go into the novel too much but it's one of the most popular Japanese books form the last 30+ years, read it once many moons ago but forget too much of it. It was one of the coming of age novels with the main characters looking back upon their days in college.
That was kind of the theme in this show as Nanami traveled back to Hokkaido and sort of reminisced about her time growing up there. During the show Nanami carried around a copy of the book and read many passages from it, also commenting about her feelings about returning home. Know she's made a few trips back there but Nogi formed back in the Summer of 2011 so bet she was glad to leave the hustle and bustle of Tokyo for a while and return home.
Nanami didn't visit any major cities but mainly wandered around the country side, stopping occasionally for a bite to eat at a small cafe. Bet one thing she doesn't miss is the snow as there was plenty of it there as you can see in these screenshots. Not 100% positive but think all the shows will follow this same theme of reading a classic novel and comparing it somehow to Hokkaido.
Episode's two and three are based upon another Murakami novel "A Wild Sheep Chase", have no clue about what the book is about. The other two shows are based upon different writers, seeing as how the next two shows are from the same novel will review them at the same time.
Plenty of Nanami screenshots here even though the show only lasted for 23 minutes, couple of Nogi promos aired during the show. No one seemed to know who she was but seemed the few people she did meet were older and probably not much into modern J-Pop.
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