Hitomi Honda: "Hokuo Kojirase Nikki" drama, episode four(final) recap

 

 Air Dates: October 5th until the 26th, 2022 on TV-Tokyo at 12:30 am on Wednesdays

Four episodes at ~22 minutes each, subs done by Masssterchief

Main Cast: Very small cast and Hitomi is on screen 100% of the time.

Hitomi Honda as Shimako Ootori.... 23 year old woman who is so smitten by the country of Finland. She's been that way since she was eight years old and as a college freshman Shimako did visit the country. Her whole apartment is like being in Helsinki(!) from the food she eats and how the place is decorated. In the first show Shimako lost her job at a travel agency as it went bankrupt, at the beginning of the second episode began working at a temp company. 

Riku Hagiwara as Hiroto Miyazaki.... Shimako's 25 year old boyfriend who seems like a very serious man and can't understand her fascination with Finland, perhaps no one can!

Hikohiko Sugiyama as Mamoru Fukuda.... Hiring agent/manager at the temp agency Job N. He hired Shimako at the end of the first show and she had no clue why as she seemed to bomb the interview though Fukuda seems to be a bit of a fatherly figure.

Nozomi Hanayagi as Mahiro Saeki.... Shimako's Japanese friend who also is a bit of a Scandinavian fanatic though we don't see enough of her.

Previous recaps: Episode one .... Episode two

 Short series like this usually don't give a rating to and won't be for this drama also. But will say this was one fun show and also very educational, did learn much about the country of Finland and have even started to check out their alphabet, seems Finnish is slightly easier than Japanese. So if you're looking for a fun drama that's a bit different this is definitely a show so would highly recommend it. Hitomi did a fine job in this series and hope to see more acting from her in the future, will be doing some more regular posts for her soon.

 Am currently recapping two other dramas and they both have a ways to go. Their schedule is the same so been doing their recaps only a day or two apart every other week. So what to do in the week when there won't be posts for either show? It's time I got back into Korean dramas, have viewed three this year but never did recap any of them though have done posts for three movies. Am leaning to recapping the series "Gaus Electronics" which ended its twelve episode run today, did view the first show a while ago and that too is one fun drama. Will try to have that soon but have said that in the past, Korean dramas are quite superb but the recaps are 2-3 times as large as ones from Japan.

 Won't need to discuss all that much which took place in the last episode as that's the above post. At the end of that recap made a prediction and was so close to being 100% correct on it!!!! So as you know at the end of the last show our 'heroine' Shimako has a new dream.... to be a sushi chef in Finland! The dream was at first to open a Finnish cafe in Japan which evolved into opening a cafe in Finland where Shimako wants to live and that's been her wish for years. But she doesn't have any unique skills to get a Work Visa or enough money to open a cafe in any country. While looking through the Finnish job ads at the end of the last show Shimako saw an opening for a sushi chef and the ad say they would prefer a Japanese person. So there's Shimako's ticket to Finland though there is one major problem.... she has no clue on how to be a sushi chef! But when Shimako wants to do something there's nothing that can stop her and after checking out how to be a chef she's decided to take a three month night course on learning the skill but to be an excellent chef takes years. 

 So while Shimako did enroll in the course we never once saw her in class nor practicing at home, her diet is still 100% Finnish foods. So that means Shimako will be working five weekdays at Job N and above you can see her telling her boss Fukuda of he grand plans. Then Shimako will continue working at the Mellow Cafe on the weekends to earn more money and learn more about running an eatery. The owner of that cafe Chizuru was the only person who gave Shimako's plan a thumbs up, of course her boyfriend above didn't. He's Hiroto and he looks at things in a practical way, he did tell Shimako it may take up to eight years to become a pro sushi chef which didn't discourage her... too much. But I was wondering how long will that job in Finland remain open? The time in this show is mid September, a three month course would bring us to the end of the year and odds are good the chef job would no longer be available. One other thing during Shimako's chat with Hiroto is that he often wondered why does she have such a fascination with Finland. Shimako couldn't answer that and she did think of an answer during this episode but couldn't come up with one solid reason. It's been the combination of so many things in her life which started when she was eight years old.

 That's Shimako's new friend Mahiro in the top screenshot above and we didn't see enough of her. She was trying to help Shimako out but that was proving difficult, there's not much info on sushi chefs moving to Finland as it's rarely if ever happened. In the second to last screenshot you can see her boss Fukuda explaining to Shimako some of the laws when you travel outside of Japan. For instance a person can only stay in a country for so long unless they're there for a job or schooling. Fukuda did say he would keep Shimako's position open if she returned within three months but does she ever want to come back to Japan?! Shimako's friends in Finland, who she chats with often on a site, are the envy of her. Shimako's best social media friend is Elsa who was telling her about buying a sauna for her apartment, before you knew it so didn't Shimako as you can see above! 

 Arriving stunned on the scene was Hiroto and they did have a key conversation. He knows once Shimako sets her mind on something nothing can change it and said he'll support her move in any way he can. Which brings up another interesting question of mine and a very important one. When a show is only 22+ minutes in length not everything can be discussed or shown. Am wondering when and how did Shimako get her work visa to go to Finland? It's still warm and sunny in Japan so it's no later than mid October so she hasn't finished that sushi course, am curious on exactly what happened. Shimako's lucky streak is continuing as you can see above. Her Finnish friend Elsa will be coming to Japan at the same time Shimako will be staying in Finland, why not switch apartments and save a bundle of money? So the housing worked out perfectly and did gather that Shimako's visit to Finland won't be too long, three months at the most according to her visa.

 Shimako has really come such a long way in a short amount of time. When this series began she had lost her travel agency job and was directionless on how to take control of her future. A person that helped her out quite a bit was Shimako's new boss Fukuda who saw her potential and knew she needed to be introduced to new activities, such as working in an office. Because of that Shimako's life has turned around and if you've read these recaps you know she organized a Scandinavian picnic in the second episode. Above is the crew she met at the picnic, they were at Shimako's apartment to celebrate her (permanent?) trip to Finland. So back to Shimako's life and in this short show she's learned how to work in an office and a cafe, is also learning to be a sushi chef and took all the right steps if she wants her dream of living in Finland to come true.

 Shimako did get a bit tipsy at her going away party but was up bright and early the next morning as it was departure day to Finland!!!! You can see her above and that was only a one minute scene, wasn't far off on my prediction. Which was that we would see Shimako about to board a plane to Finland, in the bottom screenshot she's on her way to the airport. So that ended this mini series and also this recap, enjoyed this drama so much but wish there were a few more episodes. If you're a Hitomi fan would definitely recommend this series and why not a second season to see how Shimako is doing in Finland?! Sounds like a good idea to me and as usual have many screenshots below which help you follow the action better and and you can see many more pics of Finnish food.