Hitomi Honda: "Hokuo Kojirase Nikki" drama, episode three 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

 Even though this was just a four episode series am going to miss it and wish it was twice as long. Have been learning many things about Finland and now I'm really curious about the place. Food is the main topic we've been learning about but also a few words, phrases and some of the different ways on how they live. The first two recaps were just done a few days ago but still have the links to them above as I won't be referring back too much on what happened and they're not long posts.

 I have been enjoying Hitomi in this drama, don't think she's a terrific actress but these days am beginning to wonder who is? One problem Idols and other actresses have is overacting and going a bit overboard at times. Hitomi's screen presence has been so pleasant, she has this calmful way about her and wouldn't mind seeing her star in some future shows. So on with this recap and haven't viewed the final episode yet which is the next post.

 Once again food is the main theme to this show, not regular food but Coffee. Besides being the happiest people on the planet the Finnish are also #1 in coffee consumption, above Shimako is on a chat room with some of her Finnish friends and is amazed at how much coffee they drink. That's gotten her into the mood to become a connoisseur too as she begins each day with brewing a pot. She starts from scratch too as she grinds her own beans and of course they're from Finland. If you've seen how Japanese brew their coffee it's so much different than here in America. At the end of the last show Shimako had a picnic for other Scandinavian fanatics and that was a smash. She wants those good times with other lovers of Finland to continue but how can that possibly happen?

 Shimako came up with the idea of opening her own Finnish cafe by a lake and that is one longshot dream. Her boyfriend Hiroto didn't help her as he has a way of looking at the practical side of things. For instance he said Shimako has never worked at a restaurant, does she have any idea how to run one? Plus he added in about getting the money, ordering supplies, hiring help, etc. and that was a slap in the face to Shimako. But she hasn't given up on opening a cafe and her friend above Mahiro said she knew a cafe owner looking for weekend help, sadly that was the only scene we saw Mahiro in. So Shimako did inquire about the job and to her surprise she was hired on the spot, the owner is a middle aged lady named Chizuru. As you can see above Shimako said to herself working at a restaurant is not an easy task, didn't help that she was the only waitress! But to her credit Shimako is a fast learner and before long was a top notch waitress though still has so far to go if she wants to open her own place.

 However working at the cafe on the weekends is soon going to catch up with Shimako. During the week she works five days at the Job N staffing company making cold calls to recruit new clients. In the last episode Shimako was really improving at the agency but her work has begun to slip in this episode. Working seven days a week is bound to have an effect, her supportive boss Fukuda noticed the difference in Shimako but kept his mouth shut. Keeping your mouth shut is something Shimako couldn't do as she was constantly yawning all day at the office. Also noticed she's drinking a lot of coffee at the office as she's trying to keep up with her Finnish friend's consumption! Eventually there was a holiday so Shimako finally had a day off and spent it doing zero! That's a common activity in Finland on days off and Shimako seems more like a Finnish person now than a Japanese/

 One thing she did on that day off was to make a few varieties of coffee which you can see above. The Finnish prefer slightly weaker coffee and perhaps that's because they drink it all day long. According to Shimako the Japanese prefer their coffee to be bitter and strong, she did make a cup that included cheese which I had never seen before. Her boyfriend Hiroto did come to spend the day but doing nothing drove him out of his mind! During this quiet day we heard Shimako's thoughts and what she was thinking it's been eons since the two spent the night together!!!! That bottom screenshot above shows the cafe owner Chizuru, name of the place is the Mellow Cafe. One slow day a party of six had tried entering but Chizuru told Shimako to turn them away. She has a rule that parties of six or more are not allowed, even during a slow stretch Chizuru would rather not take their money.

 Chizuru explained her cafe is open for a regular crowd, one that's a bit older and quiet. The group turned away was of young people and even though there was space for them she'd rather save those tables for any regulars who may wander in. At first Shimako didn't understand but those rules did sink in, it also made her think 'Would I turn away anyone at my cafe if they were into Scandinavia?'. So that dream of opening a Finnish cafe by a lake is still the number one thing in Shimako's life but after a while is beginning to realize reality triumphs over her dreams. So if Shimako can't open a cafe in Japan what about opening one in Finland?! She even went as far as asking her boss Fukuda how that would be possible, he said the best plan at first was to move to that country!

 Easier said then done and Shimako began to scour the Finnish want ads, zero luck with that as there's nothing she could do better than someone who already lives there. For once the usually upbeat Shimako was becoming a bit gloomy about her prospects when it seemed the Gods above smiled down on her. She noticed an ad on a Finnish job site looking for a Sushi chef and prefers a person from Japan! So as the episode ended you can see above what Shimako's next plan of action will be, a move to Finland(?) but don't know if she knows the first thing about making sushi. So that story should comprise most of the final episode, will make a prediction which is that we'll see her on a plane at the end of the next show heading to Finland! We'll see if I'm correct and the recap for the final show is the next post.

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.