This drama is based on a story that ran for 14 years in the Kodansha published weekly manga Morning.
Yoshinori Yanagisawa is an economics professor at International Cultural University. He keeps to the right of the sidewalk when he walks, and doesn't cross the street any place other than a crosswalk. He loves low-cost, great tasting dried fish, and will walk to the end of the earth to get one. No matter what has happened to him during his day, he always goes to bed at 9 p.m.
Today, Yoshinori's day began with an argument with his daughter Setsuko about whether to cross the street at a crosswalk or not. Mrs. Yanagisawa just looked on while both Yoshinori and Setsuko refused to budge from their positions long enough to listen to the other. Setsuko couldn't take anymore, so she got up and left right in the middle of the argument. Even after his heated debate with his daughter, Yoshinori still walked on the right side of the sidewalk, and used the crosswalk on the way to campus.
Always inquisitive, Yoshinori always is ready to do research. Books are his best friends, and today, the book that he has chosen to keep him company is about traffic laws. His argument with Setsuko caused him to try to find out anything and everything there is to know about traffic laws. With book in hand, Yoshinori sets out into the streets. The book states "objects shall not interfere with the flow of traffic." But Yoshinori seems to interpret this a little different than most...As he walks, he finds a high school-aged girl sitting in the street, a bicycle parked in the middle of the sidewalk, and a sign sitting in front of a store that blocks the place where people normally walk. To Yoshinori, traffic laws are being broken everywhere. Unable to overlook this, he gets the young girl's attention and lets her know that she shouldn't sit in the road. Next, he tries to move the sign, but gets the cops called on him by the owner of the store for obstruction of business. Not soon after, people start gathering around to see what is the matter. Yoshinori doesn't let this get to him at all, as he starts asking their opinions about what is right, and what is wrong. At first they just look at him in disbelief, but after a while, they start getting his point and begin to participate in the discussion. In the end, what kind of effect will this have on Yoshinori's family? Stay tuned to see! |