In a quiet mountain town in Kumamoto Prefecture, there's a flight of 3,333 stone steps. Measuring 2.1 kilometers, it's the longest in Japan and takes the average adult about 90 minutes to climb. The steps attract people who want to put themselves through a strenuous challenge for various reasons. One group of university students makes the climb knowing they will go their separate ways after graduation. An elderly beautician takes on the steps with apprentices who are like sons to him. Some visitors go up and down several times a day. With anguished looks and trembling legs, they test their limits. We spent 3 days meeting people going up and down the 3,333 steps.

3333 Stones: Japan's Longest Flight of Steps

Shiga/Kusatsu Giant Parking Area

Farewell to Tsukiji Market: At the Usual Standing Soba Noodle Shop

Hanazono Shrine is located near Kabukicho in Shinjuku. In late November, just before the end of the year, the shrine grounds are bustling with activity. This is the “Tori no Ichi” festival, which attracts 600,000 visitors every year. People purchase rakes symbolizing prosperity and good fortune. As their businesses expand, companies continue to buy larger rakes each year. A self-made businessman says, “It's for peace of mind.” Families entrust their modest dreams to small rakes. Over three days, we listen to the wishes of merchants at this Shinjuku shrine, which has weathered the economic storms.

Shinjuku Hanazono Shrine: Dreams Come True at Night

In a residential area in Koto Ward, Tokyo, is a bakery open 24 hours a day. Their Danish Bread, rich with butter and fresh cream, sells over 1,000 loaves each day. Many people come to buy this bread not only for themselves, but as gifts for others as well. From people sending it as a casual present to friends and family, to businessmen buying it as a thank-you gift, we spend 3 days looking at who buys this sweet, delicious bread.

Christmas at a 24-Hour Bakery

It's midwinter at Tsugaru Strait, where a huge ferry connects the 120 kilometers between Aomori Prefecture and Hakodate, Hokkaido. With showers, a game center and even suite rooms with beds, the spacious ferry can carry 600 passengers. At the end of each year, crowds of people head back to their hometowns on this boat. From a father living away from his family for work, to a couple excited about their new life together, everyone has a different reason for crossing the strait. We spend 3 days traveling between Aomori and Hakodate, and take a look at the stories of the people we meet.

Heading Home on the Strait Ferry

In Tokyo's Takadanobaba district, there is a game center known as “the gamers' holy land.” On weekdays, 500 people visit, and on weekends, up to 1,000 game enthusiasts gather. What catches the eye are the rows of fighting games. Strangers engage in intense battles, and a strange sense of camaraderie fills the store. A salaryman who wants to feel the thrill of “winning or losing.” A woman who says, “The serious battles transcending age and gender are irresistible.” Three days following the unknown battles of gamers.

Legendary Game Center: Adults' Battles

Just a short walk from Asakusa's Kaminarimon Gate, there's a new hotspot that's been getting more and more visitors over the past few years. It's a batting center with a giant glove sculpture as its landmark. For some reason, it's popular with foreigners too, with hundreds of people coming every day to the small space with only five batting cages. A man who visits for health reasons swings the bat at both left and right batting cages, saying, “Even if I miss, it's okay.” Next to him, a group of foreigners experiencing the batting cages for the first time cheer with each pitch. Discovering Cool Japan in an unexpected place, exploring its charm.

COOL! Downtown Asakusa Batting Center

What kind of people and things will you encounter if you take a single flower into town and continue bartering with people you meet by chance for three days? This time, we challenge a “72-hour bartering journey.” A young man aspiring to be an actor brings out a teapot he has used for 10 years. A YouTuber says, “I want to keep doing what I love.” A young man who brought out a brand-new notebook—what was he planning to write in it? The unexpected dramas revealed through bartering. What will he end up with after 72 hours?

Shibuya: Spring Flowers and Bartering

Located near Narita International Airport, Sakuranoyama Park offers visitors close-up views of planes arriving at and taking off from this major gateway to Japan. At times, several hundred people visit the park each day to catch awe-inspiring glimpses of huge aircraft flying overhead. Among the visitors were avid photographers, an elderly man who has never been on a plane, and a man fondly recalling the days when he flew all over the country on business trips. People at the park superimpose their own lives and dreams on the planes flying to distant corners of the world. For 3 days in early spring, a season for new beginnings, we listened to the stories of park visitors gazing at the planes up in the sky.

A Park Where Dreams Take Wing

We followed a rat extermination company in Tokyo. In early spring, they receive as many as 1,000 requests per month and work around the clock to exterminate rats. Calls come in from restaurants in bustling areas, apartments, schools, hospitals, and even temples and embassies. In severe cases, rats chewing on wires can cause phone and internet outages. The “rat problem” is said to be exacerbated by redevelopment projects and vacant housing issues. This report follows the exterminators as they work to address the issue, offering a glimpse into “Tokyo today.”

Metropolitan Rat Patrol

Route 45, a national highway that snakes along the Pacific coast of the Tohoku region, is a vital link between areas devastated by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Starting on the disaster's 7th anniversary, we travel from south to north to meet people living near this road. Over 3 days, we talk to people including an elderly woman taking a break near the spot where her house once stood, and a researcher who moved from Tokyo to study Tohoku's natural environment. Reconstruction is progressing well in some areas, but not so in others. As signs of the long-awaited spring appear, what thoughts are on the minds of residents here?

Lives Along Route 45

This time, the setting is a “legal consultation office.” People with problems they cannot solve on their own rush to the consultation office in Shinjuku, Tokyo. From serious concerns involving money, such as “I am troubled by high charges on the internet but cannot talk to my family about it” and “My relationship with my neighbor has deteriorated due to noise problems,” to domestic disputes. The issues brought to the lawyers reveal the pitfalls of daily life and the fragility of human relationships. Over three days, we examine modern society through the lens of the issues that flood the city.

Street Corner Legal Consultation Office

“Beauty salon delivery” is rapidly expanding. “Visiting beauty services” provide haircuts and perms at the homes of people who find it difficult to go out, such as those in nursing care facilities. Mothers who say, “At least during my time at the beauty salon, I can be selfish,” and elderly people who bring photos from their youth to request their favorite hairstyles. When they see themselves with neatly styled hair, their expressions soften. Despite their aging bodies and daily fatigue, these people wish to be beautiful. This program explores the hope that lies beyond “beauty.”

Traveling Beauty Salon

For 3 days, we follow a library truck stocked with 2,800 books. In Matsuyama City, a public truck service has been delivering books to the surrounding mountains and islands for 45 years. Many locals use this service, including a retired couple looking for new hobbies, elderly islanders full of curiosity to keep learning, and a pair of friends reunited by the truck who now meet there regularly. We explore how books have touched the lives of the people who gather at the library truck.

The Traveling Library Truck

For a few days in spring, the normally quiet fishing town of Toyama Prefecture becomes festive as people gather from throughout the country. Their goal: to await the firefly squid. Around the new moon, when conditions are right, the squid will inundate the coast in massive numbers, covering the nighttime shore in their dazzling pale blue light. With baskets and nets in hand, young and old alike wait in the darkness with determination. Will they see the miraculous sight of the squid? We spend 3 spring days with them, waiting for the arrival of the squid.

A Spring Miracle: The Firefly Squid of Toyama

Nishinari, Osaka, is undergoing redevelopment. In one corner of the town, there is a restaurant that has been open 24 hours a day for over 40 years. The restaurant's selling points are its large portions and its attentive owner and manager. Customers come here to talk about their complaints and worries to the two of them. A male temporary worker who came to Nishinari in search of work. A single mother struggling with childcare. A man who once worked part-time at this restaurant says he hopes his children will also work someday. Human dramas unfold across the small counter.

Osaka, Nishinari: 24-Hour Family Restaurant

Along the national highway near Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, there is an area densely packed with pachinko parlors. Inside, rows of low-cost pachinko machines, such as “1-yen pachinko,” line the floors. A 70-year-old woman who moved in with her son's family after the earthquake but started playing pachinko because she felt uncomfortable at home. A man job-hunting who says, “Pachinko doesn't require talking to people.” Some spend the day in the rest area without even approaching the machines. The world of pachinko, incomprehensible to outsiders. Listening to the whispers amid the clamor.

The Joys and Sorrows of 1-Yen Pachinko

Sales at department stores have been sluggish in recent years, but the stores' cosmetics sections are providing a ray of light with their robust growth. In 2017, sales at these sections jumped 17% from the previous year and topped 500 billion yen. Each day, about 2,000 customers buy their preferred makeup products at one long-established department store in Nagoya offering an array of famous brands. These customers include an 88-year-old company executive who never goes without makeup, a young woman setting on a new path in life by changing her job and her makeup, and an art dealer who considers cosmetics to be a vital part of her "combat uniform" worn during business battles. How do women want to present themselves and to be seen? For 3 days, we watched the customers quietly – but excitedly – finding their ideal makeup.

The Women on the Cosmetics Floor

Akita's secret hot spring, Tamagawa Onsen, is said to heal various illnesses. Upon entering, a barren landscape of rocks unfolds, with steam and hydrogen sulfide gas emanating from various points. Many of those who visit here are cancer patients undergoing treatment. People from across the country spend about a week here for rock bath therapy. Their expressions and conversations carry a certain brightness. Having come to this place to heal their illnesses, they eventually confront the question of “why and for whom they live” through repeated visits.

People Gathering at Akita's ‘Hot Spring of Life’

A gym in a residential area of Tokyo offers classes for a slightly unusual activity where going backward is actually a sign of progress - doing backflips. These lessons are becoming increasingly popular among children, housewives, and company employees who drop by to master their technique after work. Among the people at this gym are a man in his 40's who has long admired Jackie Chan and a young woman who hopes doing backflips might give her cosplay photos a stylish edge. For 3 days, we spoke to people determined to find out if doing a complete backflip will also help their lives take a turn for the better.

Flipping Backward, Looking Forward

The Japanese Derby is an annual race that draws over 100,000 spectators. Many fans start lining up near the entrances to Tokyo Racecourse several days – the first ones more than a week – before the race, which lasts just two and a half minutes. Among those lining up are a man for whom the racetrack brings back happy memories of his late wife, and a man who recently quit his job due to office politics. As the clock ticks down to the race, a special sense of unity develops among those waiting in line. What do they think about, and how do they spend their time, during the tremendously long wait?

The Race Before the Japanese Derby

We cover an old hospital, built in the year of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, as it moves to a new building. The new hospital is only 250 meters away, but to ensure treatment is uninterrupted, all patients must be moved in a single day. What's more, the movement of beds and medical machines must also follow a tight schedule, transferred to the new building one truckload at a time. In preparation for this day, the doctors and nurses started holding meetings over 6 months before. Just how will this massive project turn out?

The Great Hospital Move

In June, a long-established department store beloved by the local community in Nagoya closed its doors after 75 years of history. Once the largest department store in western Japan in terms of sales floor area, it had fallen on hard times after the bubble economy collapsed. Regular customers lamented the closure of the store they had grown accustomed to. Meanwhile, many employees were left with uncertain futures, harboring mixed feelings. Most customers described the store as “friendly,” and for citizens, it was “a place that had always been there.” We follow the final three days leading up to the closure, as the store prepares to close its doors.

Goodbye! My Beloved Department Store

In a corner of a major industrial zone on Tokyo Bay sits a park from which people can fish at any time of the day or night. More than 20 kinds of fish, including horse mackerel and sea bass, can be caught from the waterfront park, which attracts fishing fans around the clock. Among the people who come to drop a line in the water are a shipyard worker from the Philippines, a freelance illustrator hoping to catch a big fish with her brand-new fishing rod, and a young man who has worked in construction since he was a teenager to support his family and dreams of becoming a photographer. For 3 days in July, as Tokyo sweltered in record-breaking heat, we asked the people at this park about why they went fishing there.

Hooked on Fishing in Tokyo Bay

It is 780 meters long, dead straight and has few distinguishing features, but the undersea pedestrian tunnel running 60 meters underneath the Kanmon Straits in southwestern Japan attracts a steady stream of visitors. Many people use the tunnel to travel between Fukuoka Pref. and Yamaguchi Pref., but others have different purposes in mind. The visitors are diverse: from a woman in her 20's who brought her boyfriend to the tunnel that is filled with childhood memories, a man who comes to secretly train for a marathon, to a woman who walks there every week with old friends no matter how busy she is. What draws them to this nondescript tunnel that remains unchanged, day after day? We spend 3 days looking at who walks through this underground passage.

The Sight Beyond the Undersea Tunnel

Coast Guard officers protect Japan's maritime security. They enforce regulations against illegal fishing and sometimes rescue people from danger, acting as the “police of the sea.” The school that trains these officers is the setting for this program. At the academy in Maizuru, Kyoto, more than 500 men and women between the ages of 18 and 25 live together in a communal setting. These young people train rigorously day and night. A teenager who has dreamed of becoming a Coast Guard officer since childhood. A woman who is working hard to overcome her dislike of swimming. At the end of July, when long-distance swimming training takes place, we get a glimpse into the lives of the “Sea Monkey” candidates.

Coast Guard Academy

Shimbashi, Tokyo, where office workers thrive. When they need refreshment, they head to a local, long-running juice stand. Ingredients range from peach and watermelon, to turmeric and aloe. Over 150 customers come each day, seeking colorful juice made with seasonal fruits and vegetables. A businessman rushes in before a negotiation, a woman in her 30's comes by to care hungover. Another man, in his 70's, has been a regular customer since before he retired. We spend 3 days in this oasis, listening to the thoughts of people who come here for a break.

Surviving the Summer With Fresh Juice

Our stage this time is a remittance office in Okubo, Tokyo, where 40% of the population is international. Foreign workers visit this office in an endless stream, where money can be sent to 150 different countries for a fee of about 1,000 yen. An Indonesian woman sends tuition money for her sister's children, while a man from Africa transfers money to fly his son in to live with him. We listen to customers' stories as they send money, and love, to the people they hold dear.

From the Remittance Office with Love

On September 16, the “Princess of the Heisei Era,” Namie Amuro, retired. At the fashion building in Shibuya once known as the “holy land of Amura,” a special shop opened, attracting large crowds of fans every day. Many of them were women in their 30s and 40s. Even those who once wore platform boots now lead busy lives juggling work and childcare. A former Amura nurse and single mother raising two children. What kind of lives have these women, who say they were inspired by Amuro-chan, led?

To Shibuya, the ‘Holy Land of Amura

About 5 million people visit Hakodate in Hokkaido Prefecture, but in recent years this picturesque northern city has become known for another down-to-earth attraction: a hamburger restaurant that offers huge servings. Its unique hamburgers include fillings such as deep-fried chicken and crumbed pork cutlets. Many customers who come for a hearty lunch get so full that they do not need to eat dinner. Although Hakodate often tops surveys of attractive places to visit, the city also suffers from a falling population and high unemployment rate. For 3 days, we asked customers at this restaurant that has been loved by locals for decades about what they define as happiness

Hakodate's Hamburgers of Happiness

Each day, more than 1.8 million people pass through Tokyo Station. For 50 years, the Gin-no-suzu (silver bell) waiting area inside the station has been a popular landmark and a favorite spot to meet up with others. Countless reunions and farewells take place under this huge bell that adorns the center of the waiting area. The people waiting there include a group of elderly men who meet there on each other's birthdays before heading off to celebrate, and far-flung fans of a pop band who met online and are going to a concert together. But for some, finding Gin-no-suzu inside the sprawling station is not so easy and rendezvous plans do not work out as expected. For 3 days, we talked to the people waiting at this iconic spot -- and to the people they were meeting.

Tokyo Station: Meet Me at the "Silver Bell"

Last month, Tsukiji Market closed its doors after 83 years of history. The setting is a standing soba noodle shop located on a street outside the market. Despite the early morning darkness, the shop is packed with people. Men working at the market are slurping down soba noodles in preparation for the upcoming auction, heading off to work. Some have lived in Tsukiji for years, while others have ended up there for various reasons. What kind of place was Tsukiji Market for these workers? Over the final three days, we listen in at a nearby soba shop.

One hour by car from Osaka toward Nagoya and Tokyo. The stage is the Shiga/Kusatsu Parking Area, which boasts the largest parking space in western Japan. With facilities such as a 24-hour food court, gas station, and coin-operated showers, approximately 10,000 people stop here every day to take a break. Young people repeatedly hitchhike in search of “something.” A man returning home after 30 years... People with various circumstances along the way. Where do they come from, and where are they heading?

Our stage this time is one of the largest home centers in Japan, located in a suburb east of Tokyo. From daily necessities to building and gardening materials, every product imaginable can be found here. A couple with a shared love of DIY (Do It Yourself) pick out lumber to rebuild a fence destroyed in a typhoon. Meanwhile, a woman working in rehabilitation looks for materials to make a device to help a patient. We listen to the stories of these people as they attempt to improve their lives through DIY.

The DIYers of the Suburban Home Center

The stage is set at a workwear store in Hiroshima frequented by craftsmen from various industries. The store offers sturdy, user-friendly tools and denim workwear, which is currently popular. A man who runs an interior design company orders workwear embroidered with his company name and name. “The embroidery on the chest serves as my business card,” he says. While a veteran struggles with labor shortages at construction sites, a young person from a completely different industry has chosen the path of carpentry. In an era where “how we work” is being questioned, we asked those who sometimes face danger while working, “What does it mean to work?”

Hiroshima Workwear Store

An unusual documentary series that delves into human dramas through chance encounters with ordinary people at selected spots. Filmed over 72 hours in a single location, the show captures glimpses into people's lives as they open up and share their stories.

3333 Stones: Japan's Longest Flight of Steps

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Season 9 Episodes34

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