Well, you already know my secret - that I am addicted to Japanese dramas. Recently I watched all 10 episodes of Hotaru no Hikari. The story revolves around a 24 year old office worker, Hotaru, who is neat and professional at work, but messy and grungy at home. She drinks canned beer, eats random crap from convenience stores, rolls around on the floor a lot and sleeps under newspapers. She is boarding in a cute old-style Japanese house, thanks to a drunken agreement with the house's owner some time ago. Little does she know, that the house's owner is actually her bosses father. So when her boss separates from his wife and returns to his family home, there is some shock involved for both parties concerned. The two then decide to live together in the house, but keep it a secret from everyone else at work.
There are several really annoying parts of this show that almost put me off watching the whole thing. Hotaru can be really annoying at times with the random female babbling, but what kept me going was the strong supporting cast. Hotaru works in the interior-design department of a Tokyo Building company. The 10-15 people working in this department are like family to each other, and there are plenty of jokes between them are good for kicks.
When I watch these J-dramas, I am always reminded of how different some aspects of Japanese culture are to Australian culture. Take for instance: HUGGING. In Japan, if you HUG a member of the opposite sex, it's basically saying: "I like-like you". Hugs tend to happen AFTER the couple gets together as a couple. So when a guy suddenly hugs a girl, it's a HUGE deal! Here in Australia, I tend to hug people a lot. It's often my greeting or farewell for friends, whether male or female. I am trying to remember if I hugged any male friends in Japan because it may have confused them! Hahah I definitely hugged many of my female Japanese friends and that may have taken them by surprise because even same-sex friends don't really seem to hug!. Sure, they'll take naked baths together, but they won't hug!
Anyway, here is a short compiled video of Hotaru no Hikari. Ignore the kind of annoying music, and you will get an impression of what this drama is like. Another good point about this drama, is that it has plenty of every-day contextual/situational workplace/social Japanese language, so I will definitely be watching it again to try and pick up some phrases.
1 comment:
You can stream it directly through mysoju.com - See my link above.
Quality's not great but it's watchable and you don't need to bother with downloading.
xo
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