Shiawase wa Tabete Nete Mate

A very chill food show

The story begins in media res: Mugimaki Satoko was diagnosed a couple of years ago with an autoimmune disorder which is not life-threatening but leaves her chronically fatigued. She has quit her previous, high-stress job at a big, successful company, and is now working part-time at a small, supportive design firm doing the accounting and other administrative tasks. Her current issue is that her savings is dwindling, and she must come to terms with the idea that she'll never be able to own her own place and that she needs to find a cheaper place to live.

She ultimately settles on an apartment in a danchi (large tower blocks built after WWII) where she finds herself living across the landing from her aging landlady, Suzu, who is currently boarding a young free-spirited guy, Tsukasa, who does odd jobs and helps around the complex and goes on long backpacking excursions. Tsukasa and Suzu introduce Satoko to yakuzen, a Japanese form of traditional Chinese cuisine where there is less of a distinction between food and medicine. Satoko finds that she likes the food and hopes it can help her condition, and when Tsukasa refuses to teach her what he knows about it, she finds some books and starts teaching herself.

Over the course of the series, Satoko meets new people around the danchi and makes some friends along the way. She tries some new things and not everything works out the way she hopes as she tries to figure out what her life can be as she lives with her condition. She's a bit afraid of her future in the long-term, but she finds comfort in this ancient approach to eating. She shares what she learns with her friends, but while yakuzen is a healthy approach to eating with an emphasis on plants, it's adherents do not tend to proselytize about it. It very much falls under Michael Pollan's dicta: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants".

There are no major dramatic stakes in this series, and it's very much a slice of a year or so of Satoko's life. She naps, cooks and shares meals with her friends as she grows accustomed to her new life with her condition. Her new approach to her diet does give her a bit more energy to consider what she wants for her future and come up with some new goals as she relinquishes her previous aspirations. By the end, Satoko has come up for a vision for her new life. It's weak tea.

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