She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat
作りたい女と食べたい女
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Two neighbours, one who cooks and one who eats, fall in love slowly over dinner.
Yuki Nomoto loves to cook. She lives alone in Tokyo and eats very little, so she has never been able to make the huge, heaped dishes she saw in picture books as a child. At work, liking to cook earns her remarks about what a good wife she will make, and she hates them. One evening, after a bad day, she cooks far too much braised pork rice and thinks of the woman two doors along, Totoko Kasuga, whom she has seen carrying home armfuls of fast food. She knocks and offers her dinner. Kasuga, a freelance delivery driver of few words, eats everything with obvious joy. From then on they cook and eat together.
Kasuga grew up in a house where the men ate the best food and the women ate what was left, and at a set-meal restaurant she is given less rice, without asking, because she is a woman. The dinners become gyoza parties, a drive along the coast, a Christmas they plan together. After a colleague's unexpected remark and a dream she has while ill, Nomoto realises that she is a lesbian and that what she feels for Kasuga is love. The first season ends on New Year's morning. Having slept through their plan to watch the first sunrise, the two run to a hilltop park; when Kasuga runs out of breath on the long steps, Nomoto holds out her hand, and they reach the top together as the sun lights the town.
In the second season, in 2024, Nomoto finds a confidante in Yako, a lesbian woman she meets online, and a young woman, Sena Nagumo, who cannot eat in front of other people, moves into their building and slowly begins to face her fear. Kasuga's father finds her address and presses her to come home and look after him. On Valentine's night Kasuga says she is going to move. Nomoto bursts into tears and tells her how much she likes her. Kasuga asks whether she would like to live together, and says she feels the same. Flat-hunting, they learn that many listings accept two tenants only if they are family or a couple planning to marry, and Yako points them to an agency that welcomes same-sex couples. In the last episode their application is approved; they make crab cream croquettes, look back over everything, and moving day arrives.
Starring
Manami Higaas Yuki Nomoto
An office worker who loves to cook but eats little, and who realises that what she feels for her neighbour is love.
Yuki Nomoto’s story
Nomoto is worn down by being told what a good wife her cooking will make her. The night she makes far too much braised pork rice, she knocks on Kasuga's door, and watching her eat, finds the joy of cooking again. After a colleague's unexpected remark, and a dream while she is ill at Christmas, she realises she is a lesbian and that this is love. On New Year's morning she holds out her hand to Kasuga on the steps up to the sunrise. In the second season she confides in Yako, a lesbian woman she met online. When Kasuga says she is moving, Nomoto bursts into tears and tells her how she feels, and Kasuga asks her to live with her. They find a flat through Yako, and moving day arrives.
Emi Nishinoas Totoko Kasuga
Nomoto's neighbour, a freelance driver with a great appetite, raised in a house where women ate last.
Totoko Kasuga’s story
Kasuga speaks little. She clears Nomoto's braised pork rice with obvious joy, and from then on they cook and eat together, from a gyoza party to hand-rolled sushi on New Year's Eve. When Nomoto is laid low by period pain, Kasuga turns up carrying a rice cooker. In the second season her father finds her address and demands that she come home to look after him. Encouraged by a colleague, she rings him and cuts herself off, and decides to move. A new neighbour's question, whether she and Nomoto are together, makes her see what she feels. On Valentine's night, when Nomoto cries and says she loves her, Kasuga asks her to live with her and says she feels the same. They find a flat, and moving day arrives.
Karin Fujiyoshias Sena Nagumo
A young woman who moves into the building in the second season and cannot eat in front of other people.
Rie Tomosakaas Kaname Yako
A lesbian woman Nomoto meets online, who becomes her confidante about love.
Misato Moritaas Chiharu Sayama
Nomoto's workmate, a character written for the drama, to whom she admits that love is hard.
Why it matters
She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat is a love story between two women told almost entirely through dinner, and its politics are in the portions. One woman is served less rice because she is a woman; another was raised to eat after the men; a third is praised for cooking as if it were training to be a wife. Against all that, two neighbours cook what they want and eat as much as they like. NHK told the story in fifteen-minute late-night episodes over two seasons, and the second season takes in a practical reality for a same-sex couple in Japan: many flats that accept two tenants mean family, or a couple about to marry. What it is like to watch is quieter than any argument. Two people learn, very slowly and very politely, to say what they want, and the food is never only food.