Cast:Fujisawa Ruri (Narumi Riko)
Kawashima Tatsuya (Takenouchi Yutaka)
Nakama Yuzo (Ogata Ken)
Fujisawa Nao (Nishida Naomi)
Shimabukuro Sanae (Konishi Manami)
Nakajima Mizuki (Igawa Haruka)
The story takes place on a tiny island about 2000km from Tokyo and is one of the archipelago of islands southern of Okinawa. This place is so small that you would need less than 1 hour to finish walking around the coast. On this island, there are no police station, convenience stores, banks or hospitals and other amenities which are readily available in modern Japan. It seems as if the island has been forgotten and forsaken by the rest of the world and the population of 50 inhabitants on this island go about their simple lives at a leisurely pace where you can see cattle roaming around in the fields.
At the centre of this story, is a school which is on the verge of closure due to the lack of students from the small population. A little girl, Ruri, 11 years old comes from urban Tokyo to this island. Her father had died many years ago and her mother, Nao dumped her in the orphanage because she did not want to shoulder the responsibility of bringing up Ruri. In order to get over the sense of betrayal and abandon by her mother, Ruri goes to the island at the persuasion of Yuzo and begins a tale of finding her worth in life and influencing the people around her. She also meets Tatsuya who came to the island on the same day as her who seems to have a very sad past and would not talk about his background...
Preview of Episode 1 - 16 Apr 2005 (2100-2224) 30mins extra version
With a population of 49 adults and 1 child, at the southern end of Japan, there is a small island, Hatomijima whereby you only need less than one hour to walk around the entre island.
On Hatomijima, there are no hospitals, police stations, banks, convenience stores and other modern day amenities. What the island has is countless of beautiful hibiscus and being surrounded by coral reefs.
On such a beautiful island, a problem concerning the island's survival happens. The only child on the island is moving to the city thus the primary school on the island is due to be shut down. Once the school is shut down, Hatomijima will become a deserted island soon as the average age of the inhabitants is 63.5 years and the young have moved to the cities. The islanders start to get flustered and try hard to get their children to move back to the island.
7 days remain before the primary school would be closed. Nakama Yuzo (Ogata Ken) who is going to be 60 soon, decides to ask his daughter, Takako (Junna Risa) to bring her 7-year old child back to the island from Tokyo but she rejects his suggestion. As a result, Yuzo goes to Okinawa to seek a child for adoption but to no avail. However, he is given a suggestion to check out the orphanages to adopt a child which would require the parents/guardian's consent to bring him/her to Hatomijima.
Yuzo happens to meet a 11-year old girl, Fujisawa Ruri (Narumi Ruko) who ran out of the orphanage. She doesn't look like the usual primary 6 student and seems to be more mature than her peers since her father died and her mother dumped her in the orphanage.
Yuzo goes to Ruri's mother, Nao (Nishida Naomi) to seek approval to bring Ruri back to Hatomijima. However, Nao seems to be unconcerned about Ruri and tells Yuzo that he can bring Ruri away and she "doesn't want to restrict her child". In other words, she cannot be bothered about what happens to Ruri. Yuzo is so angry at Nao's nonchalant attitude but Ruri tells him not to be bothered since Nao has always been like that. However, Yuzo's genuine concern for an unrelated person like her touches Ruri and she feels needed for the first time in her life.
Yuzo then brings Ruri to Hatomijima where a stranger, Kawashima Tatsuya also joins them in the same boat...
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