Saito Yuki to star in new NHK drama "Yamaonna Nikki ~ Onnatachi wa itadaki wo mezashite ~"

Saito Yuki will be starring in the new NHK drama "Yamaonna Nikki ~ Onnatachi wa itadaki wo mezashite ~" (Mountain woman's diary ~ The women aim for the summit) which will begin its run from 6 November at 10pm on Sundays. The drama which consists of 7 episodes, is based on the novel "Yamaonna Nikki" by Minato Kanae and features the booming trend of women climbing mountains as a hobby and the issues and feelings they have.

In reality, Saito is also a Yamaonna as she is the main MC for NHK's BS1 programme "Jissen! Nippon Hyakumeisan" showing on Saturdays at 5pm which introduces the charm of the mountains in Japan. She has also scaled mountains considered to be difficult to climb thus her experience will be useful for this drama.

In the drama, Saito plays a woman named Tachibana Yuzuki who is around 40 and has just taken on a job as a mountain climbing guide. While on her first solo guide job to climb Mount Myoko and Mount Hiuchi, she meets the female members in her group i.e. Yumi (Uehara Takako) and Ritsuko (Mabuchi Erika) who work in a departmental store and Mitsuko (Minamino Yoko) who works in a welfare facility. With various reasons and issues, these first-time climbers try to scale the mountains while led around by the nose by Kijima (Kikawada Masaya) who is Yuzuki's senior but younger than her. Co-stars include Nukumizu Yoichi, Iida Kisuke, Natsuna, Katase Rino and Hagiwara Masato.

Source: Oricon