Japanese

Viewing a seventy-year-old house five minutes from the Hanaya with Hana asleep in the carrier: the agent says old, but gleaming, Yui hears the stairs creak, Ben hears the doors rattle in the wind, and the agent will have them fixed and go ahead with the contract.

Mr. Fujita introduces Ben to the Nihonbashi office as the new team leader, Ben lowers himself the Osaka way and laughs at his own bows, Ms. Kato notices that Mr. Fujita laughed, and Mr. Okada calls from head office.

The settling-in week at daycare: Ms. Endo says good morning to Hana, Yui checks the hours, Ms. Endo says crying is normal, Ben says she sleeps soundly after her milk, and at pick-up Hana has cried a little, slept deeply and smiled at everyone.

Mr. Ishii, head of the neighbourhood association, is at the door with the circulating notice: he sizes up the Canadian in the old house, Mrs. Tanaka puts in a good word, and Ben is told he will carry the shrine and must not run away.

Tea at the old house: Mrs. Tanaka says Hana is the image of her mother and wonders whether she is crawling already, Maple purrs in the lap of the woman who gave her away, and Ben reports that the cat forgives a baby who pulls her tail.

The evening before the Sanja Festival: Mr. Ishii hands Ben his jacket and tells him to try it on, Kenta shows him how it is worn, Daichi promises a purple shoulder, and Mr. Ishii teaches the call and the shout back.

The festival day: Mr. Ishii's orders under the shrine, Kenta telling Ben to hold it, Ben's legs shaking, Yui shouting from the pavement that Hana is waving, Mrs. Sato remembering Kenta's grandfather at this corner, and Ben worn out but one of the neighbourhood now.

Futsal under the railway with Daichi, Kenta and Sota: Ben is panting after five minutes, blames the shrine and the baby and says he is dead, admits Hana was up at three, learns from Sota that a joke is said with a straight face, and sends him running for two.

Pouring rain on Yui's first day back at the hospital: Ben takes Hana to daycare, the washing won't dry in the muggy house, and he drips into the Hanaya, where Mrs. Sato finds him soaked through and the inn smelling of seventy years of rain.

Kenta and Natsuki bring moving-in soba to the old house: the house is seventy years old, I hear, the stairs talk at night, Natsuki finds it a bit ghost-ish, Hana laughs at Kenta, and Yui and Ben see what everyone sees but Kenta.

Hana, ten months old, says the cat's sound at Maple: Yui had taught her mama a hundred times, Ben says the cat wins, Mrs. Sato on the phone says Kenta's first word was the baby's word for food, and Yui has it written down.

Thirty-six degrees at the Nihonbashi office, the meeting room's air-conditioning broken: Mr. Ueda says the sun is scorching, Ms. Kato has ice-cold barley tea, Ben moves the meeting into the fridge, and the office calls his joke cold, which is just right today.

The Sumida fireworks with Sota and Mio, Kenta and Natsuki, Hana on Ben's shoulders: Sota can't remember which year he wore a yukata, Kenta tells Natsuki she looks normal, Yui repeats the word to Ben, and the big one goes off without Hana crying.

Lunch in the Hanaya's kitchen: Mrs. Sato's egg roll is fluffy, Hana's lunch is mush, Natsuki likes crunchy pickles and hears that Kenta does too, and sticky natto is scary, but whoever eats it gets a second bowl of rice.

Ben tries the classic pun on the Nihonbashi office: a silence, Ms. Hirano asks whether something happened to his futon, Mr. Ueda calls it a dad joke, Ms. Kato says the room went cold, Mr. Fujita gives it a yellow card, and a joke that bombed means lunch is on Ben.

The beach at Kamakura with Riku, seven years after the first surfing lesson: Riku can't believe the man who couldn't stand on a board is a father, Yui says he still can't, Riku offers Hana a lesson in ten years, and Hana eats the dry, fine sand, which Riku says everybody does the first time.

A typhoon at the Hanaya: Kenta needs help with the shutters, the sign is flapping and will blow away, the trains have stopped and the guests can't go home, the daycare closes at two, and Ben's umbrella broke, which makes him still a Canadian in Kenta's eyes.

Ben is master of ceremonies at Mike and Aya's reception: he opens in keigo, says the groom is his junior, Mike says his senior taught him, Aya's proposal came in keigo, Mr. Kimura has lost two teachers, Yui whispers the word not to say, and Ben closes with the right one.

Sota and Mio bring the news to the old house: a job offer, the interview question about his weakness, which he answered with my sister, and Yui's father on the phone with two words that count as a speech.

Ms. Endo reads Hana's day from the daycare notebook: she ate heartily, grizzled a little, slept soundly, held on to the shelf and stood for the first time, and burst out laughing at herself, while her parents were at work, which Ms. Endo says is the rule.

Hana's first birthday at the Hanaya, with Yui's parents up from Kyoto: Mrs. Sato brings the one-measure rice cake, Yui's mother explains what it means, Hana falls, cries and holds on, and Ben says that in Canada it's just cake.

Hana's first birthday goes on with the choosing custom: Natsuki lays out money, a pen, an abacus, a rice scoop and a ball, everyone bets, Yui says surely the pen, and Hana crawls past all of them to the cat.

One day from the front door to the Hanaya's beer: Ben says wait to Hana, humbly to a customer on the phone, hears it as a rough command from Mr. Ishii in the street and as a friend's word from Kenta, with Yui, Ms. Endo and Mr. Fujita along the way.

The women of the Hanaya at the kitchen table: Mrs. Sato asks Natsuki since when, says she has known since the trial day, Yui says of course everyone knows, and the only one who hasn't noticed is Mrs. Sato's grandson, kind and dense; Ben comes in and knows too.

The men at the izakaya: Daichi spots the lunchbox Natsuki made again, Kenta says it's for the staff, Sota counts the staff, Ben tries a careful isn't it that she likes you, Kenta says it's just keigo, and Daichi says there's a limit even to being dense.

Mr. Okada visits the Nihonbashi office: the Tokyo tours are ahead, Mr. Fujita asks if he's being transferred to Osaka, Mr. Okada hits it back in Osaka speech, and Ben gets a lesson in the fool and the straight man, with Mr. Fujita playing the fool.

Mrs. Sato takes Ben to Asakusa's variety hall, where one man on a cushion with a fan and a towel tells the bun story: a man scared of steamed buns eats the mountain his friends bring, and is scared of a cup of hot tea next; Ben hears his first punchline.

The Hanaya's year-end clean: a window left open since summer, the light left on and the till left out, Natsuki noticing everything about the inn, and Kenta's first huh, scrubbing brush in hand.

By the river at night, Kenta asks Ben how he knew, with Yui, that she was the one; Ben didn't know, Mrs. Sato told him, and the count of who knew ends with Kenta, the last, welcomed at this late stage.

The Hanaya's year-end party: Kenta's toast names Natsuki first, Sota tells everyone to write it down, Mrs. Sato wishes for next year for sure, and gives Ben a ticket for the New Year show at the variety hall, where next year he'll be the one telling the story.