Japanese

At the Hanaya's kitchen table, Kenta asks Ben a big favour with the set phrase for one, the friends' speech at the reception, Ben says he didn't promise, Mrs. Sato says Kenta practised the sentence for three days, and Ben accepts the Japanese way: gladly.

At the Hanaya's front desk, Ben asks Natsuki about the speech: a speech has three parts, the opening, the story and the wish, and there are words a wedding forbids, cut, part, go back and end, each with a word that stands in for it.

Late at the flat's kitchen table, Ben reads Yui the first draft of the speech: the humble self-introduction of a speaker, the groom's friend, Ben, with no title, and the years counted since he first met the groom, while Yui asks where he met her and says to put it in.

In the Hanaya's kitchen in the morning, Mrs. Sato reads the draft and gives her opinion kindly: it might be better to make it shorter, by half, and it is a little too polite, while Kenta shouts from the corridor that the story about the rehearsal is not allowed.

At the family grave in Kyoto at Obon, with Hana on Ben's back, Yui's mother tells Grandfather that Hana is two, Yui's father tells Ben to speak for himself, and Ben looks back on seven years in Japan and forward to the years to come, before the cucumber horse and the aubergine ox explain why the family goes home slowly.

At the Yamamotos' table at Obon, Aunt Fumiko tells Ben in Osaka speech that he is a real Japanese now, asks when the second baby is coming, and gets the company's hedge, we'll consider it, which she knows is a no: Ben learned it from an aunt from Osaka.

At the Hanaya's desk, Natsuki reads the Japanese side of the wedding invitation in its written style, we humbly request the favour of your attendance, Ben checks the English side, Kenta says Ben's parents will watch from Toronto on a screen, and asks what a groom calls the bride's father.

At the flat's letterbox, Yui hands Ben a postcard from immigration: permanent residence, granted, collect the card within two months, so he no longer has to renew and can stay for good, and Kenta, his guarantor, rings to ask whether he guaranteed the right man.

In the rakugo circle's room after practice, the teacher makes Ben read only the story part of the speech, the proposal Kenta practised on him, and shows him where the pause goes and how the turn works: just when they think it's a joke, make it kind.

At the flat, with Hana and Maple as the audience, Yui times the speech at three minutes while Ben opens it with the set phrase, introduced just now, prays for the couple's long happiness, and closes it humbly without the forbidden word, with this, I close my words of congratulation.

The night before the wedding, in the Hanaya's big room, Natsuki's parents from Hokkaido meet Kenta's side: her father says the set phrase of an unworthy daughter, Kenta answers with the set phrase of an unworthy son-in-law, her mother asks which guest is the Canadian who bows too deep, her father says not at all in Hokkaido speech, and Kenta asks if he may call him Father from tonight.

At Asakusa Shrine beside Sensoji, the priest asks the groom to read the oath, Kenta reads it in the written style, we the two of us hereby swear, in health and in sickness, while Ben and Yui whisper in the seats about who shook more, and then the three cups, three times, in small sips.

The Hanaya's big room, the reception: Mike, master of ceremonies, introduces himself humbly and asks the room to rise, Natsuki's father raises the toast, Mr. Okada says see, like I said in Osaka speech and that in Osaka the boss is always right, and Mike seats the room and calls the friend's speech, before the meal.

Ben at the microphone in the Hanaya's big room: the set opening of a speech, introduced just now, the story of the proposal Kenta practised on him, Kenta's you promised and Ben's I didn't promise across the room, the punchline that all of Asakusa was relieved, Natsuki's correction, and the wish for a long and happy life.

The end of the reception: Natsuki reads her letter to her parents, plainly, thank you for raising me all these years, and says the one year in Tokyo became five; her mother tells her to come home at New Year and bring him; Kenta thanks his grandmother for raising him and the inn and tells her to rest, and Mrs. Sato says she will rest at a hundred.

The Hanaya's desk, the morning after the wedding: Ben thanks Natsuki for yesterday with the formal word, she answers thanks to you, Kenta says the guests are still talking about the rehearsal, Natsuki reads out the gift money with its odd-number rule, Mr. Okada's thirty thousand and the president's fifty with a note, and Kenta says come tonight, there is cake left and nobody said cut.

The Hanaya's kitchen door, in whispers: Kenta says Grandma turns eighty on Saturday and wants no party, Natsuki says eighty is the umbrella age and its colour is gold, Yui says they will do it so that she doesn't notice, at three during her nap, Kenta lists everyone to call, Natsuki says quietly, she hears everything from the kitchen, and Mrs. Sato says from the kitchen that she hears everything.

The Hanaya's big room at three o'clock: Ben wishes Mrs. Sato a happy eightieth, she says she knew, since Tuesday, and then one line each from the people of every level, Mr. Mori with his ramen, Mrs. Tanaka the old neighbour, Riku from Kamakura, Daichi with the futsal team, before Mrs. Sato says eighty is nothing, see you all at ninety, and Ben promises.

The party, with Emma on a screen from Toronto: Ben thanks Mrs. Sato respectfully, thanks to your opening the door seven years ago he has a family here, and she read his first speech and this one; she says she read it this morning and it is still too long, Yui says she cut it in half again, Emma thanks her for her brother, Mrs. Sato invites her at New Year with her parents, and Ben raises the toast, eighty years and one inn.

The Hanaya's kitchen, late, after the party: Mrs. Sato tells Ben to leave the plates, then to dry them, because he is family; Ben says she told him seven years ago to come back any time, and he came; she remembers the days when he said thank you to the rice, he says it feels like yesterday, she says his Japanese has become warm, and asks if he will stay, not this year, for good.

At the immigration counter, the officer calls number thirty-two and hands Ben his permanent residence card: no time limit as long as he is in Japan, however the card itself is renewed once every seven years, a stay abroad of more than a year needs a re-entry permit, and two weeks in Toronto at New Year is within a year and needs nothing.

Monday morning at Tsubame Travel's Asakusa office: Mr. Kudo reports that the Hanaya is full on the twentieth of December, Ben asks him, softly, to check the Tsukiya in Kyoto for him, hears his own hedge come back from his junior and names it, then Mrs. Hayashi rings from Osaka about the card and gives him the Asakusa office for good.

Five o'clock at the daycare gate: Miss Endo tells Hana's father that Hana was singing all day, the cat song with her first word in it, that she ate everything, as the notebook says; Ben has Hana wave bye-bye, and says her mother comes to pick her up tomorrow.

The ramen shop on the corner: Mr. Mori asks the two of them if it's the usual, Ben says seven years, same seat, Mr. Mori remembers when Ben ordered with his fingers, Kenta says he orders for everyone now, Mr. Mori asks the newlywed if he's the same as ever, and Kenta has a rule to keep: home by nine on Tuesdays, so no egg, no time.

Saturday at the Hanaya's desk: Sota has his first winter bonus and is thinking of proposing to Mio next year, Mio can hear every word, Sota asks his brother-in-law how he did it and how Kenta did, Ben says on a bridge in Kyoto, and Kenta practised on him first, Mio says that's the tradition, and Sota decides not to.

Sunday night in the flat, the chart still on the fridge: Yui is on nights Tuesday and Friday, so Ben will have dinner done, she asks him to do the bath on Wednesday and he says leave it to me, Thursday he is in Kyoto, and the chart he made four years ago is Maple's seat now, so they just talk, as they have for seven years, mostly in Japanese.

Sunday morning on a screen from Toronto: Emma asks for their parents whether Ben is never coming back now that he has the card, Ben says it is not that he won't come back, it is that this is home, Emma will tell them and they will cry a little, Ben says they all come at New Year, Yui reminds Emma that her father promised Yui's father a fish, and Emma says a frozen lake at five, and that his Japanese is better than her English now.

The Hanaya's lounge: Mike has two things to tell his senior, he passed N2 and the second is due in May, Ben says congratulations and tells Aya to take care of herself and Mike to take care of Aya, Mike asks how a father says no in Japanese, Ben says he doesn't, he says we'll consider it and then does it, Aya says the keigo was her and that was Ben, and Ben says all of it came from an aunt in Osaka.

The river at Asakusa on an evening walk, Hana asleep in the pushchair: Yui asks what Ben could say on this river seven years ago, hello, thank you and I'm Ben, and now he gives speeches, which he never thought he would do in Japanese; she asks what he would tell the man with the backpack, go in, say your name, thank the rice, and from now on, they live here, and that's all, and that's everything.

An autumn evening in the street outside the Hanaya: a young traveller with a backpack asks Ben, slowly, where the Hanaya is, Ben asks respectfully if he is lost and says the Hanaya is this way, the traveller says his Japanese is only a little, Ben says so was his, seven years ago he got lost right here, and everyone starts like that, and Kenta opens the door to tonight's guest.