Rating: 10/10*
*Personal opinions towards storyline and actors/actresses factor into the rating. Don’t take it too personal if a drama you liked/disliked has a rating you don’t agree with.
If you’re looking for a drama that has a nice little slice-of-life feel to it, I’d recommend this underrated drama a lot. (Underrated in the English-speaking J-Drama enthusiasts community at least, I haven’t seen it mentioned before). The situation the Yamashita couple goes through, however, isn’t exactly one that people normally experience. It involves the husband getting duped into a business scheme where he ends up taking a hefty loan to start a bed and breakfast. On the other hand, his wife is an employee for the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare so it’s a shock when her own husband gets duped when her whole job is making sure businesses are taking care of their employees and vice-versa.
We get to see how Mr. Yamashita deals with the situation and how he turns the negatives into positives when dealing with the company that manages the property. The foreigners who stay in his B&B learn about Japanese culture during their stay and leave an impression on Mr. Yamashita as well. Not everything is rainbows and sparkles though. When Mrs. Yamashita gets wind of her husband taking out a huge loan (and doing something else that she wasn’t informed about), tensions get high and we see whether or not they’re able to reconcile.
The drama looked like something that could happen to any entrepreneur who wanted to take a risk, and there weren’t any over the top storylines or scenes that were highly unnecessary to the plot. The acting was great and it was nice seeing Hirofumi Arai (Mr. Yamashita) again after I watched him in モテキ (Moteki) several years back! Kuroki Meisa (Mrs. Yamashita) is also a phenomenal actress whom I’ve seen in a few other dramas too and she brings back her good acting to this drama too! So give this a watch whenever you can!
Journey To Japan 