Fleeing heartbreak in the big city, Ichiko returns to Komori, her rural hometown. She battles summer's rain and humidity, bakes her own bread, grows hothouse tomatoes and tills the fields. During autumn, the time for pickling and preserving fish and sweet potatoes, Ichiko begins reaping rice and recalls her departure five years before.
Kosuke is 31, and tired of his hometown where nothing happens. On a whim, he departs for New York with dreams of making it big. 6 months later, he straggles home... defeated, and saddled with debt. Awaiting him are his old friends, a caring sister, a disgruntled father ...and a bowl of noodles. Namely, "udon" noodles. The town is built around udon, sustained by udon, nationally famous for udon.
An American woman is stranded in Tokyo after breaking up with her boyfriend. Searching for direction in life, she trains to be a râmen chef under a tyrannical Japanese master.
Masato is a young ramen chef in Japan. When he finds his late mother's journal after the sudden death of his emotionally distant father, he takes it with him to her native country, Singapore, hoping to piece together the story of his family and his life.
Ichiko bakes a cake for an end-of-year party with her friends. In the depths of winter, making mochi and curry keeps the people of Komori warm. Later, spring brings thoughts of her absent mother as well as rice planting and sakura, and she begins to think of leaving Komori behind again.
The master of a dorayaki pastry store hires a 76-year-old woman whose talents attract customers from all over. But she's hiding a troubling secret. Life's joys are found in the little details, and no matter what may be weighing you down, everyone loves a good pastry.
Shin-chan and his friends must overcome hunger and other obstacles when they're tasked with delivering a barrel of legendary sauce to a food festival.
Revered sushi chef Jiro Ono strives for perfection in his work, while his eldest son, Yoshikazu, has trouble living up to his father's legacy.
On a quiet street in Helsinki, Sachie has opened a diner featuring rice balls. For a month she has no customers. Then, in short order, she has her first customer, meets Midori, a gangly Japanese tourist, and invites her to stay with her.
When eight men are assigned to live 14,000 kilometers from home in inhumanly cold conditions, food becomes their new existence.
The Master’s late-night diner welcomes a woman troubled by funeral fans, an elderly scam victim, and a noodle delivery man struggling with love.
A restaurant opens at midnight. Both the menu offerings and personality of the owner draw a series of flawed patrons including Tamako, whose boyfriend has passed away, live-in worker Michiru, and ruckus-raising Kenzo.
Kazuki Suzumoto is divorced and he lives with his 15-year-old son Kouki. Kouki is in a susceptible time. The father feels guilty about his son. Kouki then fails his high school entrance exam. In the spring of the following year, Kouki barely passes his high school entrance exam. Kouki mentions to Kazuki that he likes his father's lunch box. The father and son make a promise to each other. Kazuki promises that he will make a lunch box everyday for Kouki. Kouki promises that he will never skip school.
An overworked career woman leaves her life in the city for an island vacation only to encounter eccentric local inhabitants.
After a bad breakup, a young woman returns to her hometown and opens a menuless restaurant. A young woman in her mid 20's becomes so heart broken she loses her voice. To recover, the woman decides to go back to her hometown and stay with her free-spirited mother whom she has not been very close to in the past. The young woman then decides to open a restaurant which accepts only one customer a day, allowing for thoughtful preparation for that customer.
A couple decide to relocate from Tokyo to the northern island of Hokkaido where they settle and establish a bakery and café called Mani. One cooks. The other bakes. Everyone walks out happy.
Baian Fujieda, an assassin for hire, got an unusual job from his usual fixer to end up with an unexpected twist of destiny from the past.
Maki Eda works for an advertising agency at a large company. She is a single and doesn't have good luck with men. She also isn't very good at cooking and likes eating junk food. One day, she meets Nagisa Katayama. He is an art teacher and a vegetarian. Unlike Maki, Nagisa cooks very well. The two people then happen to live together. Maki realizes that she is in love with Nagisa, but Nagisa is gay. Through his cooking, they solve their own problems and become important to each other.
Every day, people would queue for over two hours for a bowl of ramen. What’s the celebrated chef’s secret ingredient? There is no secret ingredient. In fact, as most fans of Taishoken believe, it’s the charisma of owner Kazuo Yamagishi that attracted people from all around Japan to his modest shop. His personality and love for his craft, combined with a precise mélange of flavours, combined to create perfection in each ramen bowl. This heart-warming documentary is not just for noodle fans, but for anyone who loves to be inspired by passionate people.
Leo, a young Japanese college student, travels to Hawaii and eventually falls in love with Maray, an older Japanese-Caucasion woman.