“Miniature Garden” by the late, great Kawamura Kaori always puts a lump in my throat, especially when I think about Kawamura-san’s awful - and ultimately doomed - battle against cancer before she passed away. But mostly because it brings back all of the memories and emotions of the drama it appeared in:
It was the 1998 Japanese drama “With Love” where I first heard it. The main character HaTa-san - played brilliantly by Takenouchi Yutaka - is a composer who had been in a rock band named “Ash,” and “Miniature Garden” was their biggest hit.
“With Love” is the first J-drama I ever saw and still a fave, even though the leading lady was horribly miscast and weak as HaTa’s anonymous love. The story is basically the same as the American movie “You’ve Got Mail” - two strangers connect anonymously via email and find that they’re soul-mates, but have no clue as to each other’s identity in real life.
The music in that drama is so powerful that it’s almost like a third lead character. Because the main character is a composer, there is a lot of music in it (and one of HaTa-san’s songs plays a key role in revealing identities.) The ancient-looking computers seriously date the drama, but it’s a great story regardless, even though it develops very slowly. Someone has posted a clip from it, here:
“In the mornin’, I’m making WAFFLES!” - this is a quote that you hear often around my house. (yet strangely enough we rarely actually make waffles, hehe)
Are you going to make it tonight at 7PM ET?
