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Leaving her provincial home, teenage Mutsuko arrives in Tokyo by train to
take a job in a major automotive company but finds that she is employed by
a small auto repair shop owned by Norifumi Suzuki. Suzuki`s hair-trigger
temper is held somewhat in check by the motherly instincts of his wife,
Tomoe, and his young son Ippei immediately bonds with Mutsuko as if she
were his older sister. The Suzuki shop lies almost in the shadow of the
Tokyo Tower as it rises steadily above the skyline during construction in
1958. Others in the neighborhood also are striving to better themselves as
Japan continues to emerge from the shadow of war. Hiromi has just
abandoned her shady life as a dancer to start a sake bar. Abandoned by his
single mother, young Junnosuke is first handed off to Hiromi but she passes
him off to Ryunosuke Chagawa, a struggling writer who runs a candy shop
and only manages to sell adventure stories for boys as his serious novels
continue to be rejected. Junnosuke is an avid reader of Chagawa`s stories
and begins to idolize him upon learning about his authorship. Junnosuke
also writes stories, and makes friends with Ippei and others when they
discover his tales that show Japan in the hi-tech future of the 21st century.