Midnight Diner

I don't use my limited Japanese much anymore and I haven't been to Japan in over twenty years. Watching the Midnight Diner series on Netflix in Japanese with English subtitles was somehow nostalgic. Each episode is titled after a dish that the Master of the tiny diner prepares for patrons who become the focus of the story.  Beginning with people who would eat at a diner open from midnight to seven in the morning, the quiet, often quirky, stories beautifully reflect some idiosyncrasies of Japanese society and the complex nuances of human relationships that can make living there so stressful.