Sketches of Life

Having lost both his mother and father, an 11-year-old city boy is sent to live with his grandparents in a small seaside village. Feeling responsible for his father's accidental death, he becomes increasingly introverted and finds himself unable to make friends with the local kids. Then an eccentric elderly doctor takes him under his wing, and tells him of an ancient ceremony where a sacred flame must be brought back from a remote island by a lone swimmer.

Shiori is a star university student with an incredible palate for wine who dreams of studying winemaking in France. However, to her dismay she is assigned to a rural sake brewery for her internship. To make matters worse, upon arrival she discovers that the brewery owners don’t exactly want her around. However, as it becomes clear that Shiori will be sticking around, she tries to make the best of things and begins to pitch in at the brewery, perhaps even warming up to the idea of drinking sake. And when the brewery owner falls gravely ill, and his upstart son Kanji is forced to take the lead, Shiori may provide the spark that can save the brewery and change her own life in the process..

Two people meet on a beach in Isumi. One is Ayaka, who skipped work and arrived at the seaside with no idea where she was going. The other is Nagisa, who was born and raised in the town. Ayaka and Nagisa decide to have a drink together. Ayaka, who has built a career at a Tokyo company, feels comfortable being with Nagisa, despite their differences – Nagisa grew up surrounded by nature and she is free-spirited. Ayaka was planning to skip work for just one day, but she eventually decides to stay on for a while and she requests a leave of absence from her company. Nagisa invites Ayaka to join her at the yakitori restaurant, and together they start an izakaya where the menu changes daily. Ayaka and Nagisa go fishing and enjoy a slow, relaxing life on the beach. One day, Ayaka confesses the incident that became the reason for her absence from work.

Set in 2036, famous photographer Fujii goes to a museum near Lake Biwa. He remembers a time twenty years earlier where he had believed that there was a dinosaur, Biwasshi, living in the lake and he had tried to convince people of this.

Hikari receives news that his father passed away. Hikari decides to take over his father's ramen shop. To do so, Hikari quits his job at a design company and goes back to his home town of Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture. Now, taking over his father's shop Hikari has problems recreating his father's recipe. Hikari thinks back to when he was a child and how his father believed Hikari never used his imagination. Hikari relies on his memory in attempt to recreate his father's recipe.

Twelve year old Osamu Hirano is in love with his classmate Rio, but he doesn’t have courage to confess his love to her. One day he learns that she is going out with Shuichi and this makes him very depressed. Shuichi is also a classmate, but unlike Osamu, he is very smart and also good at sports. Meanwhile, Osamu’s 21 year old sister Yumi, who years ago ran away to the big city of Nagoya, suddenly turns up with her fiancé, Kenji Yamaoka, a 45 year old ethnologist. Unsurprisingly, her parents have problems with Yumi’s choice of husband, particularly since he is the same age as her father and appears to have major health problems to boot. Yumi’s sudden reappearance, after years of silence, and her insistence on marrying a man more than twice her age, predictably throws the family into turmoil. Both Yumi and Osamu have problems addressing love, the deeper they fall into it, the more difficulty they have expressing their true feelings.

Ayane is the daughter of a karaage (fried food) store owner, but she never liked karaage. Eventually, she left home, only to return 5 years later. Her family lives in the city of Usa in Oita Prefecture, Japan. She brings with her a young girl named Shirley, who is her step-daughter from her ex-husband.