Document 72 Hours Season 3

Underneath the lively Ameyoko Market in Tokyo's central district of Ueno is a far less well known below-ground market for foreign foodstuffs. Follow the scent of exotic spices down to that basement floor, and you'll hear a rich mixture of Japanese, Chinese, Tagalog, English.... Then you'll see Shanghai Crab, frogs, mysterious fish and unusual vegetables. It all started 3 decades ago with a single vendor of Chinese foodstuffs; now it's greatly expanded. The customers are 90% foreigners. We get a glimpse into the expatriate life of foreigners in Japan, longing for a taste of home.

In southern Chiba Prefecture, a 24-hour convenience store opened 3 years ago in a huge general hospital. It offers everything from reduced-sugar snacks to loose clothing, and it's busy all the time. One young customer narrowly escaped death. Another patient comes first thing in the morning to buy a newspaper. Doctors working late at night slip in between surgeries to buy instant noodles. Get a unique look at the human condition in this "oasis" at a hospital isolated from our everyday lives.

The Yamanote Line is Japan's most famous loop line. In the blink of an eye, you are whisked to the next station, where yet another distinct side of Tokyo is unveiled. In recent times, an increasing number of people have walked or cycled along the Yamanote Line tracks to experience the diversity of the city. In this program, we spend 3 days walking along the entire 35-kilometer line. What dreams do people have as they live their everyday lives? We met various people - including aspiring singers, foreign students and a plumber - along the line and recorded the "real" Tokyo of today.

At Christmastime in Sakae, a busy district of Nagoya, people are rushing to an unexpected place: the lost and found office, where items left on buses and subways are collected. Each year more than 100,000 articles are turned in, ranging from the usual umbrellas and gloves to the amazing, like dentures and wooden grave tablets. The office's storage is awash with items forgotten by Christmas shoppers and year-end partygoers. Who will retrieve them? Hear some of the stories behind the lost articles.

Since Japan's bubble economy burst in the early 1990's, saving money has become an established part of life for many people. Shops selling discount coupons and cheap tickets are a magnet for people seeking to stretch every last yen. One such shop in Ikebukuro Station in Tokyo measures only a few square meters, but more than 400 customers go there daily. A temp worker buys subway coupon tickets to save 10 yen; a woman buys vouchers that save her 36 yen so she can enjoy a meal at a nice restaurant; whilst another woman sells vouchers she does not need for a tidy sum of cash. What dreams and happiness are people seeking as they save a few yen here and there? This program looks at people and money, as seen from the counter of a tiny shop.

The Akabane region of Tokyo is a "sacred ground" for drinking, with inexpensive bars and pubs lining the streets. On one corner stands a small shop that serves oden, a winter stew that's a Japanese soul food. From security guards finishing their night shifts, to mothers buying dinner to take home for their families, to office workers enjoying a night on the town - these are the stories of the people who line up at the counter and washes down oden with sake for warmth from the winter chill.

For 40 years, a vending machine has stood in a quiet corner of Akita Port, in northern Japan. Even when a winter snowstorm batters the area in mid-January, a constant trickle of customers is drawn to this time-worn machine that sells plain soba and udon noodles in a steaming-hot soup. A father and son out in the blizzard; a designated driver on his way home from work; and a cancer patient reminiscing about the past. Even though the machine has become prone to breakdowns that have weakened the flavor of its soup, customers come around the clock for a warming bowl of noodles. Why is it so popular? This program reveals why many customers keep coming back.

There's a driving school in a suburb east of Tokyo that prepares learners for all kinds of vehicle licenses, from cars, trucks and buses to construction equipment. Each spring the school is packed with people of all ages; a high school student getting her driver's license, a former hairstylist starting a new career as a truck driver, a care worker from the Philippines. These are the stories of people who seek to gain new skills in order to grasp new opportunities in work and in life.

Capsule hotels have quite suddenly become a popular choice of accommodation nowadays in Japan. Travelers from around the world have become fascinated with capsule hotels as word gets around about their low prices and the novelty of staying in a small cave-like "room". At one major capsule hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo, languages from every corner of the globe ring out each day. Convenience is not the only reason tourists and locals come to this hotel. Some people stay here while they chase their dreams; others need a place to stay because they cannot go home for certain reasons. For 3 days, we filmed the myriad of people that converge in this remarkable facility, and discovered the diverse life stories that inspired them to stay in its tiny capsule rooms.

It's spring, a time for new beginnings. And what better way to start a new stage in life than with a new set of wheels. This is Auto District Avenue, a mile-long stretch of a national highway where people can compare new and used cars at 30 different dealers. Here we look at used car dealers where we meet fathers helping children start new jobs, a young man who buys a sports car with a loan, and families saying goodbye to special memories. Behind each car is a story about life and dreams.

Each episode offers a three-day slice-of-life at a different location in Japan: chance encounters, unexpected dramas, and surprising insights into the "now" around us. Today: Yakushima.

A stone's throw from Tokyo Tower and the main Roppongi intersection is a 24-hour Turkish kebab restaurant whose clientele hails from every corner of the globe. Cheap, fast and convenient, the kebabs attract businessmen from foreign-affiliated companies during the day, and in the evening many foreigners who work in Roppongi's nightspots drop in for a meal. The area never sleeps and is at its busiest after the last trains have left. For 3 days, we listened to the innermost thoughts of the foreigners who frequent this restaurant in a Tokyo nightlife district.

Each episode offers a three-day slice-of-life at a different location in Japan: chance encounters, unexpected dramas, and insights into the "now" around us. Today: A Drive-in Restaurant in Okinawa.

At a little shop in Ibaraki Prefecture, there's a goofy but adorable cat with thick black "eyebrows". She's called Hachi for her distinctive marks that resemble the Chinese character "8". That's a lucky number, so customers always come to buy lottery tickets and make wishes for anything from big jackpots to good test scores. All the while Hachi pays them no mind, sleeping on a bookshelf or hiding behind the counter. We spent 3 days talking to the many visitors who make wishes on this lucky cat.

Each episode offers a three-day slice-of-life at a different location in Japan: chance encounters, unexpected dramas, and surprising insights into the "now" around us. Today: Ramen Restaurant.

Streets in front of the National Diet Building are the stage for numerous protests. People opposed to national security bills and nuclear power, among other causes, assemble to express their views in Japan's political nerve center, which decides the nation's future and is home to the Prime Minister's Office, lawmakers' offices and central government agencies. The Diet Building has also become a popular tourist spot and a magnet for visitors and students on school excursions, and the nearby tree-lined streets also attract joggers and Tokyoites walking their dogs. For 3 days and nights in September, as deliberations on the security bills neared completion, we filmed the people on the streets around the Diet.

Each episode offers a three-day slice-of-life at a different location in Japan: chance encounters, unexpected dramas, and surprising insights into the "now" around us. Today: An iconic Hotel in Tokyo