Matji & Co.
Mutjo's Cafe
Four seats, one kettle, no queue. The smallest matcha shop on the street, and the centre of everything anyway.
The setting
The world
One quiet street in Tokyo, a few minutes past everyone's hurry. Lanterns, bicycles, paving cracks of significance — and a matcha shop so small it fits entirely inside a good morning.
The Neighbourhood
Ume-san's bakery, the police box, the post round. Everyone is looking after everyone else — even the ones who pretend they aren't.
The Bathhouse
Yuki-san's kingdom of steam and folded towels, open on Thursdays to very small guests. Two rules posted; mercy unposted.
The Tofu Shop
Open since four in the morning, third generation. The street's grumpiest armour around its softest heart.
The regulars
The neighbourhood cast
Thursday regular. Same seat, same order, the good pen. Cannot be fooled; chooses daily not to say so.
Thirty-one years, one red bicycle, unhurried in all weathers. Now supervises four unsolicited assistants.
Opens at four. Judges craft by holding it to the light. “…Acceptable” is a medal.
Two rules posted; endless patience unposted. Pays her smallest helpers in warm milk.
Nothing to police and quietly grateful. Files beautiful paperwork about nothing.
Flour on one cheek, always. Anpan of legend, and a professional rivalry conducted entirely in pastries.
Eight years old. Misses nothing, writes it down, tactfully omits the impossible.
Fifty autumns, one broom older than the street. The leaves are winning; he has never once minded.
Large, black, sovereign. Approved the café windowsill, and — eventually — Yutju.
Further afield
And, later, somewhere else entirely
Later in the stories there is another place — a village of stone lanterns and slow festivals, further away than any map admits. The episodes will take you there when it's time. (Series 2 begins at “Waking up somewhere else.”)
Start Series 2