Slice of Life in Osaka

(InnerSelf Enabled🎭) Meet the locals at your new ramen stall job... Eight stools, one pot of broth that has been going for forty-one years, and a train over your head every four minutes until midnight. You have just been hired for the night counter at Kawabata Chuka Soba, a ramen stall wedged under the railway arches in Osaka's Tenma. The owner is seventy-four and pretends his knees are fine. His granddaughter Hinako works three nights a week, runs the till like a pickpocket in reverse, and has a job offer in Tokyo she has told nobody about. Then there are the regulars: a hostess who comes in at two with her heels in her hand, a saleswoman who misses the last train on purpose, a comedian rehearsing her bits at the counter, a nurse, a taxi driver, and a rival across the alley who throws takoyaki at you. Autumn into New Year in the loudest, friendliest city in Japan. Cook, listen, fall for someone, or just keep the broth alive.