"The place I like best in the world is the kitchen."

From the beginning, the book has made its first impression about the main character - a kitchen-loving Mikage Sakurai. Mikage distributed her love to each and every corner in the kitchen from the dry and immaculate towels and glittering tiles in a clean kitchen to those vegetable droppings or rusty knife in a dirty kitchen. They, in their own ways, played a role in her heart. The kitchen was a reflection of herself, a lonely kitten who was trying to look for some warmth. The kitchen was the place where she could express her feelings and hide from the crowded urban town in the late twentieth century.

"When the time comes to die, I want to breathe my last in a kitchen."

The lonely girl became even lonelier when her grandmother died. Only her, and the kitchen were left. But she was lucky, really lucky to be invited to stay at Tanabe Yuichi's house. When Yuichi informed her she had turned over a new leaf in her life, Yuichi also led us into a story of not-so-much ordinary Japanese people.

Why not-so-much ordinary? Why not strange? A kitchen-loving girl who was accidentally invited to stay at a grandmother's friend's house, a reserved boy who did not talk much but who was kind-hearted, and a man with the appearance of a woman, or should I say, a female father, who loved his family so much that he voluntarily became a woman to work, to take care of his son when his wife passed away but still had to leave the living world in a painful way . They seemed to be different, but they were just the same melodies in the song of a hectic society. They were lonely people digging a hole full of sadness, loneliness, and fear in their hearts. Above all, they still tried to live, to be happy to overcome everything. That was the most precious thing in the story.

However, the story was not just about sadness and deaths. It depicted a sweet love between Yuichi and Mikage. They naturally and gradually fell for the other. It was not like the tiger chasing after a prey and devouring it.

Silent as they might be, they understood their partner's feelings as if they were communicating with one another through an invisible telephone.

I was relieved to know that they finally had a happy ending.

Want to tell the world about a book you've read? Join the site and send us your review!