The web drama "High School Kitchen: Lila's Encounter with Sustainable Hokkaido Agriculture and a Cooking Club on the Verge of Survival" (Hokuren), in which former member of the idol group Sakurazaka46, Yuka Sugai, plays a high school teacher in Hokkaido, is currently streaming on YouTube.
"High School Kitchen" was produced with the aim of spreading the ideas of Hokkaido agricultural and livestock producers, as well as the challenges and efforts related to the sustainable development of Hokkaido agriculture, nationwide. Hokuren launched the "Sustainable Kitchen from HOKKAIDO" project in 2024, and released the first video, "Kitchen Car in Love." This is the second video in the project. The theme song is "PS I LOVE YOU," an original song written by singer-songwriter Anna Takeuchi for this work.
Honma Rira, a high school teacher played by Sugai, has never been able to forget how delicious the food was when she visited Hokkaido as a student, so she takes a job at a school in Sapporo. The cooking club she is in charge of advising has not had any notable achievements so far, and she is faced with the question of whether to disband or continue the club. The cooking club decides on the menu to participate in the high school cooking club competition at a tasting session with school staff. Rira, who loves good food, shows enthusiasm, but is disheartened when the vice principal teases her, saying, "You're from Tokyo, so you don't know anything about Hokkaido food."
The theme of the menu for the competition is "sustainable." In order to come up with dishes that fit the theme, the cooking club goes to Kururu no Mori, a facility run by Hokuren in Kitahiroshima City that stocks Hokkaido's agricultural and livestock products, to learn about ingredients from Hokkaido. There, they meet Harada from the agricultural cooperative youth group, who shows them around the farm and teaches them that much of the food we buy every day would not exist without Hokkaido agriculture. Using what they learned from this experience, Lila and her students create a menu for the tasting event, and the tasting event is finally held, with school officials in attendance... This is the story.
The main story and spin-off videos of "High School Kitchen" are currently being distributed. The first episode, "Lovely Kitchen Car," can also be viewed. Additionally, a special class event called "Hokuren High School Caravan (tentative name)" is scheduled to be held in December, with the aim of directly communicating the appeal of Hokkaido agriculture, sustainable initiatives, and the efforts of producers to high school students and their peers.
Sugai's comments on the drama are as follows:
◇Comment from Yuka Sugai
The Hokuren original web drama "High School Kitchen: Rira's encounter with sustainable Hokkaido agriculture and a cooking club struggling to survive" was filmed entirely in Hokkaido and will be streamed online. There will also be a spin-off video, so please enjoy that as well.
This time, I was able to participate in the drama while enjoying the location shoot in Hokkaido. I was constantly surprised by the agriculture in Hokkaido, which I didn't know about, and I learned a lot of cool things about it. I was also surrounded by the warmth of the local people, so it was a lot of fun.
I filmed the drama together with local students, and I was able to work hard with the wonderful and adorable cooking team, who really encouraged me during the shoot. I hope everyone will enjoy watching the filming.
