The long-running variety show "Welcome, Newlyweds!" (ABC TV/TV Asahi network, Sundays at 12:55 PM), hosted by Takashi Fujii and Sakura Inoue, will feature a couple in their 20s from Kobe City who practice a self-sufficient lifestyle on July 5th.
The couple appeared wearing matching T-shirts with a large print of the Thai dish "Pad Thai." After seeing MC Inoue's social media posts, they were inspired to live a self-sufficient life, and now they have over 80 seedlings of 50 different varieties lined up on their home balcony. They grow pumpkins, watermelons, and melons from seeds they've eaten, and they also carefully cultivate herbs.
They make their own compost, sun-drying eggshells and edamame pods to make fertilizer. They also ferment rice washing water and use it to improve the soil. The wife is even trying her hand at making soap by fermenting free rice bran she gets from the rice mill. Furthermore, she loves using homemade lotion made from egg membranes, and her husband praises her skin, saying, "As you can see, it's glowing."
Furthermore, there are mitten crabs in the bathtub that the husband caught by hand in a nearby river. He says they are purging the mud from the crabs in preparation for eating, and that he has grown quite attached to them. The couple then cooks the crabs and adds freshly harvested cilantro to complete their "Lovely Poo Pad Pong Curry."
The couple met at a guesthouse for Japanese people in Bangkok, Thailand. The wife was working there as a live-in staff member when the husband came to stay. When he saw his wife at the reception desk, he fell in love at first sight, saying, "There's a really cute person here." The wife, on the other hand, was captivated when her husband said "That's a great help" instead of "Thank you" when she turned on the air conditioner in their room.
However, both of them were shy. The husband went back and forth between the lobby and their room many times, wanting to see his wife, but he couldn't bring himself to talk to her. The wife also couldn't close the distance between them. It was an "old guy from Osaka" who was a regular at the guesthouse who came to their rescue. "This girl doesn't have a boyfriend," he said, and "You two would make a good couple," offering some perfect assistance.
When the wife learned that her husband would be returning to Japan the next morning, she thought, "If things continue like this, I'll never see him again," and waited for him in the lobby from 5 a.m. When he came down, she approached him herself and asked, "Please exchange contact information." The couple hasn't even been able to tell the "old man from Osaka" whose name they don't know about their marriage. Fujii urged them to send a message through the television, saying, "No matter how you look at it, it's all thanks to that old man."
Then, just as the wife said to the camera, "Thanks to you, Uncle, we were able to get married," the man himself unexpectedly appeared from behind! The two were in complete confusion, exclaiming, "Why?!" Just when it seemed like it would be an emotional reunion, the man remembered the wife, but for a moment pretended not to remember the husband, causing the studio to erupt in laughter.
After returning to Japan, the couple had a picnic at Umeda Kita Plaza in front of Osaka Station. When his wife tried to find a place to stay, her husband suggested, "Why don't you come to my place?" His reason was, "It costs money to stay somewhere." He said he had no ulterior motives, but his apartment was a 1K with only one futon. As a result, they ended up sleeping in the same futon, and that night his wife experienced her first kiss. She said it felt like she was being "devoured," to which Fujii exclaimed, "What a pure girl's reaction!"
They started dating, and during their long-distance relationship, they called each other every day and nurtured their love through letters. When his wife asked him what he wanted for her birthday, he replied, "My wife's home cooking." He said that he would prefer a meal she would take the time to make rather than eating out or an expensive present. His words made his wife think about marriage. After eight months of dating, the two got married in March of this year.
Newlywed life is filled with daily activities like working in the garden, reporting on the growth of the vegetables we've grown, and lively discussions about self-sufficiency. But why was he so drawn to self-sufficiency? My husband's "origin" was a fantasy he'd had since elementary school: "How would we survive if a zombie outbreak occurred?"
The couple continues their newlywed life, making whatever they can.
