October 6, 2014
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Massan Plot Summaries - Week 2
#7 On the morning of their departure for Osaka, where Masaharu is employed at a brewery, Ellie tries to assure MIL that she will do her best to learn Japanese language and customs and how to use chopsticks, for goodness sake. (I don't know why they have to keep dwelling on the chopsticks thing.) Anyway, MIL storms out of the room in tears, and later at the train station, Masaharu's sister brings Ellie a pair of chopsticks as a possible sign of good will. Ellie has learned to address her husband properly as "Masaharu-san," but she still does not seem to understand the difference between using san inside the family and not outside. It is a reverse of her mistake of dropping the san altogether, in or out, so she still does not really get it. Ellie decides that Masaharu-san is too long and complicated and shortens the name to "Massan." There is also the issue of declaring "I love you!" every second of the waking day. Japanese just don't do it, and are embarrassed by public displays of emotion. I suppose that Ellie will have to realize at some point that Masaharu might not be the same person that she thought she knew in Scotland. That happens when Japanese return to Japan and have to fall back into the established cultural patterns. There is another storm at the brewery as the boss's wife and daughter don't seem pleased at Masaharu announcing his marriage to Ellie.
A party is thrown in honor of Massan's return to Japan after two years in Scotland. The brewery staff all welcomes M&E back, but one fellow, Yaguchi is displeased. Another fellow, Kamoi Kintaro brings a fish (sea bream) to the party and meets the newlyweds. The boss Tanaka and his wife show up at the party, too, and call Massan out for a discussion of the fact that he was supposedly engaged to, and upon his return to Japan expected to marry the boss's daughter Yuko.
#8 Ellie enters a house with her shoes on again. She should know better by now. Masaharu takes them off for her, and she continues to grip them in her arms when she should just deposit them outside. Icky, who knows where she has been walking, and Masaharu should not stoop to shoe removal for a female. (Sorry, custom.) Ellie hears the word "aho" and is told it is a greeting, when it actually means fool and is a word that one had best use with care and only among close acquaintances. The fact that she misuses it and ends up coming off as rude and foolish is not her fault. Massan is very new at this business of managing a foreign wife who has not learned the ropes. Before being sent to Scotland to study Whiskey distillery, Masaharu was told that "everything" would be entrusted to him when he came back, but he had no idea that the boss's daughter Yuko was part of the deal. Ellie is um, surprised and learns that in Japan, parents who have more practical life experience normally decide who their children will marry. Kamoi turns out to be a very huggy fellow, and Massan does not really appreciate his taking advantage of Ellie's natural hugginess.
#9 Massan gets dragged over the coals over his supposed engagement to Yuko. His boss Dasaku Tanaka insists that Massan was sent to Scotland to study whiskey production with the specific intent of welcoming him back as a son in law. Massan didn't get that marrying Yuko was part of the deal, and totally misunderstood the conditions of his trip to Scotland. Ellie does not understand these Japanese marriage customs at all. E&M sincerely try to smooth things out by apologizing, but Yuko waxes on about how she has spent two years eagerly awaiting Massan's return. Ellie feels that there may be a plot hatching in Yuko's broken heart.
Ellie and Masaharu pay Yuko apologize to Yuko for the misunderstanding. If you apologize in Japan, you can get by with quite alot. Yuko asks Masaharu if he remembers saying he wanted nine kids, and tells him that for two years she has been watching her diet and her health so she could bear him a baseball team. She has been taking lessons in how to be a proper wife and run a proper home, all for Masaharu, and is understandably hurt. It all seemed pretty clear to her, but Masaharu somehow remained entirely in the dark about the whole business. Speaking of business, Masaharu gets ready to start his attempts at producing whiskey, the gentleman's drink, in Japan. Ellie continues her hugginess, but Massan had best tell her not to hug him on the street. The neighborhood folks are all ducking into the nearest doorway to avoid seeing the public displays of affection.
#10 Massan prepares to begin making whiskey at the Sumiyoshi brewery. Kamoi, head of the Kamoi brewery expresses extreme interest and asks Massan why he is so intent on making whiskey in Japan. Ellie pays a visit to Yuko. She tells Yuko about her love for Massan and about his dream of making whiskey. She thinks that she has gained Yuko's understanding, but Yuko declares that she will give up Massan only if he gives up on his dream and resigns from her father's company.
Ellie offers to help in the kitchen making lunch for the company staff and is told there is really nothing that she can do. Ellie resolves to work as hard at making Massan happy as Yuko, and continues chopstick practice in her quest to become Japanese. She manages to transfer one bean from one dish to another and in her joy runs to Massan and does the huggy thing in front of the company staff. Ew. She then goes and has a talk with Yuko and thinks she has convinced Yuko to accept the present situation. Yuko will agree to cancel the efforts of her past two years, but she also demands that Massan cancels the efforts of his past two years in return, including his study in the pursuit of whiskey. Massan doesn't even remember proposing, but that seems to be beside the point. Yuko will be generous and not demand that he return the money invested in his studies, but if Massan really wants to make whiskey, he will have to do it elsewhere.
#11 Massan, who has been told by Yuko to give up on making whiskey at her father's company if he will not marry her, tries to defend his marriage to Ellie, but his pleas fall on deaf ears. He recalls his studies in Scotland, and decides to have one more go at keeping both Ellie and his job. Ellie, for her part, tries to become friendly with Yuko and try to get her to accept the fact that she and Massan are man and wife. Yuko begins to bully Ellie as thanks. Ellie gets an idea to entertain the Tanaka family with some Scottish cooking.
Flash back to Massan's time in Scotland and the trouble he had to overcome to learn whiskey distillery. The Scotch were not willing to share their knowledge with a Japanese and threw him out at the gate. Next is a scene with Massan on his knees at the gate begging to be let in. Add to that the fact that he does it in the cold rain. The Scots relent and let Massan come and study in their brewery. Ellie feels badly that everyone is always angry because of her, but Massan assures her that it is not her fault. She offers to help out in the kitchen and is praised by the family, but Yuko adds an extra dose of soy sauce to Ellie's morning soup. Massan makes a delivery of Japanese brewed wine to Kamoi's store. Kamoi seems to be quite the entrepreneur and is interested in the whiskey that Massan wants to make.
#12 Ellie volunteers to make a nice Scottish stew for dinner and cooks up the perfect meal, but Yuko continues her salty behavior and dumps in the entire pot in when no one is looking. Of course dinner is a disaster, Yuko's mother declaring that Scottish cooking does not quite suit the Japanese palate. Later that evening Yuko's father almost seems to grow a pair and begins to scold Yuko, only to have his wife come in and trim them neatly off. After all, whose side is he on? (It is not really a matter of sides here, since two wrongs do not make a right. Mother totally overlooks the fact that Yuko sabotaged the dinner.) Massan and Ellie hear the ruckus, and go to see what the matter is. Yuko declares that loyal children should take care of their parents, but Ellie is far from the Goody Two Shoes that she appears to be and has done nothing in coming to Japan but selfishly break her mother's heart by eloping. She then twists the knife and says that anything that Ellie says in her clumsy Japanese sounds like a lie. Ellie runs out of the house in tears, and Massan declares that enough is enough and suggests they go back to Scotland, but Ellie won't hear of it. (Why are they still living with the boss's family anyway?)
