うさぎドロップ Episode 02
Usagi Drop – 02

Its Sunday, so Daikichi takes Rin shopping to get her some clothing, a futon, toothbrush, and the like. He suddenly notices the number of parents with children in the store, something he’d not noticed before. He also takes note of what other parents do when buying their kids clothing and emulates it for Rin. After purchasing a large quantity of items, he returns home with the tired and hungry Rin. That evening, Rin makes mention of attending nursery school, and suddenly Daikichi has a problem since he has to work the following day and can’t get out of it at this point. He calls Reina’s mother, Haruko, to ask her what to do, then stays up late on the Internet finding an emergency nursery school that he can get Rin into.

The following day, after a crowded train ride and a run with Rin on his back, the two make it to the nursery school where Rin doesn’t want to be seen being carried. After leaving her in the care of the providers, Daikichi notices Rin’s look of distraught and realizes that she must be afraid he’ll leave her forever. Making a pinky promise to return, Daikichi races off to his office, where he works at a clothing design company.  Rin makes friends at the nursery school but as the day gets late and the other children go home, Rin begins to worry. Daikichi tries to leave, but work won’t allow him. In the end, the nursery school has to call him and he races over to find an angry Rin. However, he soon wins her good graces and the two go home.

Thus life as a single father continues for Daikichi.  He now wears sneakers in the morning and evening to be better able to get Rin to and from school.  However, his work days are long and it is often well after dark before he can get Rin home.  His work quality starts to suffer a bit as a result and he also has to turn down opportunities for drinking with co-workers. At home, Daikichi decides to quit smoking because he’s caring for Rin. He wonders how long he can keep this up and recalls a conversation he had with one of his female relatives, who gave him the few belongings Rin had, including a baby book containing Rin’s childhood history, including medical history. As he considers how his family see Rin as some kind of villain, he wonders if the real villain isn’t Rin’s mother, Masako.

You know, I have no problem with hard work, nor with working long hours. Heck, in my younger days, I worked 21-days straight (12-20 hours each day) when I was stationed in Japan. At my first civilian job, I worked 36-hours straight because there was a major problem to be fixed.  This month, I’ve hardly had any days off, not because I care about the crappy company I’m contracted to, but because there are co-workers of mine who need to take vacation and I desperately need the O/T money (more so since any time off I take is unpaid). I’ve even worked holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas to allow co-workers with families to be able to take time off to spend with their loved ones. I felt it was the least I could do.

That being said, I’ve never been a fan of Japanese unspoken work rules.  For example, in Japan, it is considered rude to leave before the boss as well as being a sign of being a slacker. So, if your boss just wants to avoid his old lady and hang out at the office, everyone else is expected to hand out at the office as well, no matter how late or unproductive. If the boss decides his crew needs to go out and get drunk, then you have to go out and drink, no matter how late.  Some companies even have sleeping tubes(or in some cases, let workers sleep under their cubicles). Its one of the dumber things of Japanese society where the perception one is working hard trumps actually being productive. Efficiency is not a virtue in many Japanese businesses.

Thus we come to this episode, where Daikichi cannot call in and take the day off as most folks can in the U.S. (such as when my basement flooded due to heavy rains and I called in because I had to take care of a ton of water and save my stuff). In the U.S., Daikichi could talk to his boss and mention that he’s now caring for a young girl and needs to be able to leave on time in order to take care of things. In Japan, Daikichi can’t even speak of Rin in any fashion to any of his co-workers and is expected to work as many hours as possible.  He wants to get off from work at a reasonable time for Rin’s sake, but cannot.  As much as I love Japan, this is one aspect of Japanese culture that I do not like.

I felt bad for Rin, who clearly was afraid of being abandoned. I was glad that Rin made friends at the nursery school, even if only for a short while. I’m guessing that Daikichi will enroll her in a permanent school closer to either his home or work to make their lives a bit easier. It will be interesting to see what other things Daikichi does in order to properly care for Rin.

The post-episode short was rather amusing. Rin having an accident and peeing in Daikichi’s futon (since she often sleeps close to him) combined with her embarrassed insistence that this was sweat made me chuckle. Poor girl. ^_^;

This certainly is a heart-tugging series but very enjoyable.