Hiroyuki owns the Bar Linda. After quitting his high school in Shikoku, he came to Tokyo dreaming of city life, but found that reality didn’t live up to his dreams. He had to work at a construction site in the daytime and work as a bartender at night to make ends meet. During that time, nearly 10 years ago he met Kyoko Hayashida at a club in Shinjuku. A year later, they started dating secretly because Kyoko came from an upstanding family who cared about differences in social status. Nevertheless, they were very happy together.Four years later, when Kyoko’s mother attempted to pay him off if he would leave her. Hiroyuki refused the bribe but made his mind up to leave Kyoko for her sake. However, when Kyoko found out that her mother had tried to bribe him, she asked him to elope with her. They fled to a small town and had a simple wedding ceremony with no one in attendance and proceeded to lead a humble, but happy life. They saved money by working part-time jons with the intention of opening their own bar someday. They moved to Yokosuka three years ago and they opened the bar. Kyoko uses Hayshi as her last name, hiding the fact they are a married couple. The name, Linda, is taken from Kyoko’s real name, Hayashida. The two now live a peaceful, happy life.

She is Tom’s girlfriend. She is cheerful and active. She speaks Japanese more fluently than Tom. (In fact, she taught him how to speak Japanese.) She can even write and read Japanese to some extent. After graduating from high school in Connecticut, she came to Japan. She is helping Tom with his hot dog stand, but she is not as good as Tom when it comes to cooking. She knows Tom well and always encourages him with her cheerful mood.

A rather stubborn man, Ichiro runs an old-fashioned barbershop by the old-fashioned principle, “Real men wear their hair cropped short.” and he means it. The fact that young men’s longer hairstyles are becoming increasingly more popular is of no concern to him. He stands by his conviction that men’s hair should only be crewcut style. He even wishes to cut Tom’s hair in this style, going so far as to offer to pay Tom to let him do so. Ryo has been his customer for a long time, which makes it difficult for Ryo to explain current trends to him. Whenever he goes, Maeda-san always rants and raves, preaching to Ryo while he is trimming his hair. Partly because of that, when Ryo was a boy, he had the impression that Ichiro was a “scary man.” That imprint makes Ryo afraid of him even now.Although Maeda-san is very strict with boys, he is a gentle, sensible father towards his daughter Miki. He respects his daughter’s freedom and lets her do what she likes as long as she takes responsibility for her actions. He does however, make it a rule that she exchanges greetings properly, and prohibits her from riding on a motorcycle. He hopes that his future son-in-law, whoever he may be, will take over the shop one day, but Miki seems to have rather different plans for the shop.

Junichiro Nemoto’s hobbies are making and saving mney, so he considers himself a businessman. He looks older than he is, often mistaken for a man in his 40’s. With the 1 million yen he earned through a part-time job while in college, he started to buy stocks and now he owns the Smiley Flower Shop and a restaurant in Yokohama. At the Smiley Flower Shop, reliable Yuriko runs the business smoothly while Nemoto is busy managing the restaurant. He chose Yuriko as a shop clerk and a candidate for his wife from the beginning because she was very pretty and intelligent. He has high hopes that she will find him attractive someday. But for now, he is too proud to telll her that he really likes her. Instead, he only tries to impress her with his moneymaking prowess.

Junko, the cheerful owner of the Manpukuken Ramen experienced a tragic misfortune in her life. The man she fell madly in love with and married passed away at a young age, leaving her a widow with only his unique Chinese recipe for ramen noodle soup to remind her of him. This proved to be enough to enable her to establish the popular local ramen shop that is now quite prosperous. In fact, the taste of this broth is so delicious that people come from all over the country to this small shop in Dobuita just to eat this special ramen. Even on the busiest of days though, Junko can be seen standing, staring off into the distance reminiscing about the days when her husband was alive as she pours the broth into the bowls.

Kazuo is the manager of the “other” Water Dragon, known fondly as Water Dragon 2 Thrift Shop. He is a friendly and reliable person and a sort of elder brother to Ryo. He knows everything about jeans. Just by glancing at the stitching, he can tell the age, style and make of the jeans in question.

As the owner of Bunkado Antiques, Oishi-san is often absent from the shop, traveling around the country searching for antique art objects and old treasures. With more than 40 years experience, he has a discerning eye for antique art and an extensive knowledge of Japanese antiques and artifacts. He also has a deep knowledge of Chinese antiques and carries an impressive collection in his shop. In addition, he collects old books on history and unique martial arts moves scrolls from various schools.

Kimie is a graduate of a famous woman’s college where most of the students are from good families. After graduation, she stayed at home idly until her parents decided to arrange a marriage for her. To escape this fate, she ran away from home and came to settle in Dobuita. Her parents have no idea of her whereabouts. Despite having more than 100 brand-name suits hanging in the closet at her parents’ house, she only brought a few of them, which she had to sell for some money. Now Kimie only has two pairs of jeans and jackets, given to her by the manager of the Water Dragon 2 Thrift Shop because she works there part-time. She has confessed to him that she is from a very rich family with a gorgeous house in Yokohama. However, the manager doesn’t believe her. Instead, he is afraid that she may run away without paying her rent because he served as the guarantor for the tenancy agreement of her apartment. Although she lives frugally by herself, Kimie likes her new life and hopes to keep working at the Water Dragon 2 Thrift Shop for a while. Provided her desperate parents don’t find her, she’ll be here for some time.

Kinuyo is the owner of the Hokuhoku Lunch Box and the mother of Hisaka and Mai. She lost her husband 13 years ago. Two years later, to forget her sorrow, she started her lunchbox business. Kinuyo’s so-called “Mother’s homemade lunch” became popular among the local bachelors, and with the help of her elder daughter, sales gradually have increased over the years. As the business grew, the daily work became increasingly busy thereby causing Kinuyo to neglect her second daughter Mai. As a result, Mai has grown rebellious and delinquent, constantly worrying Kinuyo and Hisaka

Kirino works much harder than it appears. She is unofficially managing the Slot House in place of the idle Takafumi Mitsuzuka, the shop manager. Few people know anything of her private life. She has such a mysterious air about her that nobody can tell what she is thinking about. She seems to have quite a few secret admirers in Dobuita.

He is known by the nickname of Yama-chan in Dobuita. However, Kiyoshi doesn’t like that nickname much; he believes his nickname is taken from Yamaji, not Yamanaka. Although it has been 10 years since he started working at Yamaji Soba Noodles, he is still only in charge of deliveries and is never allowed to touch the buckwheat soba dough, let alone knead it. However, Kiyoshi feels the owner is not a bad guy and knows that the owner is seriously thinking about hiring a part-timer and letting Kiyoshi handle the kitchen.

A young apprentice of Nagai Industries, Kouji is a man of questionable morality and knows nothing about duty and manners. Because Nagai knows he wouldn’t be able to handle Kouji on his own, he relagates Kouji to the job of standing guard at the entrance, and has assigned Toshiki to become Kouji’s mentor. Kouji secretly earns extra money by working as a bodyguard for Jimmy at the Asia Travel Co. During his time off, he enjoys hitting on women. Taking advantage of his good looks, he is a bit of a playboy.

Her real name is Kyoko Hayashida and she is a hostess at the Bar Linda. Although she is married to the owner, Hiroyuki, they keep their marriage a secret for reasons known only to them. They originally met 10 years a go at a club in Shinjuku. A friend of Kyoko’s introduced her to Hiroyuki, who was working there as a bartender. As their friendship deepened, Kyoko found herself attracted to Hiroyuki’s dark side, despite the contravention of her wealthy, overly concerned parents. Realizing she was deeply in love with Hiroyuki, she took a proactive approach to their relationship. They officially began dating one year after they met, but decided to keep their relationship a secret from her family, who, caring only about social status, would have forbidden them from meeting.Four years later when Kyoko’s mother attempted to pay him to leave her, Hiroyuki refused the bribe but made up his mind to leave Kyoko for her sake. However, when Kyoko found out that her mother had tried to bribe him, she asked to him to elope with her. They fled to a small town, where they got married at a church with no one in attendance. Although she was a bride in a veil in plain clothes, she was very happy. The couple worked day and night from then on. While it must have been hard to Kyoko, raised in opulence, to adjust, she never complained and often spoke at length on how much better her life felt. Finally, after years of scrimping and saving, they realiszed their dream by opening a bar in Yokosuka three years ago. Their bar, called “Linda” is in a small two-storey building with the bar on the first floor and their small three-room apartment on the second floor. As small as it is, they consider it their dream house.
To hide from her family, Kyoko changed her last name to Hayashi. Their business is mildly successful, supported by friends and locals who frequent the bar as customers. It is certain they are leading a quiet, happy life and will continue to do so.

En Ling is a second-generation Chinese born in Japan, and her father is one of the three greatest cooks in Yokohama Chinatown. Her mother is Japanese, so En Ling speaks Japanese fluently, and has always lived a Japanese lifestyle. She can hardly speak any Chinese, but writes and reads a little. Nobody knows she is Chinese until she says her name. After getting married to a barber, Ji You, En Ling became a licensed barber as well. She respects her husband professionally as well as personally. En Ling is well received by their customers and some customers prefer ti have their face shaved by her.

Gong Hui is an old Chinese man who left Shanghai, China, during the end of the Taisho era and moved to Yokohama to start his training as a tailor. He started as a live-in student, and it took him 14 years before he was able to own his own business at the age of 30. Owing a lot to his strict but warm master, he has many good memories and a fine technique. His business ran smoothly and he introduced new technology. He owned a small sewing factory in Yokohama. At the age of 80, he retired and sold off the factory. Though, since his wife died, his son Ji You asked him to live with his family in Sakuragaoka, Yokosuka, he refused because he felt embarrassed by the idea that he would be taken care of by his son. Now he’s bought a larger house in Sakuragaoka and lives there alone as if he were showing it off. He has obtained almost everything that he would want, but his dream of living with grandchildren may not be realized. He seems sad about this.

His father is Liu Gong Hui, who worked as a tailor in Yokohama, and his deceased mother was Japanese. At home, they spoke Japanese, but he speaks good Chinese because after graduating from junior high school, he worked for a Chinese barber who was an acquaintance of his father’s. After getting married to En Ling 15 years ago, they started saving money to open their own barbershop. Finally, they opened their shop 10 years ago in Dobuita. To give themselves a competitive edge, they offer a variety of salon services and set their prices slightly lower than Maeda’s longer established barbershop. Now they have many regular customers. Bossy at home, Ji You is timid in public, because he believes that En Ling is perhaps the better barber and stylist. He doesn’t do much around the house so En Ling has to do everything from cleaning the inside of the shop to the cooking and laundry. With his friendly looks, he is considered to be a nice husband in the neighborhood. Recently, they bought a house in Sakuragaoka. Their only concern is that they don’t have any children yet.

The owner of Hattori Sporting Goods, Hattori-san was born and raised in Yokosuka, so he is a true-blue Yokosuka man. He knows Ryo and Iwao because he sells them their gi used for jujitsu practice. He was very shocked by Iwao’s death. He is also the coach of a boy’s baseball club in the community. He is a kind person, but he sometimes gives too much advice, so the children think he is too bossy (Ryo agrees.) His son works for a company, and his grandson is a surfer. His daughter has married and left home. He lost his wife many years ago so he feels lonely sometimes. When he can afford it, he sometimes closes the shop early to go see baseball games.

The owner of Nana’s Karaoke Bar, Nanako came to Tokyo from Gifu when she was 18 to become a singer. She quit in obscurity five years later and started working as a hostess at a nightclub. Her cheerful, warm personality allowed her to become the top hostess in the club within two years. She was promoted to an assistant manager three years later and ran the operation well. She married one of her customers from the nightclub, but divorced seven years later when she found out her husband had a mistress. She used the alimony from the divorce settlement to open the karaoke bar. Whenever she gets drunk, she always says, “I’ve had enough of men. I am happy as long as I can sing.”

This popular fortune-teller is regularly written about in popular woman’s magazines. Originally, her family ran a grocery store, but after her parents died in a traffic accident, Natsumi closed the store and began telling fortunes there instead. All her neighbors know the truth about her background but keep it secret because her fortune telling is so popular that it draws many customers into Dobuita’s shopping district. While magazine features have contributed to her popularity, the main reason is the uncanny accuracy of her predictions.

Noriyuki worked as a used-car dealer after graudating from high school in his hometown, Yokosuka. Taking advantage of his own tactfulness and charismatic nature, he achieved good sales, but he couldn’t get along with his boss and resigned two years later. After bouncing from one job to another, he finally settled on his present job as manager of Jupitor’s Jackets, after being introduced to the owner by a friend two years ago. Recently he started living alone at Tsukushi Apartments in Dobuita. He enjoys his job very much because he has always liked the unique Yokosuka style jackets he sells in the store. Despite his enthusiasm, jacket sales remain sluggish due in part to the depressed economy.

Ryoko is the granddaughter of Keizo Oishi, who owns Bunkado Antiques. She often looks after the shop while her grandfather is away. Being well brought up, she is well mannered and speaks politely for her age of 9. She likes to read. She often reads a book while looking after the shop.

Ryuji works at Water Dragon Thrift Store. He has unique tastes in fashion and knows a lot about vintage clothing. Because his taste and style are a bit odd, his shop is not very popular. It is rumored he also deals in stolen goods.

Santa is a sandwich-board man, walking through Dobuita in the middle of the Christmas holidays to advertise the shops. Walking along the street all day is easy for him because he used to be a marathon runner. More than 20 years have passed since he retired from running, but his legs are still strong.

Satoshi is the manager of the Global Travel Agency. He was born and raised in Yokosuka and is a very polite man. The Global Travel Agency is one of the largest travel agencies in Japan and the main office is located in Otemachi. Shinoda was one of the elite employees working there until he became a scapegoat for the company during a scandal. He was transferred to this branch and he is working dilligently as usual, without being depressed. He is cheerful and friendly. For a long time after he was transferred, he lived alone, but recently he brought his wife and children from Tokyo so that they could live as a family again.

The owner of Uokichi Seafood, Shinkichi’s true loves are gambling and karaoke. He is quite obsessed with horseracing even though he has never won much money, he always gets excited at the chance of winning and is never without a betting slip in his hand. Unfortuantely, he wastes far too much money when he bets, and her never learned to control his habit. His wife left him 10 years ago afer losing patience with him. This came as a great shock to him. Despite this experience, he is still a cheerful person by nature. Regardless of other people’s constant concern for him, his gambling has only increased since his wife left him. He sometimes spends all the shop’s profits on gambling. He talsk like he hails from Tokyo, but he is actually from Yokohama. Although he looks like a heavy drinker, he can’t actually handle liquour. After just a few sips of beer, he often starts to feel tipsy and begins rambling on about his past. When it comes to business, he is extremely serious. He is very discriminating about the fish he sells and he manages to maintain reasonable prices, which keeps his customers loyal.

He is the driver of the local bus route that connects Dobuita with the New Yokosuka Harbor. He is an experienced driver who has been driving this route for five years. He is very punctual, too. He is the ideal bus driver who cares about safety and never drives too fast. However, he is a person of few words and is considered rather reserved.

Hailing from a rich family in Yokosuka that is well known, Shiro has never had a problem with money . He is a military maniac and had hoped to join the Japan Self-Defence Force after graduating from junior high school, but because of his parent’s opposition, he gave up on his dream and reluctantly went to high school. After graduating, Shiro decided to go to the National Defense Academy and worked hard to enter, but he was rejected twice. After that, he stayed unemployed, dependent on his parents for living expenses. Shiro’s parents encouraged him to get any job he could for appearance’s sake, so he opened Kurita Military Surplus with his father’s monetary backing. His father onws both the shop and the Okayama Heights apartment building, where Shiro lives. Because he thinks of his shop as just an extracurricular activity, he doesn’t mind whether it makes money or not, but does care a great deal about the authenticity of the goods he stocks. He often travels overseas to buy new goods, closing the shop for long periods of time. Recently Shiro started dating Yuriko Kikuchi from the Smiley Flower Shop. While he desires to settle down, he often wonders if he is ready to get married.

Soichi Honda is the manager of the Honda Drugstore. After graduating from a college of pharmacy, Honda joined a large hospital as a pharmacist. He worked there diligently for 16 years, but lost his job five years ago. The hospital was forced to shut down after a malpractice suit that resulted from a botched operation. Furthermore, the director was suspected of embezzling government subsidies. Around the same time, Honda’s wife and two children left him. His life was in despair, but his friend found a pharmacist job for him at a pharmacy chain store one year later. Though his salary was lower than what he had earned at the hospital, Honda found it was more than sufficient for a single man. When he first heard that the pharmacy was in Dobuita, Yokosuka, he was shocked and almost turned down the job, but now he has recently begun to like the area and has started to enjoy his work.

Susumu Aketagawa has been producing his special soba (buckwheat noodles) for more than 30 years. He has the utmost confidence in his skill. However, he is concerned about his declining health and wonders if he should retire after giving his student Kiyoshi traning on how to knead soba. Aketagawa was 27 when he first learned the art of making soba---10 years after becoming a live-in student. Later he came to realize that it takes 10 years to learn how to make soba correctly, taking into account color, cooking and delivery time. Following the custom of Yamaji Soba Noodles, he had had Kiyoshi deliver his soba for almost 10 years. He secretly hopes that his daughter will marry Kiyoshi and that they will take care of him when he gets older. This is what Aketagawa usually daydreams about while preparing the soba.

Currently the manager of the Slot House, Takafumi resigned from his company three years ago to open this business. He leaves the day-to-day management to Kirino Matsuyama, an employee at the Slot House. Takafumi spends most of this time behind the counter, doing nothing in particular. His only enthusiasm is building plastic models, which he devotes himself to at home.

Born in Hiroshima, in junior high school Takashi was heavily infulenced by movies. Once when he approached a punk to ask him about his tattoos, the punk got angry and beat Takashi up for no apparent reason. Luckily, Soroku Kikuchi, a tattoo artist, who happened to be passing by at the time, saved Takashi from serious injury. After this experience, Takashi became interested in tattoos., so he decided to become Kikuchi-san’s student. Although Kikuchi-san believed that tattoos are really just scribble, for some reason, his tattoos were in high demand. Believing that tattoos are an art form, Takashi soon became disenchanted with Kikuchi-san’s teachings and when he was 17, Takashi set out on his own. By that time, he could tattoo quite well and earned a fair amount of money tattooing truck drivers. He hitchhiked all the way to Yokohama and began his own student---Shunkichi. Takashi began living with Asami, a girl with extraordinary fair skin. He tattooed Asami and himself with the same design, but one day Asami ran away with Shunkichi. After this incident, Takashi began to distrust everyone and moved to Yokosuka to restart his business there. For the past five years, he has been quietly tattooing only those customers who appreciate his designs.

Takeshi Hirai used to be a bartender at a prestigious hotel in Yokohama. After quarreling with a floor manager, he was fired and he returned to his hometown Dobuita, where he opened a cozy, relaxing bar called MJQ Jazz Bar. Attending lavishly to the needs of the customers while listening to his favourite jazz is very satisfying to him. A recent magazine article about the bar has brought an increase of customers. Some of these customers ruin the atmosphere of the bar, which irritates Hirai to no end.

Duo Ji is the owner of the Ajiichi Chinese Restaurant. He is originally from Gaoxiong, Taiwan. When he was 15, he started working as an apprentice chef at a place called Hai Xian Jiu Jia in Hai Feng, Guangdong, China. At the age of 22, Duo Ji came to Japan to work at the Ma Ming Lou, in Yokohama’s Chinatown. The day he turned 26, he opened his own restaurant, the Ajiichi Chinese Restaurant, in Yokosuka. He met his wife, Lin Xia, while they were working at Ma Ming Lou together. He sometimes quarrels with Lin Zia, who always dotes on Wang, Duo Ji’s apprentice and delivery boy. Duo Ji is very strict about discipline and this is reflected in his cooking. Although a bit stubborn, he is a good man by nature.

Lin Xia is a chef and waitress at the Ajiichi Chinese Restaurant and the wife of Tao Duo Ji. She was born in Hui Zhou, Guangdong, to a family of chefs. When she was 19 years old, she moved to Yokohama to work at the Ma Ming Lou, where her uncle was working. It is here where she met her husband Duo Ji. She often comments on how beautiful she was in her younger days, but strangely enough, this claim is never confirmed by Duo Ji. The success of the Ajiichi can mainly be attributed to Lin Xia. She took the initiative in the restaurant’s early days and added authentic Guangdongese dishes to the menu. She seems to be the head of the family.

Xia Gao Wen is the first grandson of Xia Xiu Yu, the owner of the Russiya China Shop. He was born in Yokohama and is a third generation Chinese living in Japan. He is the only son of Xia Shun Wen. Because he was born and grew up in Japan, Gao Wen doesn’t think of himself as Chinese, but he speaks Chinese and Xia Yu encourages him to use it daily. Although he cries easily, Gao Wen is a nice, friendly child who plays with anybody. He’s a bit envious of other children who have brothers and sisters, so he tries to infulence his parents by constantly commenting, “I want a baby sister” at every opportunity.

Minato-san is the owner of Bar Yokosuka, but the management of the club is handled by Saijo-san. She moved to Dobuita 10 years ago without any clear intentions, but then suddenly decided to open this bar. It seems she and Iwao have met sometime in the past, but ever since his murder, she refuses to talk about him. Nobody knows what happened between them.

Born in a suburb of Yokosuka, Yoshie started working at a credit card bank as an accounting clerk after graduating from high school. She met the Yaokatsu owner, her predecessor and future father-in-law, who was at the time looking for a capable wife for his son. He was enamored of Yoshie, and after a lot of effort, she convinced Yoshie to marry his son when he was 23. Yoshie had a baby boy when she was 25 and has worked alongside her husband Masaru at Yaokatsu Produce ever since. Ever since her father-in-law died 10 years ago, Yoshie gives Masaru a hard time whenever he tries to use the shop’s profits for gambling on pachinko and betting on the horses—exactly as his father would have wished. Yoshie and Masaru’s only son, 15-year old Hiroshi, (Yoshie believes Hiroshi’s name in Japanese stands for “doctor” while Masaru believes it means “gamble”) was sent to a boarding school in England by his mother to prevent him from ruining his future by becoming a gambler like his father.

Yoshifumi is the manager of Heartbeats Bar. He never talks about himself so no one knows about his past or when and why he opened the bar. He has his own standards and judges everything by that measure. He shows a sort of affection towards so-called “outsiders” and for this reason, many “outsiders” like hanging out at his bar. He hates so called “square” (normal) people with a passion. Rumor has it Yoshifumi is involved in illegal activities such as drug dealing, but no one knows for sure.

The You Arcade owner, Yuji Nito, lives in Maison de Ishikawa. He opened the arcade three years ago, but he himself isn’t much of an arcade game player. Because of this, Nito-san doesn’t keep up with the latest games and doesn’t get new machines until his customers tell him to. He has set up various businesses in the past, but they all ended in failure. He started this arcade business, his last chance, by getting multiple loans. What he has achieved is owed mainly to his wife, who has been very supportive, both openly and in secret. They have been married for 10 years and live happily, although they are still childless. Nito-san’s wish is to pay off all their debts and live a life of leisure, traveling the world with his wife.

Yuriko’s father is a banker, who frequently moves from twon to town on business. She was born in Nagoya, stayed in Osaka during her elementary school days, and came to Yokosuka when she was in junior high school. When she was in her third year of high school, her family moved to Fukuoka, leaving Yuriko behind to continue her education. She started living alone at Oiwa Apartments in Dobuita. When Yuriko was a college student, she worked part-time at the Smiley Flower Shop and had the full confidence of the shop owner, Nemoto-san. She has continued working for the florist after she graduated from college and many neighbors believe she is the owner of the shop. She is very comfortable in her surroundings and has started thinking that it may be nice to remain and grow old in Dobuita. Her boyfriend is Kurita-san from the Kurita Military Surplus. She knows Ryo because she has scolded him when she’s caught him fighting or being bad. Ryo thinks of Yuriko as if she were an older sister.