This was a relatively cute episode concerning Teru-chan the rice maker and an annual shrine festival ^_^ Each year Isshouan cooks for the people of the festival and this year is no different. Kenbo, Tome, Yocchan and Osen go to a small shop where they pick up a bundle of hay for cooking rice, and she chats with the shopkeeper for a bit. Because of his waning health, he opts not to participate in the festival this year. On the way back, a group of rough-looking men surround Osen and wants her to do a drinking contest with them in front of the shrine. Osen looks troubled and turns them down.
Meanwhile, Teru-chan is prepping up for her trip to the big city for a junior high reunion. She is asked about whether or not she has someone that she likes and she talks about Fujiki-kun, the star back in the day. She excitedly leaves for her trip.
Later on, Osen and the Isshouan members go out to dinner and Osen asks Chinpindo if he can help turn down the rough group of men for her about drinking sake in the shrine. He agrees to do it and just then Teru-chan comes to join them after returning from her junior high reunion. When she is asked if she had fun, Teru-chan looks a bit reluctant to say, but says that she did and then proceeds to get really drunk. She later confesses to Osen that she was made fun of by everyone when they heard that she was a professional rice cooker who used straw to make it.
The next day or so, Shizu notices a strange man taking pictures of Isshouan's exterior. She goes and grabs Kenbo, Tome, and Yocchan to see who it would be. The three men approach the portly-looking photographer and demands to know why he is on their property when Osen and Teru-chan arrive. Teru-chan immediately recognizes the man as her former sempai, Fujiki-kun.
Inside Isshouan, Fujiki explains how he heard about Teru-chan's job so he had to come and see. He gives his business card to Osen and she notices that he is with a magazine publisher. She tells him that they do not really do interviews and Fujiki says that it's fine, he was just doing it out of interest. Osen then recommends that while Fujiki is there, Teru-chan can make something for him to eat. She excitedly goes and makes rice for Fujiki and Osen asks Yocchan to bring two round bowls out to which he enthusiastically replies with "Are we doing Kotoko Meshi?" and she says yes.
When the rice is done cooking, Osen puts the rice in one of the bowls and hands it to Fujiki to cover with the second to shake. Because of the sound it makes, they call it "Kotoko" Meal. After shaking the rice into a ball, Fujiki drops it into another bowl and tops it with a paste that Osen prepared for him. He is very impressed and leaves Isshouan pretty excited to have seen and eaten Teru-chan's rice meal.
Everything seemed to be going well until Osen receives a reservation for four people who want to eat "Kotoko Meshi" and she is very surprised over it. Many of the guests who go to Isshouan later also request the same thing including the rough-looking bunch who wants to do a drinking contest with Osen. When they try to find out why all of this is happening, Kenbo goes online and discovers Fujiki's blog talking about the meal and also showing Teru-chan making it.
Meanwhile, Teru-chan discovers that they have no more hay left and it is problematic because the festival is just around the corner. Osen goes to the shopkeeper from before to see if they can get anymore straw, but the shopkeep's son says that there's no way they can get any soon by the time of the festival. Teru-chan then suggests that she goes to her hometown to get more straw and that she would call up Fujiki to get help. However, when she is unable to connect to Fujiki, she heads into town to find Fujiki at his workplace.
When she gets to Fujiki's workplace, she asks if she can borrow his car so she can get to Niigata (her hometown) to get straw. Unfortunately, Fujiki turns her down and says that he's too busy for it to which she tells him that it's his fault that they are in such a pickle due to that blog. After a heated argument in the office, she leaves and returns to Isshouan. When she arrives empty-handed, the Isshouan crew looks troubled until Chinpindo arrives. Sei realizes that Chinpindo has a truck so they ask him to take Kenbo to Niigata to get hay.
Much later however, Osen gets a phone call from Chinpindo saying that his car broke down so they are unable to make it back right away, but they'll give it their best to get back tomorrow. Upon hearing this and after she hangs up with Chinpindo, Osen decides that they should not participate in the festival since they can't cook. However, Teru-chan firmly objects to this and really wants to do it. She ends up saying a little too much and Osen looks troubled and hurt by her words.
Later that evening when Yocchan goes to see Osen, he happens upon her room, empty. He freaks out and tells everyone that Osen has disappeared. Everyone goes looking for Osen all night long, but are unable to find her. The next morning though, Osen arrives back with Chinpindo, Kenbo, and the rough-looking group driving a really huge truck carrying lots of hay and also Chinpindo's truck on top of it. With all the hay, the Isshouan crew is now able to make the food necessary for the festival. At the same time, Fujiki comes to Isshouan and Teru-chan is about to give him a piece of her mind when he shows her his trunk full of straw. She is touched and they unload all the straw, go inside, and she cooks rice for him to see while explaining the whole process to him this time.
When Teru-chan is done making the rice, she makes some onigiri (or kanmeshi as they call it) for Fujiki to take back with him while the rest of the Isshouan members make tons for the festival. All preparations are completed and the festival goes really smoothly. Yocchan and the boys find out from Chinpindo that everything worked out because Osen agreed to the drinking contest and they hurriedly rushed to the shrine after she is taken away by them.
Inside the shrine, Osen and one of the rough-looking men start drinking lots of sake and in the end, Osen comes out winning. She sways back to the Isshouan kitchen and Teru-chan apologizes to her for putting her through this, but Osen has never blamed her. She tells Teru-chan to do something for her though and we later see Teru-chan going to the shopkeeper's place with some rice balls to give to him and his son. The shopkeeper is touched and says that he should try and make it next year.
Back at home, Osen is making a rice dish with wasabi, tea, etc., and the boys plus Teru-chan help out after Teru-chan gets home. When the dish is completed, they sit together and happily eat the food.
Overall, the episode is pretty laid-back and it's cute, but not the most exciting. The drinking contest was cute though.
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