“Taste of your Hometown”: Evoking Nostalgia through the Diner Space in Midnight Diner

Abstract

Restaurant spaces are seen as a space that intersects between the personal and the cultural. This paper looks at a Japanese TV series, Midnight Diner, an adaptation of a Manga by Yaro Abe, where a tiny, not-so-popular restaurant in one of the back lanes in Tokyo serves food from midnight to 7 a.m. This show makes several meaningful connections between food, memory, and space as the customers come with specific food cravings, and the Master (the owner-chef of the Diner) is happy to customize. The diner space transcends the traditional meaning of a diner that not only serves food to satiate hunger but is an experience that evokes nostalgia— for their home and their loved ones. The wistfulness in the lives of the customers for their home, people, and home-cooked food finds a release in the diner. The space of the diner acquires different meanings, as do the dishes the customer relishes. Thus, the paper explores the diner space as a symbolic space where each episode introduces a new character, a new story, and the past they deal with while the food is prepared and consumed on screen. The taste, smell, texture, and ingredients of the food in this diner stimulate the senses, and this space acquires emotional meaning for everyone stepping in.