. ♪ >> anthony: nasushiobara is a town like many others in rural japan.uch of in movies or television. a once traditional farming community, slow paced, inward looking, the opposite end of the universe, culturally, from new york and tokyo, even from kanazawa. >> ishi: [ speaking japanese ] >> anthony: it used to be a five-hour trip from tokyo, now reduced to two by the shinkansen bullet train. why don't we have these in america, by the way? ask your congressmen. this rather drab, featureless place is where masa was born and raised and could well have stayed. but then, everything would have been different. masa's dad, yoshio, recently passed. but his mom, ishi is still going strong, the center of the family. >> masa: [ speaking japanese ] >> ishi: yeah. >> catherine: nice to meet you! >> ishi: [ speaking japanese ] >> masa: thank you! tony, tony. >> anthony: pleased to meet you. ♪ catherine is masa's daughter. california raised, but a frequent visitor to the family home. she and her grandmother are preparing some familiar comfort foods to celebrate masa's