This week, NHK's travel show "Tsurube no Kazoku ni Kanpai" (Tsurube Toasts Families; NHK-G, Monday, 8 p.m.) begins a two-part series on a trip to Ishikawa prefecture.
The weekly program features rakugo storyteller Tsurube Shofukutei visiting a small town or village, randomly meeting people on the street and getting himself invited to their homes in order to meet as many members of their extended families as possible.
Each week he brings along a famous guest who also walks around meeting people. For this special two-part series it's veteran journalist Shuntaro Torigoe, which is appropriate since they will be visiting a village in Ishikawa that used to be called Torigoe. Several years ago the village consolidated with other local governments to form the city of Hakusan, but many years earlier Torigoe received a gift of local rice from the mayor of the village and his objective on this journey is to locate the former mayor and thank him for the rice.