So many Japanese have relocated to Tokyo over the years to make their fortunes — or simply to escape rural poverty — that there is a word to describe the act: jōkyō (which the dictionary defines as "proceeding to the capital [Tokyo]"). Something similar in English would be "New York" as a verb: "I New Yorked in 1992 and have lived there ever since." The Big Apple looms large in the American imagination, but not that large.
Based on an autobiographical comic by manga artist Rieko Saibara, Toshiyuki Morioka's "Jokyo Monogatari" (monogatari translates as "story"; the title is a pun on the classic film "Tokyo Monogatari") relates the coming-to-Tokyo story of Natsumi (Kie Kitano), who begins the film as a compendium of jōkyō cliches: young, innocent, ambitious and dirt poor. She is overjoyed with her first pay envelope from her part-time job at an izakaya (pub), but still has to root through the trash for painting supplies at the art college where she studies.
Then a classmate tells her about a job with higher pay: hostess. Soon after, we see Natsumi being pawed by the crude, fat club manager as a sort of initiation — and saying nothing in protest.
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