The House of the Lost on the Cape

30 young men and women who came together on a shady bus tour. The tour's destination: an illusive, possibly nonexistent village called Nanakimura. In Nanakimura, one can lead a utopian existence, free of the world's obstacles … or so it was rumored, like an urban legend. "In despair over the real world ... wanting to escape the tedious daily life … wanting to restart your life from scratch …" The bus headed deep into the mountains, carrying 30 people each harboring their own expectations and wounds in their hearts… And so, the place these 30 arrived at, was an uninhabited village with the lingering faint scents of life, even though it was falling apart. What is the truth of Nanakimura facing the 30? You can't miss even one episode!

The story is set in 1955 in Kokuga, Hofu City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. One thousand years ago it was the site of the ancient capital, Suo no Kuni, and traces of the Heian Period (year 794-1185) are passed down to us in the form of ruins and historical place names. The protagonist is Shinko, a third grade elementary school student, who was born and raised in one of the town's venerable families. She is a little girl whose characteristic is a strange curl on her forehead (she calls it her "Mai Mai"), and her love for playing in the fields. On the other hand, her secret joy is to imagine and to daydream about the world of one thousand years ago. Her fantasies travel far into the days of the Heian Period… One day, a girl called Kiiko transfers from Tokyo and enters Shinko's class. This girl from the big city has difficulty feeling at home in this small town, but gradually her friendship with Shinko deepens. Before long, the two of them become engulfed in a strange incident of one thousand years earlier...?!

The earth shook. The sea roared. A far greater disaster followed. And then... There is a small house solitary standing by the seaside. A pigtail-braided girl is living there alone since that day. Mail is no longer delivered, but even this morning she's hanging out the laundry as usual. She's unaware that all around her, the clothes-pegs are quarreling, the pillow argues with the umbrella about the outside world, and the new toothbrush is unsuccessfully trying to be polite with the silent, old ones. Do things exist to be used until they are consumed or broken? Are they afraid of being thrown away once their life cycle is complete?

A short film only screened at the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. Fuki packs all her needs in a big rucksack, and sets out on a journey to look for a new house. After going through the car-jammed city, she finds a stone Jizo statue on an old, narrow path. Fuki places an apple as an offering to ask for passage and walks on. On her way, she encounters the river guardian Nurari-Hyotan, the shrine guardian Ushi-Oni, and other strange creatures one after another. What will Fuki do now?