This program documents 5 years at a bathhouse in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, that has long provided emotional comfort for local residents. In a time when bathhouses are quickly vanishing from Japan, this program shows the important role the public bathhouse serves as a place where the people of a community can gather, communicate, care for each other, and share laughter.

Professor Jeffrey S. Irish of the International University of Kagoshima is the protagonist of this documentary. He's an American man who lives in a rural town in Japan. And in an effort to save the town he lives in from the looming threat of total depopulation, Jeffrey sets out on a difficult challenge to secure vacant houses so that people from other areas can move into the town he loves so dearly.

Kokkodesho is a performance that has long been featured at the Nagasaki Kunchi Festival. 40 men run through town over the span of 3 days, carrying and tossing a wooden float that weighs over a ton. As the dynamic performance demands perfect coordination, explosive physical power, and impregnable mental strength, the carriers just could not do it without the passionate support of the whole town.