Rokugo is tucked away a bit from the main area of Furano. This is where you’ll find the actual houses where Goro, Jun, and Hotaru lived in the legendary TV drama “Kita no Kuni kara” (From the North Country). Maybe it’s because my parents were such big fans, but I’m pretty sure I watched every single episode of the series. I remember always being so invested in the lives of the kids, who were around my age, as they navigated all the drama of living in harsh nature with their somewhat clumsy father, Goro.
Goro’s Stone House is the one he built by stacking stones in the “’89 Homecoming” special. It looks exactly like I remember, and it really brings back scenes from the show. That said, my strongest memories of the show are of the brutal winter landscape, so seeing the red roof and windmill standing out under a bright blue sky feels quite different from the image in my head.
On the same grounds, you can also see the first house the Kuroita family lived in when they moved from Tokyo. There are photos of Jun and Hotaru when they were still quite small, which brought back a wave of nostalgia. “Kita no Kuni kara” might be the only drama for me where I can truly appreciate the sheer effort it took to film over such a long period—it feels like I didn’t just watch it, but experienced it alongside them. As you can see on the left of the last photo, when Kunie Tanaka (who played Goro Kuroita) passed away, people came here to offer flowers. They even built a grave for him here, which just goes to show how much this show was loved by so many people.
Come to think of it, I remember that scene where Jun built a wind turbine all by himself just to generate some electricity… all these memories are flooding back. Plus, they were playing that famous theme song in the background, which really made me feel a bit emotional as I reminisced about those days.
A short distance from the Stone House is the “Picked-up House,” which Goro built for Yukiko by combining all sorts of salvaged items. When you look closely, Goro actually built a surprising number of houses… It makes me realize I can’t even remember what his actual job was supposed to be. Looking at these, you’d think he was a professional carpenter!
And finally, this. By today’s standards, these viewer ratings are absolutely mind-blowing (though I’m sure they were considered incredibly high back then, too).
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