In The Solitary Gourmet, a workday can end with a completely different kind of business.
In Season 10, Goro Inogashira continues traveling around Japan for his work as an importer of miscellaneous goods. When an appointment takes him to a new neighborhood, he eventually starts looking for somewhere to eat. The rest of the episode follows Goro as he studies menus, changes his mind, and settles into whatever meal catches his attention.
Played by Yutaka Matsushige, Goro has been the center of the series since it began in 2012. Season 10 arrived in 2022 as the show’s 10th season and its 10th anniversary.
Goro’s Work Takes Him All Over Japan
Goro’s job gives the series a simple reason to keep moving.
One episode takes him to Hashimoto in Sagamihara, where a business meeting leaves him hungry enough to start looking for lunch. Another brings him to Shirokanedai in Tokyo for Indonesian food. Later episodes take him to places including Gero City in Gifu, Toyama City, and Asahi City in Chiba.
The locations are just as important as the meals.
Goro spends time walking through shopping streets and residential neighborhoods, passing small businesses and local landmarks before deciding where to eat. The food gives him a reason to explore places he might otherwise simply pass through for work.
The Meals Are Based on Real Restaurants
One of the show’s most distinctive details is that the restaurants featured in the drama are real.
The series chooses actual eateries and builds each episode around the food Goro discovers there. That gives the meals a connection to the places he visits, rather than treating them as dishes created solely for a television set.
Season 10 moves through a particularly broad range of food.
Goro eats Indonesian dishes in Tokyo, regional dishes in Gifu, seafood in Toyama, and different kinds of Japanese and Western-style meals throughout the season. Episode 8, for example, takes him to Toyama City for crab-masked oden and a seafood bowl. Episode 11 brings him to Asahi in Chiba for a pork loin sauté with salt wasabi.
A Lot Can Happen Before Lunch
The food is usually the destination, but Goro’s work gives each episode a small story before he gets there.
In the seventh episode, he travels to Sasazuka in Tokyo for a meeting about a custom golf bag. His client is so distracted by his students that the business discussion keeps getting interrupted. Eventually, Goro’s attention turns toward food, leading him to a meal of fu-chanpuru and tomato curry tsukesoba.
In the final episode, Goro heads to Kojimachi for a business meeting during the last week of the year. He walks through the office district during lunchtime and joins the crowd of workers looking for somewhere to eat. He ends up at an Italian restaurant, where meatloaf becomes his final major meal of the season.
These little detours are a big part of the appeal of the series. Goro’s work, the neighborhood, and the people he meets all lead naturally toward the meal.
The Food Is Only Half the Fun
A large part of The Solitary Gourmet comes from watching Goro think through what he wants to eat.
He notices a restaurant sign. He reads the menu. He considers one dish, then spots something else that sounds better. Once the food arrives, his attention narrows completely to the meal in front of him.
The drama also spends plenty of time inside Goro’s head. His thoughts about food are often funny, especially when hunger starts influencing his decisions.
There is no rush to move past the meal. The camera gives the food time, and Goro’s reactions make even an unfamiliar dish feel worth investigating.
Season 10 Marks a Milestone
Season 10 was released in 2022, marking both the show’s 10th television season and its 10th anniversary.
The series is based on the manga Kodoku no Gourmet, written by Masayuki Kusumi and illustrated by Jiro Taniguchi. The manga first ran from 1994 to 1996 before being collected into a book, and later returned to serialization in Weekly SPA! from 2008 to 2015. TV Tokyo reported more than 1.5 million copies sold across the series as of September 2022.
Yutaka Matsushige has played Goro throughout the television adaptation, with Masayuki Kusumi also appearing in the recurring post-episode segment known as “Furauri Qusumi.”
Watch The Solitary Gourmet Season 10
Season 10 has 12 episodes, with Goro traveling through different parts of Japan and discovering a new meal in each one.
If you enjoy Japanese food, neighborhood walks, and relaxed slice-of-life storytelling, Season 10 offers plenty to explore. Each episode gives you another place to visit and another meal to watch Goro discover.
