Binchou-tan

An introduction to Binchō-tan and her peaceful lifestyle. Binchō-tan rides a duck across a river and goes to collect wild vegetables.

Binchō-tan goes to town to find a job to earn money and rice. She does a variety of jobs and shows off her unique talents for filtering water, cooking rice and deodorising shoes and refrigerators. On the way home, she admires some panties featuring Pukashuu, but cannot afford them. However, she finds a pair on sale, featuring her second favorite character, Tamakaeru, which makes her very happy. She returns home and, after a meal, has happy dreams.

It is Binchō-tan's birthday and she receives gifts from her friend, Ubamega. She goes to town to look for work. On the way she hurts her knee and meets Chiku-tan, who tends to her wound. Chiku-tan is also looking for work. The two find jobs and go their separate ways. On the way home, Binchō-tan falls and spills her rice. Chiku-tan appears and helps her pick it up. She invites Binchō-tan back to her house for a surprise birthday party. This episode also introduces Kunugi-tan, who watches Binchō-tan with interest, several times throughout the day.

It's raining and Chiku-tan invents a device for walking in the rain without getting wet, which she calls a chikuma. Unfortunately, it is actually a takeuma, which has already been invented. She goes for a walk and meets Binchō-tan. The two sit in an old car and play word games. The sun comes out and they visit a bamboo grove. Kunugi-tan admires a rainbow from her balcony.

Chiku-tan has a new invention for reaching job flyers. She gets a job serving lunch at Kunugi-tan's school, but finds that it is for two days later, when she is meant to attend a fair. As the fair is the reason she wanted to earn money in the first place, she trades jobs with Binchō-tan, for a job a day earlier in a bakery. Binchō-tan is told that she must dress nicely for her job. While Chiku-tan works, Binchō-tan spends the next day washing her treasured kimono. She wears it proudly to work the next day, but it rains and Kunugi-tan's coach splashes her with mud. After a days work, she meets Kunugi-tan, who apologises and offers her money for a new kimono. Binchō-tan declines, as the kimono was a special gift from her grandmother. Chiku-tan attends the fair, only to find it is cancelled because of the rain.

On the way to work, Binchō-tan watches her favorite show through the window of a TV store. At a crucial moment, the channel is changed. Binchō-tan spends the day wondering how it ended. She works at the temple where Ren-tan lives but the two do not meet. Chiku-tan and Chiku-rin are at a shop, trying their luck in a raffle, but they do not win. Ren-tan arrives and wins the grand prize. She shares it with the two sisters. Binchō-tan receives some dango for her work at the temple and leaves half as an offering at a jizō. She watches a rerun of the TV show on her way home. Later that night, Ren-tan communes with the spirits. A passing Chiku-tan mistakes her for a ghost and spends the rest of the night terrified.