The 31st episode of the NHK Asadora drama series "Kaze,Kaoru " (NHK General, Monday-Saturday 8:00 AM, etc.), starring Ai Mikami and Juri Kosaka , aired on May 11th. In this episode, morning drama fans reacted to actress Ayaka Higashino, who plays a nurse at Teito Medical University Hospital, where Rin (Mikami) and Naomi (Uesaka), the first class of nursing school students, begin their practical training as Asadora apprentices.
Rin (Mikami), Naomi (Uesaka), and the other first-generation students of the Umeoka Girls' School Nursing Training Institute began their practical training at the hospital as nursing apprentices. Vice Director Watanabe Yukinari (Morita Kanro) gave them a tour of the hospital, and the first-generation students were led to a large ward. The bed sheets were disheveled, the windows were still closed, and the nurses Nagata Fuyu (Nekozawa Tsubaki) and Sunaga Yoshi (Akeboshi Mayumi) were working with a bored expression.
Afterward, Watanabe led Rin and the others to the nurses' and trainees' quarters and addressed nurse Miura Tsuya (Higashino), saying, "You there," and instructed her, "Assign the trainees to which departments they will go to." However, Tsuya muttered, "Why me...?"
Towards the end, when Fuyu, Yoshi, and Tsuya return to the nurses' station, Tae (Erika Ikuta) shows them a "nursing diary" and suggests, "We'll use this notebook to record the condition of the patients in each room." When Tsuya asks, "Why?", Tae explains, "So that anyone can see any changes in the patients' condition." Fuyu grumbles annoyed, "You're just creating more work for us without us even asking," but Tsuya responds with, "Oh, really..."
Higashino plays Tsuya, a nurse at Teito Medical University Hospital. She works in gynecology but is not good with children. This is Higashino's first appearance in a Asadora since "Ochoyan" in the latter half of 2020, where she played Mitsue, the only daughter of the owner of the theater teahouse "Okayasu" where the protagonist Chiyo (Hana Sugisaki Hana) works as a maid.
On social media, comments included: "It's Mitsue from 'Ochoyan'!!", "Mitsue's here!", "It really is Mitsue, isn't it!?", "I thought I'd seen her somewhere before, and it's Ayaka Higashino", "It's been a while since I've seen Ayaka Higashino since 'Ochoyan'", "I was surprised to learn that the nurse Tsuya is Mitsue from 'Ochoyan'. She's lost that strong character she had as Mitsue and looks really flustered...", "I didn't recognize her right away", and "I'm so, so happy to see her in the role of Tsuya".
