Do you know the story of the “homeless junior high school student”?

When Hiroshi Tamura was was just ten, his mother died of an illness, which was a terrible shock to his family. A bigger surprise was in store five years later, however, when Hiroshi and his older brother and sister arrived home to find their house repossessed.

Their father appeared soon after, explaining the situation: the family was penniless and had lost everything. “So we’ll all go our separate ways now. Family, dismissed!”

Determined not to drop out of school, he moved to a nearby park where he lived, sleeping on a sliding board for several months, eating rice when he could get it and cardboard boxes when he couldn’t and washing himself with rain water. Through hard work, he was eventually able to graduate from high school, and now he’s part of a successful Japanese comedian duo called Kirin.

When he mentioned his sad experiences on the air once, an editor saw it and suggested he write a book about it. Homuresu Chugakusei became a huge hit, selling more than 2 million copies in Japan and spawning a movie deal.

The story of a young person who’s able to be thankful for something that we all take for granted — the availability of hot water — really struck a chord with modern Japanese readers.