Long Vacation
Original story by Eriko Kitagawa
To make this short and to leave out spoilers, I'll just say it's an hour-long
weekly drama, with 12 or so episodes and one special. If you love playing piano,
or if you just love music, you'll really like this show, since it centers around
the piano. If you like anime, this is a great show to watch, too, because of
the major character conflicts and love triangles.
Available as a book by Eriko Kitagawa.
Characters
Sena (Takuya Kimura) - The Tokyo Geidai graduate, a piano player still searching
for his purpose in life. 
Minami (Tomoko Yamaguchi) - By a bizarre twist of fate, Sena's roommate/best
friend--- (I won't spoil it).
[What makes this story so pleasurable is the unique chemistry
between Sena and Minami. Minami is 27, the age of actress Yamaguchi Tomoko at
the time of the filming and Sena is 24 (Kimura Takuya's age at the time.) If
you don't know, "KimTaku" is a founding member of SMAP and a very
popular musician in his own right.]
Momoko (Izumi Inamori) - Minami's "kohai," a model who is an Asian
blonde but often makes a lot of sense (kind of like the fools in Shakespeare's
tragedies)
Shinji (Yutaka Takenouchi) - Minami's brother, works in a nightclub, also known
as "Animal Shinji" because of his wild streak. 
Ryoko (Takako Matsu) - The Tokyo Geidai student that Sena has a major crush
on.
Rumiko, "Ru-chan" (Ryo) - Shinji's girlfriend, and majorly protective
of him.
Sugizaki-san - Hires Minami for part-time work and dates her
Sensei - Sena's mentor and professor at Geidai