Suika (2003)

Akiko lives with her mother, but suddenly her mother passes away. Since then she quits her editing job and takes over her mother's small restaurant. At the restaurant there's only two items on the menu: sandwich and soup. ~~~ Based on the novel "Pan to Supu to Neko Biyori" by Yoko Mure.

Sachie is a Japanese woman living alone in Helsinki, who is trying single-handedly to establish a new cafe serving Japanese-style food. Midori is a Japanese woman who has just arrived in Finland for an indefinite time and without any definite plans. She and Sachie happen to meet in a bookstore and she starts to help out in the cafe. Later, Masako, another Japanese woman on her own, turns up. Her baggage has been lost by an airline, and before long she too starts to work in the cafe.

Both were written by the same writers (Kizara Izumi, which is a group of two). I'd say Yuube no Curry is a definite spiritual sequel of Suika and incorporates a lot of elements that had been used in the latter (i.e. Obon festival).