The narrator laments that his first love is "a number salon excuse" . He can't figure out why he's always been wearing a hat, or why he doesn't have a bald head. He's sorry that he didn't handle his father's request to marry his mother, and he wants to stay and see her. He also wants to meet his daughter-in-law, who's going to the shrine with her father. The narrator says that he'd like to marry her himself, but he'll have to find someone else to marry him. He tells the narrator that he made a cup out of cardboard and gave it to her as a present. The kimono looks good, but it's just as much as he can do for her, he says. He says that she shouldn't spend all her time with a "geezer like me" , and that she should stay by his side. He asks if she wants the recipe for the flower they make every year, and she says yes. She thanks him for the vase, which fits one of the flowers they make each year at the shrine. She says she'll teach her something, and the narrator says he can teach her better than she can teach him.