The chapter opens on a Friday morning in January. It's the day before Valentine's Day, and the Host of the Talk Show, Hiroyuki Rinehart, welcomes the listeners to his show. He's happy to hear that his show is growing in popularity. He also tells the listeners that the only time he's ever spoken to someone from another country was when he first moved to Sapporo, Japan. The Host tells him that the people on his show can speak a little bit of Japanese, and that they've written to him saying they're looking for work. He asks if this is from an American, and she says yes. He tells her about the fuel shed, which is a place where people can buy fuel without any kind of label on it. He says that one of the people burned a cigarette in the shed yesterday, and he thought he was going to ambush her after school, but then he realized that he wasn't going to go to college. He wants to join the overseas cooperation volunteers in Japan, but his dad slapped him three times when he said he wanted to do so. He thanks the Host for letting him stay so long near the cemetery, and then he tells the Host about his part-time job as a writer on a comedy show for hcb radio. He admits that he sometimes gets a little spacey, but says he'll live with his dirty little desires.