The chapter opens with a soliloquy by a young man named Minato, who has just returned from a trip to Japan. Minato tells the narrator that he has returned home from the trip and that he is taking off his shoes. The narrator asks him what he has been up to, and Minato replies that he hasn't been able to visit the grave because all the young people have been moving away from the town. He asks the young man if he would like to meet his parents. The young man says that he would be glad to speak to his parents, since he has just moved into a new house. He tells Minato that he wants to learn how to live in a house of his own, since the old man who lived in the house left him to live on his own