The chapter opens with the narrator lamenting the fact that the Japanese national team has been defeated at the World Cup in Germany and that the country's carbon dioxide levels have spiked. The narrator tells us that he and his brother are going to investigate the cause of the spike in carbon dioxide, and that they will return to the moon in a year's time. He also tells us about his mother's reaction to his return, and how she was "wild with joy" at first, but now she has lost all interest in him. He says he's going to start his job search the next day.