Preparations
- It's Japan time. Corinna and her dad almost miss their flight because they forget to bring Maki's dog food and medication to the boarder, but they make it just in time.
- The flight to Tokyo takes forever, but eventually they make it there, too.
- The next morning they go to a fish market. After looking around for a while, they order noodles and struggle to eat them with chopsticks.
- They go to a shrine called Meiji Jingu, where Corinna's dad pulls out a small bag of her mom's ashes and suggests they sprinkle them there.
- It's beautiful, but it doesn't feel right to Corinna somehow; she's not sure how they can visit Sophie if her ashes are in Japan.
- Her dad says they can wait, and puts the bag of ashes back in his pocket.
- Before they leave the shrine, Corinna makes a wish that the next year will be easier, and prays that her mom will stay in her life forever.
- Corinna's dad calls Sophie's host family, the Ishibashis. After a stilted conversation in very basic English, they make a plan to meet at a coffee shop.
- When Mr. and Mrs. Ishibashi show up, they want to know where Sophie is. Corinna and her dad don't speak Japanese, and the Ishibashis don't speak much English, so they do a lot of different hand gestures meaning death.
- The Ishibashis invite the Burdettes to their home, where they serve them pickles and minnows. Corinna decides not to eat it and risk throwing up, but worries that she's being rude by leaving it on her plate.
- She goes to the bathroom, but the toilet has lots of unfamiliar buttons, and she accidentally pushes one that sprays water all over the room.
- When they finally get out of there, Corinna and her dad burst into giggles on the sidewalk. What can they do in such a bizarre situation but laugh?