- Akiko Miwa: You have to marry eventually.
- Ayako Miwa: No, I don't. I'm happy just as I am. But Mother, if I did find someone, what would you do?
- Akiko Miwa: What do you mean?
- Ayako Miwa: Would you be lonely?
- Akiko Miwa: I'd miss you, but it can't be helped. I'd have to make do. It was the same with my mother. That's how it is with parents and children.
- Shuzo Taguchi: She really is beautiful.
- Seiichiro Hirayama: I love talking to girls of that age.
- Shuzo Taguchi: And the daughter's not bad either.
- Soichi Mamiya: Ah, you meant her mother?
- Shuzo Taguchi: Hasn't changed a bit.
- Soichi Mamiya: Truly beautiful.
- Seiichiro Hirayama: Yes, she is. But her daughter is nice too.
- Soichi Mamiya: Sure, she's nice. On the other hand, Akiko is pst 40 already.
- Shuzo Taguchi: If given a choice, I'd take the mother. A fine woman.
- Soichi Mamiya: Yes, she is.
- Seiichiro Hirayama: Are you serious?
- Shuzo Taguchi: Absolutely. It's true what they say about men with beautiful wives dying young.
- Soichi Mamiya: Miwa paid a steep price for his good fortune. She's grown even more attractive recently.
- Shuzo Taguchi: You noticed too?
- Soichi Mamiya: How could I not?
- Shuzo Taguchi: You got to be dense not to feel it.
- Seiichiro Hirayama: I feel it. Just not as much as you guys.
- Seiichiro Hirayama: It's quite inconvenient living alone.
- Soichi Mamiya: Inconvenient? You have your housekeeper.
- Seiichiro Hirayama: That's true. Still there are certain things...
- Soichi Mamiya: You mean - an itch you can't scratch?
- Seiichiro Hirayama: Yeah, you might say that.
- Soichi Mamiya: So you suddenly started to itch?
- Seiichiro Hirayama: I guess.
- Shuzo Taguchi: A man married to her might die young. Her body's so sturdy!
- Soichi Mamiya: Like a pro wrestler.
- Seiichiro Hirayama: If she got him in a head scissor...
- Shuzo Taguchi: He'd never survive. His head would be crushed!
- [all laugh]
- Shuzo Taguchi: Who told you that?
- Nobuko: You did.
- Shuzo Taguchi: I said that? When?
- Nobuko: When you were drunk, celebrating Yoko's birth.
- Shuzo Taguchi: Really? I said that? I used to be so honest.
- Nobuko: Yes, more than now.
- Seiichiro Hirayama: Did you feel the earthquake last nigh?
- Soichi Mamiya: Was there one? I didn't feel it.
- Seiichiro Hirayama: Yes, there was. But just a small one.
- Michiko: Kids these days...
- Shotaru Goto: Mine are terrible. We were better at that age. Girls' Opera was as crazy as we got.
- Michiko: That's right. "Mon Paris" and "When Violets Bloom Again."
- Shotaru Goto: Now it's all rockabilly and Elvis Presley. No wonder girls arrange flowers in painted tin cans now.
- Yuriko Sasaki: We're no match for the girls these days.
- Nobuko: They really are something! Fatty tuna, please.
- Yuriko Sasaki: Clams for me.
- Shukichi Miwa: Why weren't we invited to her reception? We should have been.
- Seiichiro Hirayama: She's probably forgotten us.
- Shukichi Miwa: We all joined the company at the same time. We were so close.
- Seiichiro Hirayama: Yes, but people grow apart over time.
- Shukichi Miwa: Then marriage is the worst. Are men like that too?
- Seiichiro Hirayama: I don't know.
- Shukichi Miwa: If our friendship ended because one of us got married, I'd be miserable. Marriage is the worst.
- Seiichiro Hirayama: You're right.
- Shukichi Miwa: Making fools of us!
- Shuzo Taguchi: Time flies. How long has it been for you?
- Seiichiro Hirayama: What?
- Shuzo Taguchi: Since your wife passed away?
- Seiichiro Hirayama: Four, nearly five years.
- Shuzo Taguchi: [pouring Mr. Hirayama a cup of tea] Look! The tea stalks stood on end.
- Seiichiro Hirayama: Is that so? That's a good sign.
- Shuzo Taguchi: We're in a temple. It might mean your wife is coming for you.
- Shuzo Taguchi: The pickled bracken? They were great! The older one gets, the more one enjoys such food.
- Shukichi Miwa: That's true.
- Shuzo Taguchi: Hijiki and carrots, shitake and dried radish, fresh tofu and deep-fried tofu.
- Seiichiro Hirayama: What about beefsteak and pork cutlets?
- [everybody laughs]
- Seiichiro Hirayama: I'm sorry for speaking my mind so freely.
- Akiko Miwa: Not at all. It was a pleasant time.
- Wakamatsu's Owner: You men should've bought aphrodisiacs, not cold medicine.
- Shuzo Taguchi: That's true.
- Soichi Mamiya: We didn't know about such things. Unlike youngsters today, we were pure and naive.
- Wakamatsu's Owner: I wonder.
- Nobuko: In marriage, you eventually just give up.
- Shuzo Taguchi: That's true for both sides. Yoko needs to learn some patience.
- Nobuko: Marriage is really tedious when you think about it.
- Shuzo Taguchi: You can't ask for too much. There'll be no end to it.
- Shuzo Taguchi: You're late.
- Soichi Mamiya: Yes, a bit.
- Seiichiro Hirayama: It just started.
- Soichi Mamiya: Then I'm too early.
- Akiko Miwa: Mr. Taguchi is very amusing.
- Soichi Mamiya: Too amusing! Everything he touches turns into a farce.
- Fumiko: If Ayako gets married, Akiko will be left all alone.
- Soichi Mamiya: She'll get by somehow. She'll have no choice.
- Fumiko: Is Akiko as beautiful as ever?
- Soichi Mamiya: Yes, very beautiful. But I like Ayako more. She's so pure.
- Fumiko: Oh, really?
- Akiko Miwa: How nice for them to have hiking trip instead of a wedding shower - unthinkable in my day.
- Akiko Miwa: You wanted to do some shopping? Shall we go?
- Ayako Miwa: You need needles, right?
- Akiko Miwa: And one of the seven Ts.
- Ayako Miwa: What? Ah, you mean tarako cod roe.
- Akiko Miwa: You're just like your father!
- Ayako Miwa: How so?
- Akiko Miwa: You like to be fully equipped wherever you go. Your father even took pumice stones to the hot springs.
- Ayako Miwa: To scrape the soles of his feet -- I remember that. Let's go to the hot springs again.
- Akiko Miwa: Do you remember when we went to Shuzenji Temple and all the carp in the pond at the inn?
- Ayako Miwa: They gobbled up all the peanuts I threw in.
- Akiko Miwa: The next morning those carp were dead -- puffy and white.
- Ayako Miwa: That really scared me, but Father just laughed.
- Akiko Miwa: That was the last trip with him. The maple leaves were so beautiful.
- Sakae Kuwata: She ought to marry. The men get worse the longer you wait. I married late - but I still did okay.
- Ayako Miwa: For me, love and marriage don't necessarily go hand in hand.
- Soichi Mamiya: What's that supposed to mean?
- Ayako Miwa: Well, that means...
- Soichi Mamiya: You're for having affairs?
- Ayako Miwa: That's not what I mean!
- Soichi Mamiya: Really? I'm sorry.
- Ayako Miwa: It would be ideal if love and marriage always went together, but even if not, life is still worthwhile. In fact, cases where they don't aren't rare.
- Soichi Mamiya: You must really love your mother.
- Ayako Miwa: I guess I do. We still quarrel a lot.
- Soichi Mamiya: That's proof of your love. Parents and children who aren't close can't even squabble.
- Shuzo Taguchi: Young women are straightforward these days, though a few are pretty odd.
- Seiichiro Hirayama: But I can see her side.
- Shuzo Taguchi: How so?
- Seiichiro Hirayama: About love and marriage being separate.
- Soichi Mamiya: That makes for a cold world.
- Shuzo Taguchi: That's so crazy it just might work.
- Seiichiro Hirayama: Stop kidding around. I'm not ready for that kind of thing. She's the widow of an old friend!
- Shuzo Taguchi: Don't be so straight-laced.
- Seiichiro Hirayama: Forget it! Out of the question. It's downright immoral.
- Soichi Mamiya: What's so immoral? You're a widower. She's a widow.
- Soichi Mamiya: Hirayama's serious.
- Shuzo Taguchi: You know, she'd be wasted on him. She's so beautiful. You should have seen her on the verge of tears.
- Soichi Mamiya: Really?
- Shuzo Taguchi: Like a delicate flower battered by a rainstorm. She peeled an apple for me with those lovely white hands.
- Soichi Mamiya: Did you eat it?
- Shuzo Taguchi: Yes. It was delicious.
- Children's Choir: [singing] Autumn leaves in every hue, Of yellow and red, Float down the stream, Woven like brocade...