I guess some things really are the same in Japan as they are in America.

This week finds the master of killing time engaged in an activity teens everywhere are familiar with – studying the rules of the road and preparing for his road test.  Except several years too early, and with a remote-controlled toy car.  As usual Seki-kun spares no detail here – he grades his own written test (90 points) and lays our a miniature driving course with S-curves, L-turns and hills.

If you’re a Seki-Yokoi shipper – and really, who isn’t – only one moment in this episode really mattered, and it was this look.  That was the moment Yokoi imagined Seki-kun with a driver’s license and let her imagination run wild – apparently teenage girls in Japan are just as into guys with cars as teenaged girls in the U.S..  But unlike in the U.S. the driving age is 18 in Japan, so both of them are going to have to wait a couple extra years longer for that moment to arrive.

My other favorite moment of the episode occurred when Yokoi observed Seki playing with his rajikon for the second day in a row – after having crashed in the middle of his driving test the day before – and noticing the band-aids on his fingers and the serious expression on his face.  “He’s not playing around!” Yokoi-chan gasps.  “Except, well – he is…”  This episode also offers the rare spectacle of Yokoi getting the last laugh – declining Seki’s offer to take the test herself (it just seems too damn hard) in exchange for giving him the answer to the problem he’s supposed to solve on the board.  But you know, the takeaway here is that Seki really has integrity – even in desperation, he won’t give Yokoi a license unless she earns it fair and square.