April 28: A Round Cabbage

Field Trip
On a lovely summer day, virtually the entire first-year and second-year Yamabuki art department gets on buses to the zoo. Their assignment when they arrive is to draw animals. On her class's bus, Yoshinoya decides to play tour guide, pointing out local "attractions" such as Berry Mart, but is soon on the verge of collapse from motion sickness. Yuno. who is prone to motion sickness herself, describes a series of precautions she has taken to Miyako, finally donning shades to block out some of the sight of motion.

Despite not all being the same year, the Hidamari tenants tour the zoo together. Along the way the makes numerous observation, such as mental speculation on elephants wearing skin lotion and the familial relations of monkeys grooming each other. When they finally sit down to lunch, the girls show off what they have prepared, but are shocked with Miyako produces a cabbage -- which was apparently all the packed lunch she could afford.

After lunch, the girls start looking over each other's drawings. Yuno and Miyako both make whimsical but wildly inaccurate drawings, which Sae lectures them on before admitting that she is also bad at drawing animals. A recovered Yoshinoya appears and praises the drawings, to everyone's surprise.

The Legend of Yoshinoya
Later, Yoshinoya is astonished to find that she has woken up in Hiro's apartment. The girls explain that she had passed out after another bout of motion sickness, still in her tour guide costume. As the teacher recovers, she shares her memories of past Hidamari Apartments tenants, and repeats the complex's often-mentioned reputation as a home to "weirdos from the art department". The girls look over a picture book which evidently has dozens of images of Yoshinoya, each in a different costume. She admits to making all her outfits herself, but denies any interest in "cosplay". Having recovered, Yohsinota returns to the school, but before she leaves someone asks her age. She answers "forever seventeen".

Once she has gone, the girls start to talk about what they have heard about the legend and lore surrounding Yoshinoya, which include many suspicions of past exploits such as having been an important fashion designer or actress, riding horses in the American West, and having heroically rescued an old lady from an oncoming bus. At that point Yoshinoya returns to recover something she had left behind, and playfully points out that it was "actually a little boy".

Episode Trivia

 * Yuno's shades are frequently used in promotional and fan images for the series.