Fish for Breakfast —朝食に魚—

Have you ever swallowed too much food at one time, and felt it sliding painfully down your throat? 

This happened to me while eating breakfast with my wife and son at a hotel in Tateyama recently. 

The waiter brought several plates at once and set them in front of us.  There was some bread, some fish, some salad, and some other bits and pieces.  I wasn’t sure what was in front of me, but I found some dry fish. 

“I’ll just finish off this dried fish, so that I can get this plate taken away and hopefully I will be less confused by the collection of dishes in front of me,” I thought. 

My chopsticks found the fish and I gobbled it down quickly - too quickly, and my throat felt constricted. 

I stretched my hand around the plates, looking for my glass of water.  It wasn’t there.  I turned to my wife. 

“Can you see my glass of water?” I said. 

“Hold on,” she said.  “I have to help our son with his breakfast.  I can’t do everything at once.” 

I tried to swallow some saliva, but it wasn’t helping.  Eventually my wife turned round. 

“You wanted a drink?  The waiter hasn’t brought one.  You have to get it from the self-service counter.  There’s orange juice too.  Shall I get you some orange juice?” 

I thought I had better keep things as simple as possible, to hopefully speed things along. 

“Orange juice would be great,” I said. 

My wife stood up and left.  I didn’t seem to be dying, but I felt very uncomfortable.  I was pretty sure there was a fishbone sticking in my throat.  My wife came back and I heaved a sigh of relief. 

“There’s a long queue for the orange juice,” she said.  “I’ll just wait a while until it gets quieter.”

… 

That was a long breakfast.  No more fish and seaweed at breakfast, please.  I want bacon and eggs, and plenty of orange juice and coffee.