gold fish top

Figuring that buying his two young boys a present would help ease the wrath of an angry spouse when he got home late after a night of drinking with co-workers (as process known as nominication), company employee Taro Suzuki may have inadvertently left the gift in a public phone booth after calling his wife to say he would be later than expected due to having missed the last train.

“My boys have a huge aquarium and love gold fish,” said Suzuki while picking his ear with his house keys. “I thought if I brought home a few more their joy at receiving them would help calm the wife who, if past experience is any kind of indicator, might be somewhat displeased with my having missed dinner to go out for a few with the guys.”

It wasn’t until Suzuki got home and went to make his play, however, that he realized he no longer had the fish!

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Sober and thinking about the previous evening the next morning, Suzuki could remember having the fish when he called his wife from a public phone booth in a nearby park. “The period after the call and arriving home to a fuming wife at the door is still kind of a blank. I hate it when Tanaka always makes me guzzle a final round of sake bombers before calling it a night, the effects always sneak up on me later when I’m least prepared,” said Suzuki, slowly shaking his head in annoyance. “What can you do though? When the boss says drink you’ve gotta drink.”

Needing to get in to work early to prepare for a major client presentation, a still bewildered Suzuki set off for the morning train, still wondering “What happened to my goldfish?”

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All ended well though, as later in the day the wife of Suzuki’s neighbor came to his house and gave his own wife the fish, telling her, “I think your husband dropped these off by mistake last night.”

Note: The picture of the phone booth full of fish used in this article is unrelated to the story and is work of modern art by Nobuki Yamamoto being displayed at Yanagawa Art Museum until May 5. For those of you who’ll be in the area, we highly recommend checking it out.

Source: Jin115