What Our Eating Habits Say About Us
I went to Shimabara because of a newspaper article. It said a young man by the name of Keigo Kirino had died at a local speed eating contest. It was a riceball that did it; a chunk which became lodged in the young man’s throat and refused to leave. He died on route to the hospital.
He was 29.
Apparently, nobody had died at a speed eating contest before. Kirino was the first, which made him famous, or at least, famous enough to make the newspaper. His only other claim to fame (also mentioned in the article) was competing in the Hakone Ekiden marathon during university.
According to the article, after graduation Keigo joined an IT company but quit after three years and returned home. For the following year, leading up to the contest, Kirino lived with his parents. He did not work, and had no history of competitive eating.
I thought about Kirino a lot. Too much. He would not leave my mind. I wondered what inspired him to enter a speed eating contest. How much he trained. Whether he had considered death a possible outcome. What his family thought about it. His friends. I wondered whether the event was one worth dying for.
At the time, I had recently broken up with my girlfriend. My job was melting out of shape along with my future. I didn’t have friends. I was trapped in an existential…
