Something very uncanny has happened. Not once but twice. My chopsticks keep disappearing. More precisely, one of the pair keeps disappearing.

My chopsticks are stored in the top drawer of the main kitchen cabinet, along with the others. Indeed, even in foreign countries, we Japanese people always keep and use chopsticks at home. It’s non-negotiable; an absolutely indispensable part and parcel of our eating habits. We brought several sets of chopsticks when we were moving out of Japan, and we always add new sets whenever we travel to Japan as well. We always keep the finely decorated expensive ones in a box, treating them like fine china, and use the cheaper-but-still-pretty ones instead for daily use. Each pair we own has a different design, so it is easy to distinguish which one belongs to whom.

Speaking of which, Japanese chopsticks are mostly made of wood or bamboo. Korean or Chinese chopsticks are quite different: Koreans use longer metal chopsticks, whereas Chinese use wood or plastic ones that are also longer than ours. The tips are also different; Japanese chopsticks have more pointy tips that allow us more delicate handling of food. But anyway, this is not a post about chopsticks; I could write a whole other post about chopsticks, but this is not the time.

I use chopsticks almost every day, at the very least for one of my meals. It is my task to store them together in the exact same spot after the washing. So, I was totally caught off guard when, one day, I couldn't find one chopstick of my pair. Wtf. I looked inside the drawer where it should be, thoroughly. I searched inside another drawer for utensils and other drawers for pots and bowls, even though it was impossible for me to accidentally put one individual chopstick there. There are bundles and boxes of new and old ones that we keep, so I checked all of those as well. Furthermore, I also inspected the bin and the dishwasher we rarely use. But, there was no trace of it.

Although I was quite perplexed by this turn of events, I let the matter go. Well, I might’ve just misplaced it somewhere, and it might appear on its own, I thought. I just picked up an old chopstick with a broken tip as a spare. Luckily, there was one with the same design, so it didn’t look that bad. Then, not only did it refuse to turn up but, after a few months, it happened again. I would have understood if it were not mine, however, it was again one of my chopsticks. If I were sharing the house with non-family members, I would have suspected some kind of harassment/bullying/prank. Really. What is this? Why a single chopstick? Why mine? Am I in danger? Is this some kind of curse?

I asked everyone in my family about the missing chopstick, but nobody had any idea. I inspected every drawer just as the last time, but this time, with more alertness tinted by uneasiness. Nothing. I picked up an old chopstick, again, from the bundle. There was no more chopstick of the same design, so I reluctantly chose the one with a mismatched design. We still have plenty of new pairs, but now I’m afraid that if I use them, I'd be doomed to lose them, again. One by one.

I’m totally at a loss. This is officially one of the unsolved mysteries in the world; there is no way that a single chopstick that belongs to me keeps disappearing overnight. The mystery of MH370 pales in comparison.

Since the involvement of a third party is completely out of the question, there are only a handful of remote scenarios that I can think of:

1. Someone accidentally threw it away into the trash and I didn't notice
2. Someone just misplaced it somewhere, and I just haven’t found it
3. I accidentally ground it inside the garbage disposal (I’m the only one who uses it)
4. My family is lying

Again, these are highly unlikely explanations. Why only mine? Why one bloody chopstick? Not once, but twice?

Do you know what I think?

Aliens.

It must be aliens. It’s always aliens. That would make more sense! They might be picking up random tools from us for their research or something. They are probably watching me. Or they are trying to communicate something to me. Maybe stealing a chopstick is like saying hello 🖖🏻for them.

As Sherlock Holmes says: when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Yup, totally, absolutely, aliens’ doing.👽

Let’s see if it happens again. Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence...but the third time? I might get invited to dinner with aliens. I’m totally teaching them how to use chopsticks. Wait, what if they don't have fingers?

Happy summer!

(the picture is mine)

✔✔Corrected