But he is lonely since his wife has died. The father dreads the thought of his children’s impending independence at the expense of his own. He asks them to forego the fugu. Put off having adventures in foreign countries until I am gone, he seems to be saying. He asks the reader and his children to realize what the real fugu is; the possibility that the father will experience a slow, painful death if they leave and become independent, the pain of abandonment in old age.