Hungry Heart

Japanese Word of the Day:

English: School lunch
Japanese: 給食 or きゅうしょく

Like the Bush family in presidential elections I will always come back.
Like the Terminator I will always come back.

So let’s pretend I haven’t been quiet for months and jump right in to talking about school lunches in Japan! Yaaay!

In Japan, school lunches are handled quite differently from in America. For starters, there are no cafeterias; the students eat inside their classrooms. There is also no opting out of the school provided meal, at least there isn't at any of the schools in my town. I assume this may be different in private schools or at the high school level. So how does a school lunch eaten in the classroom by all the students work?

Each day a group of kids in each class are assigned as the class helpers for the day. They do things like clean the chalkboard between classes, getting the classes lunches, and distributing them. So at lunch time each day the daily helpers for each class all go to a room where they get (usually) 3 large containers of food, a  crate of milk bottles, and some containers with plates and utensils. Once back in the classroom they set a student conveyor belt dishing out the food while other students take the food to student’s desks.

So what happens if you don’t like what is being served that day? Tough shit. Mostly tough shit. After everyone has been served the class begins eating and students can get up to adjust their portions. This means if you don’t like, say fish, you can put back your fish and queue to try and get some extra soup or whatever else is served that day that you do like. So then what if 10 hungry teenage boys all want an extra piece of fish and there are only 4 pieces leftover? Different classes handle this differently but usually there will be a janken (rock, paper, scissors) match to determine who gets the fish. As people finish eating they can then take their trays up to the front and stack their empty plates, trays, and milk bottles to be taken away by the helpers after everyone finishes.

You may notice how I said students would stack their “empty” plates. This is because the plates are always empty after the meal. Waste is a big no-no in Japan so if you have more food than you think you can eat you put some back before starting rather than have leftover to discard. So let’s say (hypothetically) that you’re hungry so you get a larger pile of greens to eat. Once you begin munching you look more closely and realize your greens have tiny fish mixed in them, complete with eyeballs and they stare at you as you try to eat them. The tiny fish judge you as you try to swallow them down and you’re not sure you can take another bite. Well guess what, you get to finish that entire plate and leave not a scale or eyeball behind!

This may or may not have been based on a true story.

So I've mentioned fish a few times and you’re probably beginning to wonder what types of things these meals normally contain. The answer is usually 3 things; a hearty soup, a rice or bread type dish, and a meat and veggies dish plus a bottle of milk. I actually made an effort to snap some pictures of my lunches occasionally to share.

Miso soup with tofu, rice, mixed greens, karage style chicken, and milk

Miso based soup with veggies, quiche, rice, and milk with coffee flavoring

Veggie soup, pilaf rice, green tea breaded fried fish, and milk

Fried fish, rice mixed with... veggies?, veggie soup, a mikan orange, and milk

Breaded fish with ketchup, pilaf rice, veggie soup, milk, and Christmas cake

Cream based soup with veggies, mixed greens, fried bread, and milk

Seaweed rice, oden (with quail eggs), mixed greens with those awful tiny fish, and milk

Miso based veggie soup, rice, fish cakes, mixed greens, and milk

Mixed veggies, rice, a mixture of... meat and... veggies? and milk

Rice with tiny fish, veggie soup, seaweed, milk, and fish complete with spine

As you probably noticed, fish is fairly common but far from a daily occurrence. A friend of mine lives in a fishing town and she sees a lot more fish in her lunches than I do, so I consider myself lucky. Mostly the meals are pretty healthy with a good balance of meat, veggies, and carbs. Thursdays usually are very carb heavy though I don’t have any pictures to show for that day. For example, one Thursday we got pasta with a side of bread and creamy soup. The standard servings of rice are usually quite a lot as well. I've started putting back about half my rice since I’m not a growing teenager who runs around all day and really don’t need a billion carbs.

Occasionally the lunches will have a “dessert” type item. Usually this is something like donut-style bread or a small cake piece at Christmas. At least these are the things that I read as “dessert”. One day I was eating with elementary schoolers and got scolded for eating my “dessert” before the rest of my food. Confused, I looked down and verified I was eating my fruit portion and not my sweetened bread. Fruit in Japan is much more expensive than in America so it’s considered more of a special treat and like dessert than sweet, buttery bread. As a result, things like fruit parfaits are very popular as desserts here. It’s been a bit of an adjustment for me since I grew up eating tons of fruit.

Parfaits are serious here. The big one is ~$18 and the rest are ~$10

Each month everyone at schools gets a menu telling all the meals for the month as well as their nutritional information. Obviously these are all in Japanese so I usually try to translate bits so I can have a gist of what I’m eating. Sometimes this is good to avoid having curry for both lunch and dinner. Other times it’s problematic when I realize I’m eating fried octopus with a side of tiny fish salad. Those tiny fish haunt my nightmares.

The actual food is in the top square, the rest is nutrition information

Now for the obligatory comparison. Overall, I do think that the Japanese lunches are healthier than most American lunches. At least here pizza isn't considered a vegetable. That said, they can certainly be unhealthy in ways that honestly shocked me at first. One lunch we had bread slices with packets of both butter and honey to put on them. I watched as another teacher finished his first and went back for a second as I heard my mother gasping and ranting about healthy decisions in my head. So yeah, it’s a mixed bag. Like all things I think it comes down to maturity on the part of the kids. American kids are given choice with their diet and that allows them (in theory) to develop some maturity and pick better foods. Japanese kids can only control their portions and I've seen plenty of rice bowls far past capacity with enough carbs to fuel a track club.

I will say that for the most part I have enjoyed more of the meals I've been served than not. As long as those pesky fish can stay away.

Next time: …something! I haven’t decided yet. : D

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Actually I do want to say something about my absence. To illustrate my point I have pictures of my schedule from 2 different weeks.

Last semester

This semester

You may have noticed a slight difference; my schedule fluctuates a lot. In addition to normal fluctuation I've picked up another class at my Monday school and it’s one I have no book for so I have to make the plans entirely myself. In fact, all of my 1^st-4^th grade plans have been made by me due to no one telling me there was a stack of pre-made lessons for those grades. So I’ve been busy. I do hope to keep up blogging when I have time but if I go a while without posting you can probably hazard a guess as to why.