School Lunch

So, most of my peers (the other Assistant Language Teachers in Morioka) bring lunch to school, but I have opted for school lunch. It's called 'kyuushoku' and we get ours from a company which prepares lunch for many of the schools in my area. Interestingly enough, when I went to teach at an elementary school two weeks ago, it had the exact same lunch that was scheduled for my middle school. This is how I leaned that lunches in Japanese schools are something that's outsourced...Which I guess is pretty cool?

Some people might know that I studied school lunch for my thesis, so it's actually pretty exciting to experience it first hand...at least that's what I told myself in the beginning. I have been disappointed by the amount of pork that shows up in the lunch, but I should not be surprised, since that seems to be the cheapest meat here. I tend to eat around the pork, but I've accidentally eaten my fair share of babe...sorry D:

School lunches are, in theory, calculated for nutrition, calories, etc. However, the teachers are always served more, and there is never any nutrition count on the menu, so I never know how many calories I am eating. Look at the pictures, and you'll see that I get a HUGE lunch, which I never, EVER finish! 

We have some pretty weird school lunches, let me tell you. But I guess they are all..."Japanese" in a way. Here are some pictures!

This one has some mini fish in it which I did NOT eat. I'm sorry, I've bitten into mini fish like this before, only to find that their stomachs, and the contents of their stomachs, are still there. It's not a very pleasant taste/feeling. The thing on the left looks like a curry sauté of veggies and pork, but I can't be sure. The soup is a veggie/mushroom chicken broth soup. And we have a weird, mango-milk drink which we all disliked.

Why do I need two croissants? I don't! The school lunches are probably always about 1000 calories, especially for me. As a teacher, I always get bigger portions but as an adult, I have a smaller appetite than 12-15 year olds. We have here an egg quiche with squash in it, a veggie sauté and a bowl of mixed veggie soup. Don't forget the milk. It's 3.6, which means whole? Mmm...

Another lunch I couldn't finish! Pasta with eggplant and bacon (which I picked out), a squash 'croquette' which was super delicious, and a veggie and tofu soup. And milk. The milk is always there!

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So I showed you three days, and two of them had bread. I should point out that these were non-consecutive days, and there are more lunches with rice in them than bread. I've been forgetting to take photos of my lunches, and I apologize for having only three.

I tend to enjoy at least half of every lunch: the soup is always delicious (when there isn't random shellfish in it), and one of the side dishes is kosher. Next week there is a meal that has shellfish or pork in every dish (besides the rice and milk, of course), so I am going to have a bit of trouble with that.

Sorry for the delay in posting. It happens...I'm lazy.

I will *try* to post tomorrow about the other aspects of my life.

Enjoy the pictures:

The first is a picture of an acorn squash I cooked myself! I called my host mother for a recipe, and this is the end result. The squash was from a coworker, who farmed it himself. It was a HUGE squash, and I still have half of it left. I'm not sure if it's still good...

The second picture are some grapes I got from another coworker. The are sooo delicious! I might add that this is maybe...8-12 dollars worth of grapes. They are super expensive in Japan, but she went to an orchard and picked them herself. 

The last pic is my kotatsu. All the books are Japanese language books that I have purchased in the past two weeks. I am studying for the JLPT level 3, which will be in December. I hope to pass it and take level 2 next July. Ugh....Japanese is difficult.

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Well, that's it for now! LA