Japanese school lunches

Since I still have a list of all the questions my students wrote down for me before I went to Japan, I'm going to continue posting questions and answers, one at a time, for those questions I can answer with pictures. We will also try to find answers to some of the other questions during library class, using encyclopedias, almanacs, and books about Japan.

Q: What do the kids at school eat at lunch? (David H.)

A:  The pictures below are of the school lunches I had during my school visits in Japan.

The lunches in the elementary and jr. high were very healthy, and the high school lunches were good as well, but had more fried food and fewer vegetables.  The high school was the only place that had a cafeteria and where the students didn't serve the food to their classmates in the classroom.  High school students had several choices for lunch, and I've posted pictures of two of them.

All of the lunches included rice, except one of the high school lunches that had noodles.  All of the lunches also included soup, and 3 out of the 4 shown included fish or seafood.   No desserts were served with any of the school lunches.  Sweets are not as big a part of Japanese eating habits as they are in our country.

These lunches are healthy for the environment as well.  Look closely at the pictures.  How much trash is created by each school lunch?  The only non-organic things that went into the trash from these school lunches were the lids of the milk bottles and the small foil cups holding the french fries. 

Lunch at Motoyama Elementary School.  The dark square thing is a rice ball wrapped in nori (seaweed), with a piece of salmon in the middle.  It is meant to be picked up and eaten like a sandwich.  

Lunch at Asa Jr. High School.  The menu for this lunch was created by one of the students in home economics class (which is part of the curriculum for all students).  It includes broiled fish, rice with vegetables, and a tofu and vegetable soup.  

This is the lunch I had at Onoda Technical High School.  It is shrimp and vegetable tempura (my favorite Japanese food!) over udan noodles.  

This is another lunch available at Onoda Technical high school.  Although french fries aren't a traditional Japanese food, they are very popular in Japan.  The other fried foods on the plate are pieces of chicken.

Most popular sports

Question of the Day, Oct. 29

Q:  What are the favorite sports in Japan? (Lainey)

A:  Baseball is the #1 most popular spectator sport in Japan, and soccer comes in second.

The picture above is of the trophy case in Motoyama Elementary School.  Baseball seems to be the most popular sport in their school, as well.  What other sports do they play?  Double-click on the picture to get a close-up view.

The rebuilding of Hiroshima

Question of the Day, Oct. 28

Q:  How long did it take to rebuild Hiroshima after it was bombed? (Daniel)

A:  It was a gradual process, and it's hard to know at what point the rebuilding could be considered to be "finished"; but it took ten years for the city to reach it's former, pre-bomb population.

Stores

Question of the Day, Oct. 27

Q:  Is there a Target in Japan? (Catherine)

A:  No.  Target stores are only in the U.S.

  

Although Japan has the same types of stores that are found in the U.S., such as grocery stores, department stores, clothing stores, toy stores, convenience stores, electronics stores, gift shops, and even "100 yen" stores (which are like our dollar stores, with everything in the store costing 100 yen, approximately equal to $1 in U.S. dollars), they have their own store chains.  I did not see any U.S. store names (Target, Circuit City, etc.), except for 7-11 convenience stores.  

It's possible that there are stores that exist in both countries, and I just didn't come across them in my travels.  It is also possible that there are some big companies that own stores in both Japan and the U.S., and just use different names for their stores in the two different countries; but if so, I don't know about them.  It would be an interesting thing to try and research, though.  See what you can find out on the internet about it, and let me know!

Back home, and playing catch-up

I'm back at home now, and am trying to catch up on reading and responding to email, listening to phone messages, and sleeping.  The eleven hour flight from Tokyo to Chicago crossed the international dateline, leaving at 6 p.m. and arriving at 3 p.m. of the same day!  As interesting as it was to experience time travel in this way, it made for a very long day.  This flight was followed by a 7 hour layover in the Chicago airport, before the connecting flight brought me into Memphis around 11 p.m., about 26 hours (yawn) since I'd gotten out of bed for breakfast in Tokyo.  

Since I fell behind on posting answers to the "Question of the Day" near the end of my journey, when my travels took me out of range of internet access for a couple of days, I will post one for each of the 3 questions from I discovered in my CMDS email account upon my return.  Thanks Lainey, Catherine, and Daniel, for sending them!  I am looking forward to seeing all my students in class this week, and sharing more about Japan with you during library class.

-- Ms. Gray