I have been watching Jamie Oliver try to revolutionise school lunches in American schools.

In Australia it was totally different for me. My mother would pack my lunch each day. It was often a sandwich, apple, and a packet of chips. Once a week mum would give me money to buy something from the tuckshop (from the word tucker, an Australia word to mean food). This is when I would have something like chicken nuggets or a chicken burger or something like this for lunch. So for me lunch was something I liked, a bit healthy but some treats too. Maybe not 100% healthy but I am seeing now that it was healthier than what a lot of others eat…

In Japan it was my first time eating provided lunch. It didn’t mesh well with me. Now that I’m not eating it I think back on it more fondly than what I did at the time. You can see an example of what kids in Japanese schools eat here, and I have more photos to come.

My major gripes with it was: lots of seafood. Lots of deep fried food. Large quantities of food. And I think overall it just didn’t mesh well with me somehow deep inside of not having the choice to eat what I wanted. I can definitely see the value in making children clean their plate. But as an adult it doesn’t mesh well with me. Plus, never having being in a situation like that, maybe that had something to do with it.

Watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution was an eye opener. Wowsers. Pizza for breakfast every day? Then nuggets for lunch? Flavoured milk every day? Then, not forcing the kids to finish their meals? Wowsers. I’m just speechless.

One thing that’s telling, perhaps, is the amount of fat kids in the Japanese schools. My data may be skewed – I was working only in small schools in the country. Still, it was similar to what I experienced when I was at school… the token fat kid. Where as there was one or two fat children per grade when I was at school, there was one fat kid per school in my experience in Japan. And zero obese kids.

A thing that really struck me, in the video above was how the kids did not know their vegetables at all. At their age I didn’t know strange fruits and veges, and didn’t really know them until I worked with produce. But I knew what a tomato was even if I didn’t like them. It would have been really tough to teach in Japan if kids didn’t know what fruit and veges were in their own language, let me tell you that.

In other food related news, I want to eat healthy, fresh, unprocessed food as much as possible. But I enjoy food, and love trying new things. Last week the local Brisbane radio station “invented” a new burger at McDonalds and it went on sale at local restaurants for one day only. I believe it was called a Chick-cow burger.

It was lettuce, tomato, cheese, chicken fillet, beef patty, and tomato sauce. Apart from getting gipped on the lettuce, it was really yum. Plus no pickles to take off.

McDonalds is OK as a sometimes food but it turns to cardboard if you eat it too often. I have found I can keep my weight off, even still lose weight if I am conscious of what I’m eating, eat smaller portions, but still indulge in unhealthier foods from time to time. It really is about balance after all.

Talk about what you ate at school in the comments!

The restaurant Soushuen was nothing to write home about, just your average Chinese restaurant with overly oily food, and I don’t think I’ll be going back, but the menu was a good source of entertainment.

MERT
To be fair, I guess A and R look somewhat similar. If one was just copying the spelling of a word based on it’s looks. I think this is something that really needs to be addressed better when learning English – how to spell. I’m not the words best spellers, but there is some “logic”, some rules to the way things are spelt in English – but students of English in Japan are barely taught them. Instead they rely on just “remembering” how things are spelt, same with pronunciation, you just “remember” (which is my job as a talking monkey, to pronounce words for them to remember). Now, if they were taught how words are put together (my goal for the grade 5 and 6ers starting from April, mwa ha ha ha, my evil plan is revealed) MERT would never be an issue.

/end rant. Sorry. This is supposed to be a fun light harted post about funny English. Let’s continue!

RISE
Now, this is better mistake. There is perhaps (with my pronunciation anyway) only a subtle difference between the words “rise” and “rice”.

FAMILE
A nice try for this one. I can see how this could be broken down to fam-mi-li or something, but if only they had learnt about the silent “e” and that us English speaking types would first read this as “fam-mile”.

Check out past Engrish articles and I look forward to sharing my next Engrish experience with you

If you are curious to see what type of food is served at school lunches, keep on reading this post, and check out my earlier post as well.

This one was pretty good, but a lot of it. Rice with stuff in it, sweet potatoes, scrambled eggs and soup.

Alphabet soup. I was sitting with kids in grade one, and they liked to put a letter on their spoon and then yell out any letter they knew. Very cute. I had this one again not long ago and they would get a letter on their chopsticks and ask me what letter it was. Very tiring.

Also potato with a garlic coating. A ham and cucumber sandwich. Was actually afraid that this was going to be a ham and chestnut sandwich. Crazy, I know, but school lunches are always crazy. I was sure they said “kyuuri” – cucumber, and it made more sense, but I was worried they said “kuri” – chestnut. I had to eat salty chestnut in rice once, it was not a pleasant experience, soooo salty. I didn’t think it went at all. I was lucky this time.

Deep fried bread. My first experience with that. Wow. Waaay too much oil. I know, that’s deep fried for you, but… wow.

For starters I think I was getting really good with my food intake, but I’ve let it slip a little this week which is disappointing. All well, this week isn’t over… Let’s look at this first picture of my week of Feb the 8th.

I use Lose It, and ipod/phone app to record my progress.

You know, I’m pretty proud of this. See how my eating, even though it was over the line, it was fairly consistent and I know I was making smarter choices. I cut out eating a pack of chips after dinner, a bad habit I had gotten into, and also stopped drinking soft drinks with dinner. I know that I was making smarter choices.

The Saturday I was in Kobe and I did a poo load of walking, but also had the luxurious Kobe steak. Even though my calories were high that day (and I enjoyed an alcoholic beverage), I did underestimate the exercise, over estimated the food, and well, with a treat like Kobe steak, I don’t care at all.

Exercise was also pretty good that week. Apart from the walking I did on the Saturday, I also went ice skating, and did too cardio workouts at home.

On to the next week…

As you can see my eating was actually pretty good. One thing I don’t like is that school lunches are such a high calorie content, and I think eating such a big meal in the day has an effect on my mood levels and my energy levels, especially around 2-3pm. If I don’t have a class, I’m pretty tired, which is a shame because when I don’t have a class there is usually a lot of stuff that I want to get done.

I only did one aerobic activity that week, but I also did a lot of walking.

Forwards and Upwards…

The weather has gotten so much nicer these past two days. I want to start jogging again. I miss it (heh, me, saying that, who would have thought!) It hasn’t happened yet this week and I don’t know if it will (maybe the weekend will see it happen??) but next week is a new month, and, although I’ve felt myself slipping this past week, there is nothing like a new month to re-evaluate and get back to it, stronger than ever.

• So, let’s put some goals out there! During March I would like to get jogging/exercising three days a week (and I mean more than walking, like I have been, actual heart pumping stuff!) and bring that up to four days a week by the end.
• Continue to watch what I eat during March, continuing to bring in more healthy snacks and meals. I want to quit school lunches for new new school year in April, so let’s practise making healthy lunches!

You may be wondering what this has to do with my usual content – Japan and all that stuff. Well, in the future I hope to bring you some posts about losing weight in Japan, trying to eat healthy in Japan, and all about the myth that Japan is a healthy country with small serving sizes. Wrong Wrong Wrong!

As for some inspiration, however, I do have some. To be honest I like my white girl curves and don’t really aspire to have an Asian shaped body. That doesn’t mean I can’t admire Japanese girl’s beauty and long for pretty, girly, spring clothes! Fashion mags are my inspiration at the moment, I want to look good in time for summer so I can wear great clothes and feel good about myself. He’s a quick shot from Cam Cam – hopefully soon I’ll be showing some more pages from my favourite magazines so you too can see what the latest fashion is like in Japan!

This week I’ve been pretty good for the most part sticking to my daily calories. My two main changes have been that I have stopped eating a packet of chips every night (if I get hungry at night, a bit of an issue for me, I am opting for crackers or fruit, foods that still get me going but are lower in calories and are better nutritionally somewhat). And I have stopped drinking so much soft drink. I am letting myself have some on the weekends for now but I suspect in the future it will only be something I do when I go out for dinner, for instance – I’m finding I don’t miss it at all.

As for working out, right now I am trying to work out three days a week, with hopefully at least one workout high intensity. I want to gradually increase this to four workouts a week by the end of the month. I’m looking forward to it warming up a bit more too, so I can go outside to go running and I also want to purchase a skipping rope.

– not necessarily my favourite food but my most eaten food.

Here’s a week or so in the life of me!

The week starts off with the water in the gutters all iced over. Coming from a country that is nice and warm always, stuff like this is exciting to me.

So at my middle school they were playing volleyball. At the end the winners played the teachers. OMG it was freezing inside that gym, I think I died. I didn’t have gym shoes either, but in the end one of the students let me borrow her shoes and I played for 2 minutes with the teachers, scoring one goal but also losing one goal. So I guess I contributed nothing.

An assembly after the volley ball. At things like this you bow before and after someone does a speech. I think it is a better idea than trying to clap cold hands. It is certainly different though.

The view as I walk from school to the bus stop. I always think that it is just so beautiful around here. The camera never does it justice.

I am taking all these photos from my iphone, so the quality is pretty crappy. I also always seem to get a smudge on the photos, but that is just grubby me.

At the JET mid year conference. Hmmmm…. This was better than the orientation in Tokyo for sure, but still…. The best things I got out of it were a couple of ideas for games (reverse bingo anyone?). There was also information about the teaching English program in Finland and how they can totally speak English by the end of their high school years, but of course everything that was addressed will not be implemented in Japan. They could do it – after all I’m pretty sure if they started the Middle school textbooks in grade 3 here they would be able to do it easily. Thinking that perhaps they would move a bit slower than what they do in middle school, I see no reason why a grade six student could not graduate primary school with the English knowledge of what a current grade 9er (grade 3 in middle school) would have. However it is Japan’s policy that we just play games with primary school kids so it’s not going to happen…

That’s my thoughts/rant for now!

We were the bad kids up the back…

My first time bowling in Japan. Their shoes aren’t clown shoes! I wanted to keep them.

Before bowling we had all you can eat pizza which was pretty good. I also won bowling which is an unexplained phenomenon and I hope I didn’t break the universe.

I still can’t believe people eat the whole fish, head, tail, bones, all. I can’t fathom it. The thought makes me want to throw up.

The bus on the way to work.

From the top of the hill, walking to the bus stop from my middle school

My mountain school. This is all the kids in the school.

They has a skipping expert come in from another city to teach skipping skills. It was actually a lot of fun and I think I want to get a skipping rope when the weather warms up a little bit. I remember when I was a child I used to be able to skip for hours.

Rice fields everywhere were getting… um… machined over. This one is my back yard.

Tis amazing! There are actually people on my bus today!

View from the bus

Dinner. Home made wong tong soup – perfect for a cold night.

Everywhere was covered in cloud. This is me waiting for the bus…

More cloud.

But when I got to the top of the mountain where my school was I realised I had actually stepped out of the cloud. That was pretty cool.

Middle schoolers serving lunch. At my schools everyone eats in one room.

More fish. But the vegetable thing to the right side has grown on my and I enjoy it now. At middle school you can choose how much you eat which is fantastic. I always had trouble getting through all this food. Now I am trying to be more healthy in my everyday life I’m trying not to eat more than half of the rice. I try not to be guilty about throwing out all the food I don’t eat. I am thinking that if I don’t see the results I want by the start of the new school year in April I’m going to try and cancel school lunches and bring in my own. The downside would be losing valuable interaction time with the students.

After lunch you have to separate all the rubbish. You also wash your milk carton and unfold it.

This is still the cloud day… After school the cloud had cleared at everything looked amazingly clear. You can’t see it through the camera as well, but it was awesome. This is my middle school.

Friday! This is at an elementary school. I was always a fussy eater, but as I got older I became less and less fussy and now I eat quite a lot. Unfortunately, being back in Japan I feel like a fussy eater. I don’t like seafood and I don’t like citrus fruits. These two things are often served. I managed to get rid of the orange that was served with this meal, but had to eat the tuna croquette. *sigh*.

So at this school I always had a fax machine in the corner of my desk. Now I have a fax machine in the middle of my desk and a computer on the corner of my desk. Yeah, thanks guys. I have lots of room to work on. And I can’t even feel comfortable using the computer because I sit next to the vice principal.

View of the primary school as I wait for the bus. Yayayay, it’s Friday and now weekend time!

Well, that was my week or so, let me know what you think! Do you want me to post more stuff like this?

At the end of 2009, fast food chain Wendy’s closed all it’s stores in Japan. So, before it closed I wanted to get some Wendy’s into me. In Australia Wendy’s is a different company that sells ice-cream. I may have had Wendy’s the fast food when I was in America but I don’t remember, so for me this was the first time having the food.

So the day after Christmas I went to Osaka to try Wendy’s. That’s a bit misleading, I went to Osaka for other reasons but decided to try Wendy’s while I had the opportunity to.

I don’t think Wendy’s will be missed. It was just another burger. It made me crave a good real take-away shop burger from Australia. This was just a bit of meat between two pieces of cardboard. This is in contrast to the KFC I had on Christmas that was pretty decent as far as fast food food goes.

If you love Wendy’s and are in Japan, too bad. I think they have all closed now!

If you like this post, please soc it at JapanSoc, a social bookmarking website for everything Japan related!

You may have heard about a “traditional” Christmas in Japan, and I’m talking about food here – KFC and Christmas cake. There is lots of information out there on Christmas in Japan, let me throw you a link to Tofugu whose post is nice and quick and easy to digest.

I had a talk with my middle school kids about Christmas, and I think the general consensus was they didn’t really celebrate it. About half had Christmas cake, I think they were all too young for the romantic experience of it all. My English teacher is a bit different perhaps from most Japanese in that she is very interested in Western traditions, she celebrates with her children, they each get one present and they put up a Christmas tree.

I think it is also important to note that at least in my area, kids think that Santa comes from Finland, rather than the North Pole. So I think they have combined more closely Santa and Saint Nicholas, even though wikipedia says St N was from what is now called Turkey, something I didn’t know… There is one man who I haven’t had the pleasure of introducing on this blog yet. His name is Chatty Man, and I have had many pleasant experiences with him. One was him explaining in a condescending way about St N, how he is actually Santa. I believe I had to control my reflex to eyeroll and explain that yes, I know who the big N is…. Sorry, I had to get that frustration out. Lucky for me Chatty Man is at the school I have just left.

It is also interesting that kids in Japan don’t know what elves are. Some of my classes know who Dobby is from Harry Potter, and I was like “yes! He’s an Elf!” Although he is only an interpretation of an elf and the Christmas elves are a bit different, but at least that is a concept of an elf they can grab onto. My 3rd graders at Middle school knew who Dobby was, and then my 2nd graders in Primary school knew too, but then my 5th Graders in primary school didn’t know who Dobby was. (Interesting fact about Carlie: I dislike Harry Potter with a passion).

The kids also got confused when I ended classes with “Merry Christmas!” “It’s not Christmas yet…” Yes, we do say it during the Christmas period, and I wasn’t going to see them again until after Christmas…

Christmas this year felt very un-Christmas like. If I didn’t ask for holidays I would have had to go to work. Instead I went to Nara and had KFC for lunch, the most “Christmasy” thing I did. I have to say I like KFC in Japan. The chicken tastes just as fatty but you don’t have the oil running down your arms as bad. Also the bread on the burgers doesn’t taste as floury and cheap as it does back home. Some nice pluses.

My Christmas feast. Not a good substitute for Christmas food back home, but as far as KFC goes it was pretty good. I didn’t have any Christmas cake, I think this was enough calories for one day…

Merry Christmas!

I go to five schools, but from Monday onwards only four. At the school I’m leaving on Monday, it’s a sizable school of about 500 children. At this school I go to individual classrooms and eat lunch with only a class. It is my understanding that this is the usual in Japan, that students eat in their own classrooms.

The rest of my schools have 38 – 110 kids. It’s a bit unique in Japan, but at these schools we all eat in one room. I sort of end up at the same table all the time which is nice I guess.

I pay $2.40 for lunch at my primary schools and $2.80 for lunch at my middle school. Usually the money is collected monthly which i put in a nice little envelope. So it is cheap and good value for money – after all one of my complaints about it is that it is too much food!

The Proceedure

Some students put on aprons and masks to serve food. The actual serving changes per school and class – some the children line up with plates and go through conveyor belt style, others the servers serve up everything to the table and then the students arrive to their spot with the food already there.

The Food

I don’t get the food at all. I mean, I guess I just assumed that these would be balanced, healthy meals. They aren’t.

The base of the meal is either a bread roll or a large bowl of rice. And there is always milk. From there… it could be anything. I thought perhaps it would be meat, veges and fruit, but it could be anything… My main concern, however, is the amount of seafood. My predecessor told me that seafood is rare. I knew I shouldn’t have taken her word, as seafood is maybe every second day. I don’t like seafood at all, and because of this I look to lunch with dread…

This here is actually a good day. The shreaded cabbage is a taste I’m a bit over, and I don’t get how this carb overload is balanced, but pasta is a win for me. At the start I had trouble eating so much rice.

Another thing for me to complain about! I have never really been a fan of soups. I find them really bland. Lucky for me, soup is often a common feature in school lunches ;( However, the plus side is you can dip your bread into them. The bread is so dry that I find it really hard to eat by itself (I’m the kind of person who likes butter on my bread) but it is a bit more bearable after being dipped in the soup. On the plus side, even though there is a lot of rice with meals, I do find it to be really nice rice.

Lunch is either eaten with either a fork or chopsticks. It is always interesting to see if people eat things by picking them up whole or trying to break them apart with the utensil provided. There is never a spoon so soup is to be had by picking up the bowl. I can’t help feeling a bit rude every time I do this.

Note the shredded cabbage again. Yay!

The stuff to the top left is mochi – pounded rice, which I find waaaaaay too sweet. The middle stuff, I’m not sure what it is besides seaweed, but with this stuff I’ve gotten to the point where if I have more than a mouth full I want to throw it back up. It’s gross!! The stuff to the right are local grown vegetables. They are potato and carrot and daikon, and are actually really nice but they put on/cook them in some kind of sauce which I am not a big fan of. So it makes it a bit of a challenge to eat. There is something missing from this dish too:

Now, deep fried fish I’ll try. Grilled fish too, you know. It’s gross, but I might be able to bear it. With this, I’m not touching it with a ten foot pole… It’s some kind of fish with babies inside. And you eat the head and tail. Um… no thanks. I think only non seafood eaters can truely understand the horror of this.

An article about how schools use local grown ingredients in school lunches.

Another popular serving is the salad doused in mayonnaise. Which can either be a welcome change to a bland salad or sweetness overkill. This lunch is another one of those good lunches! Yay!

The Rest…

Before lunch everyone always says “Itadakimasu!” and after everyone says together “Gochisosamadeshita”. After you have finished eating you separate all the rubbish. Milk cartons are always washed and then flattered out. And then finally I can breath a sigh of relief… It’s over and I wont have to face that enormous, seafoody event for another 24 hours. Yay!

Yeah, I know. Not liking seafood… I moved to the wrong country.

If you like this post, please soc it at JapanSoc, a social bookmarking website for everything Japan related!

While at the Kansai International Airport I thougt about having food. So I went over to the food stand. What to have, hmmm, so many choices. Should I have the ham and chadder cheese panini? Hmmm… something about that just doens’t sound right…

A plain hot dog sounds alright but a pungent cheese hot dog sort of turned me off the thought of a hot dog…

[ad#Google Adsense]

prawn and hot Sand of grill vegetable… well, the trouble is I like prawns even less than I like eating sand…

The menu turned me off so much that I instead decided to wait til I was back in Osaka to get some food. What I guess confuses me the most is how this happened at an international airport – one would perhaps think more thought would go into a translation in a place like that…

This post is my submission to the October 2009 Japan Blog Matsuri, hosted by Sleepy Tako. This month’s theme: hamburgers.