My school is overfeeding me

So in Japan school lunch tends to be a pretty big deal. It’s called kyuushoku and I think it means lunch but who really knows. School is where kids are taught parts of how to be a correct Japanese portion and due to the Japanese perspective on the value of food, there’s a lot of culture instilled in kyuushoku that I don’t recall being exposed to in American school lunches.

Some of the rules are like, eat everything on your plate. Don’t point with your chopsticks. No throwing food. Don’t pick up that apple with your chopsticks Will. Don’t stab through stuff (I see kids doing this one all the time.) Don’t eat your apple before you eat your rice. Finish before this designated time or you’ll cut into your recess. Bring your own chopsticks. Bring a placemat to eat at your desk. Bring a spoon. Where’s your toothbrush? Where’s your facemask Will? Well sorry I don’t want to talk like Darth Vader right before I eat.

Once you get used to the rhythm it ain’t too bad. The schools are pretty serious overall about kyuushoku and everything is prepared on site in the school kitchens fresh everyday. It’s generally portioned so that you get all the correct amount of nutrients on the food pyramid, as long as that food pyramid is extra fat on the bottom to account for all the carbs you’ve consumed at any point. Word on the internet is that someone even taste tests the kyuushoku 30min to lunchtime so that the entire school doesn’t die from food poisoning. One kyuushoku is about 1000-1200 calories so it’s definitely a decent amount.

So for the most part, all the teachers get apportioned the same quantity as the students, as it is quite a bit of calories for one meal and even for me it’s hard to eat it all in the allotted time. Which brings me to this Tuesday. I get served food in the teachers room and have to bring it up to the kids room since each class is allotted a certain amount that they need to divide among the students. The first thing I heard was “Dekkai” which roughly translates into “Wow that’s a lot you monster.” All this time I had thought I was eating the same amount as the students, but it turns out my portions were like double. I had a huge amount compared to everybody else there.

Which brings me to my next point, you have to eat EVERYTHING on your plate.   Generally speaking the food is pretty tasty, especially after four hours of having to teach little monsters, I’m pretty excited to eat. There’s been a lot of talk on the internet recently about American lunches being not great, but I remember I had a pretty good time eating those mystery meat pizza pockets and chili cheese corn dogs. Maybe the nutrition level is misaligned but how can you say no to mystery meat pizza pockets?! Having experienced Japanese school lunch I must say that it’s edible but they’re not going for a Michelin star here. You get some days where the food is good and some where you’re like, what did I just put in my mouth. And then we get to natto. Basically Natto happened when someone took perfectly good soybeans and instead of making soymilk, accidentally forgot them in the hot sun for like a month. And then they were like well my options are to either throw this away like a normal human being, OR, I could mix in this slime from science class and try to eat it. And back to the first point, you have to eat EVERYTHING. And the proper way to eat it is to mix it in with rice. So all the kids were like oh natto, put it on your rice Will-sensei and I’m like OH YES GREAT IDEA. So not only did I have to eat natto, I also ruined all my rice by making the entire bowl nattoy. For those of you who haven’t’ had it before, the taste isn’t too bad, maybe like a slightly weird kidney bean but the slime oh my goodness. It’s a special type of slime I don’t even know what would be the equivalent mixed with the stickiness of a hot glue gun. You know when you use a hot glue gun and there’s a little strand of plastic that trails the end that gets everything, just think that but everywhere and to everything. 

Surprisingly however recently it seems like I’ve lost some weight. I don’t feel like I eat any healthier but I have to guess it’s due to now I’m standing up for most of work as opposed to sitting down. The downside as I have experienced is that I can’t go belt free anymore. Which doesn’t affect most people but I am a certain type of forgetful. And it was pretty awkward last week trying to not have my pants fall down in class. 

The Joy of Communication

My company has this training they have all the teachers go through where they teach us to show kids the “Joy of Communication” in our lessons. At first when I heard this I thought it was a little corny but living in a foreign country it is beginning to make more and more sense to me.

One of the advantages of speaking English is that in America I can generally speak with the populace and understand what they’re saying. It happens to be something easily taken for granted because well, everybody can do it. Living in a foreign country though, it just so happens to be a little more difficult.

 A lot of the things that I could do in America I find a lot more difficult to do in Japan. Anything that involves speaking to another person really. So here’s an example. There’s this grocery store next door I like to go to (because it’s next door). It’s a little bit pricier than the other stores in the area and also one of the few stores that charges for plastic bags but I still go (because it’s next door). But unlike American stores they don’t ask you if you want a bag, they just assume that you’ll magically come up with one, even though clearly you’re wearing basketball shorts and there’s nowhere a bag could possibly hide. For the most part I don’t have trouble asking for a bag because I've had so much practice at this point saying bag due to coincidentally my city being called Fukuroi and bag in Japanese is fukuro. Anyways there was this one day I was buying stuff and checking out and this is how the conversation went down:

Me: Fukuro onegaishimasu (Bag please)

Clerk: Hashi? (Chopsticks)

Me: Iie, fukuro (No, bag)

Clerk: *points at chopsticks* Hashi?

Me: *points at bag* Fukuro?

Clerk: *points at bag* Fukuro?

Me: Yes…

And it was so frustrating that in all my trips to that store this one time this clerk just decided she didn't want to understand me. And like I get it, it’s not the correct pronunciation, but until this point I've been successful paying for bags, and suddenly it ain't working no more. And then she’s like IT’S 5 YEN CAN YOU MAKE THAT COMMITMENT?! It’s like well no but I don’t have enough hands for all this so my bad.

Another thing about the clerks here is that, they’re super apologetic about EVERYTHING and I’m like yo, you don’t need to be sorry about that, it’s not your fault, ITS NOT YOUR FAULT (Watch Good Will Hunting if you haven’t yet). There was this one instance where the clerk asked me like, oh you want your hot food in a separate bag, and I’m like nah one bag is alright, and he’s like I’m very sorry I’ll put it in one bag. I’m like hey man it’s alright, that’s a normal question, you don’t gotta apologize for speaking to me.

Oh I got sidetracked. Okay so what I was saying was, I've been learning communication is pretty important. In reflecting upon my time here, it seems more and more the case that we as people are meant to be relational, and to be able to share and interact and enjoy each other’s company. Especially as Christians, as we are supposed to have an active and right relationship with our Savior, we are to share in that with our fellow brothers and sisters. Because people are so busy here, those kinds of meetings are far and fewer than what I am used to experiencing in America. Especially during the weekday it definitely is hard to find that kind of community and fellowship. Recently at church however they've started a men’s fellowship that meets every two weeks and I've been able to study and pray with them. I haven’t had that kind of fellowship here in a while and it’s been really refreshing to have that blessing. When it wasn't there, I didn't think too much of it, but after that fellowship it was like oh I needed that. And I think that because we were created this way, that it is important for us to communicate with those around us. Whether it is in a Christian Bible study setting or other friendships, it’s nice for people to understand each other.

So back to my main point, the joy of communication. When I have to function in Japan and I speak Japanese and people understand, it’s a great feeling. It’s like oh yes finally I get a bag to carry all my pudding home in. What I've learned in learning a new language is that you’re bound to make mistakes and have those moments where nobody knows what you’re saying. It’s easy to get discouraged by those times and just revert back to wanting to use all English, but if you just keep bulling ahead chances are the next time you ask for a bag people will just be like okay 5 YEN PAY UP and let you have a bag. No more pudding falling to the floor. Actually this has never happened before, but there was an instance when I dropped my pudding on the way to the cashier. The cashier saw and when she handed me my change, she actually grabbed my hand and put the change in.

 In teaching English, I don’t think the kids necessarily LEARN like THAT MUCH since I teach elementary school but if it’s exciting for me when some random person understands me, I imagine the kids have some fun with it too. Like oh I just spoke some gibberish I have no idea what I said but this dude gave me a sticker so fantastic (Which is also what the sticker says).