Oh..... I am SO full. Most of you know me well enough to know that I love food, right? So then when I describe how completely awful our school lunches are... you'll believe me and not think I am just exaggerating? Please, please believe me. If you thought lunch was bad in the States... oh me oh my.

Like most Japanese junior high schools and elementary schools, Misato JHS has no cafeteria. All the students eat at their desks in their classroom (refer to the below description of class organization to read how students are all assigned one homeroom). They move their desks together to create 6 pre-assigned and infrequently changing groups of 6 or 7 desks (which I take advantage of during English class for ease of group-making). Homeroom teachers also eat in their respective classrooms. The rest of us "floaters" rotate from classroom to classroom each month ("real" teachers) or week (me). I'm currently working my way through the 1st grade classes.

Ok, so now that the set-up has been established.. let me describe the food. First of all, we typically have either bread (the size of about 3 cafeteria rolls from your average U.S. school lunch) or rice (about 3-4 ice cream scoops worth, white and starchy in a bowl). Then we also have a couple of main dishes: usually one on a plate and one in soup form. The dish one is almost always meat (I think I can count the times we've had tofu with half the fingers of my left hand and then it was still drenched with meat sauce) and often fried or stuffed (don't ask how to stuff pork.. you don't want to know) and sometimes both. The soup is usually a mix of cabage, potatoes, carrots, mushrooms and one, two, or three types of protein (yesterday we had tofu and pork chunks). Sometimes we have pasta instead of soup: today my pasta had cabage, carrot peices, beef, shrimp, and squid (and that was WITH not INSTEAD OF the loaf of bread). I have never before witnessed such meat mixing, and frankly not only does it render pretty much everything non-vegetarian, it also really disgusts me.

On top of this, we have a lame salad; usually pickled cabage, cucumbers and seawead.. never any fresh veggies. About once a week we get a peice of fruit but then it is literally a peice (i.e. a 1/4 of an apple, etc.). We also each receive a standard issue glass bottle of whole milk. Do you think these kids get enough fat and protein?? I really doubt there is a nutritionist who plans this all out, but if there is he/she needs to go back to school.

Ok.. so now that I've painted the picture that is our miserable food, you are probably dying to ask why I would subject myself to such a menu. Particularly considering the fact that I don't eat meat! Yeah, well I am oh so happy to answer you: everyone in school is required to eat school lunch. That's right... every single student and teacher eats the school lunch every single day... and loves it. So for the first time, I am the lone picky eater... I eat about half- 3/4 of my lunch and then usually pitch the rest. The school secretary, who makes my lunch for me to carry to the classroom of the week, has gotten very good at not giving me any blatantly obvious chunks of meat.. but then I am usually left with the pathetic little salad, a loaf of bread, and the milk. So why am I full, today? Because this week, I am lucky enough to be eating in a classroom that is required to eat ALL of their food. They aren't allowed to throw away anything. In general, I think this is a noble philosophy and try to adhere to it myself.. but when applied to this particular situation: ugh.. let's just say I don't think I will bother with dinner.. I'm getting sick of food!

On a totally different topic: my trip to Wakayama has been canceled. I called the Matsudas (one of my host families) and it turns out they are going through a cycle of a bad cold. It would be a pain for me to be there, so I bowed out. Now Jaclyn and I are scrambling to come up with something else to do. I think we'll probably end up cruising around this area to do some exploring. Maybe we will stay in a inn or two or try some onsens. I'm psyched.. will let you know where we end up.