Lunch today was with a raucous 5th grade class, and involved more than one boy showing me his butt. For some reason seeing naked children always makes me feel extremely awkward, like I'm going to get fired just for being there. Obviously the boys in question weren't so concerned. It so happens that one these immodest boys also pointed out to me (in quite vulgar terms) that I should hook up with the homeroom teacher. (I don't remember exactly what he said, but it involved him sliding his finger rhymthically into a hole in his fist.) The teacher slapped the boy softly, but seemed pleased that he had broached the subject of our both being young and single. She told me she was "lookingu fo' boyfurendo." We'll see about that. In contrast to the day's entertainment, the food was fairly regular, although the "nasu" sauce was a nice homage to the fresh eggplant we're having here as summer comes to a close...
[clockwise from spaghetti]
-
spaghetti with eggplant meat sauce (nasu iri mīto sōsu supagettei ビーンズいりミート ソーススパゲッテイ)
-
milk (gyuunuu 牛乳)
-
salad (sarada サラダ)
-
roasted potatoes (rōsu poteto ロースポテト)
And yesterday's lunch was one of my favorites this year! It truly was a feast, the cooks going an extra mile with the tender, hollow tofu balls in the soup, fried fish (fried anything is good) with sweet potatoes, two kinds of beans and carrots, and of course the fresh mandarin orange!
[clockwise from rice]
-
rice (gohan ご飯)
-
"five color" swordfish and vegetable medley (kajiki to yasai no gojikini かじきと野菜
の五色煮)
-
mandarin orange (mikan みかん)
-
traditional Japanese clear soup (sumashi jiru
すまし汁)
- milk (gyuunuu 牛乳)
Hello, Kevin.
ReplyDeleteI am a Japanese living in Canada. Your kyuushoku blog looks great! I enjoy reading it very much. Your kyuushoku looks similar to mine in an elementary school 20+ years ago in Osaka except that yours has a potato dish almost every day somehow.
Sorry for the nasty attention-seeking kids. If I were the teacher, I would give them time-out and let them stand outside of the classroom even in the middle of lunch time for "hansei" (=remorse on his bad behavior while getting removed from the rest of the class. I afraid I end up having a half of boys outside of the classroom ...
M
Thank you, M! That's strange and true about the potatoes, I didn't even realize it. I guess they're cheap or something.
ReplyDeleteAs for the kids, it's not so bad. Kids have lots of energy, and I want them to enjoy my classes and generally not hate me ;-)
By the way how did you find out about this blog???
Hello, Kevin.
ReplyDeleteI found your blog when I was looking for photos of kyuushoku to show my Canadian friend. We were talking about prevention of obesity and healthy diet. I haven't given any thought on kyuushoku until I came to North America and found children here don't have kyuushoku. It was just happy moment in my elementary school days. Now I see kyuushoku as intervention on diet of Japanese children. It is nice that they learn what healthy diet is like in an enjoyable manner.
I think Japanese mothers like kyuushoku too because they don't have to wake up early to prepare school lunch in the morning. If I ran for city or prefectural election, I would advocate kyuushoku in elementary, junior high and high schools, so all mothers would vote for me! :)
M