DIA Blog 002 - 12 Days Of Japanese School Lunch by H8R

by H8R

One part of learning about another culture is getting in on the food culture. When people think about learning culture through food, I'm sure most of you have images of the late Anthony Bourdain touring hidden back-alleys and drinking beer or famous chefs visiting Michelin-starred restaurants.

Don't get me wrong, I've had my fair share of back-alley gourmet experiences and fine dining meals, but, for me, one way to learn about Japanese culture is to experience the types of food that Japanese students (and some teachers) eat every day.

Although this wasn't my original goal in for signing up for school lunch (it turns out I was just really bad at remembering to bring a lunch from home), it has definitely opened me up to different types of cuisine (and made my life easier!).

What's in the box (lunch)?

via tenor

The delivery school lunch in my town includes a small box with the main dish and a few sides. It usually also comes with another, smaller box of rice (although this is sometimes swapped out for a bun when it's time for burgers). I eat my rice every day with wasabi furikake (rice flakes).

Wasabi furikake - It's delicious!

We have a choice between A lunch and B lunch. I'm not a picky eater, so I usually go for whatever has the lowest calories and the highest protein (I try to steer clear of the fish with the bones tho, blah).

Although my Japanese is pretty good, I still don't know everything I'm eating half of the time!

The main dish is usually some time of meat (chicken, pork, beef, or fish). Even the vegetables on the side usually have some type of meat in them (sorry vegetarians!).

Sometimes we'll have curry or soup in a separate hot-cup. You can also choose if you want to drink a half a pint of milk or not.

We always have chopsticks and sometimes a spoon (depending on the dish). Like the boxes themselves, these are washed and re-used.

Hey, that all sounds swell! How do you get it?

To get the lunch, I first signed up for a lunch account with my schools. They then give you slips that you pay at convenience stores (￥4500 at a time). This puts money on an account which you can use to order your lunches online. Each lunch is ￥300, so each slip gets you 15 days, or 3 weeks, worth of lunches. Not bad!

The lunches are cooked in a huge kitchen off-site. Staff then drive them out to the schools.

Usually, a few students in each class are assigned to come down to the designated lunch spot and bring the lunches back to the classroom (where the students eat).

Teachers usually go to another room and grab their lunch. Some schools put them on your desk.

Like much of Japan, the delivery lunch system is a carefully orchestrated demonstration in organization and punctuality.

12 days of school lunches

Here are the lunches I had from October 29th-November 19th, enjoy!

Bibimbap

Random beef with mushrooms

Random pork with mushrooms

BBQ Chicken (but no sauce!?!?!)

Lemon-pepper fish (one of my favorites)

Kara-age (Japanese boneless fried chicken)

I don't remember what this is. Maybe some type of fried fish?
Anyway, it was not so good.

Chicken tempura

Spicy chicken
(Spicy in Japan means it has spice, not that it's hot)

Anago-don (Something I never had before)

Assorted fried vegetables with shrimp

More random pork

Random fried chicken

Well, that's it for this post. What do you think? Is it better than what you grew up with? Anything look good to you? Anything look bad? Let us know in the comments!