Tale of Two Lunches

Lunch the first. Friday, September 2nd. Nagasaka Junior High School

As I looked down at my tray that had been prepared for my by the students of the junior high, I had a bad feeling. Usually in these situations, I work back from the familiar. "Bread, I know what that is" "That there is some kind of chicken." On this day, I only recognized one thing. Pineapple. Not bad right? I could live with pineapple. Fruit is rare and expensive in Japan, so it usually acts as the dessert.

The plate had some kind of salad with chicken and green beans that can only be described as slimy. I am relatively sure that I recognized some part of an egg mixed in around with the chicken. Eggy and slimy. On to the soup-stuff. I have discovered that Friday at the junior high is basically "Eat with a spoon day." All of the dishes that they have on Friday are meant to be poured over a bed of rice and eaten with a spoon. I figured this out when I looked for my chopsticks and found only a spoon. Watching what the others did, I poured the stuff over the rice. The whole concoction was vaguely yellow and had the consistency of the liquid (or semi-liquid) that is left over in the turkey pan on Thanksgiving. I don't know about you, but I usually call that...slimy. I spotted a few hard boiled eggs kicking around in there like eyeballs. Eggy and slimy.

As for what else was in this turkey leftover concoction, I can't honestly tell you. I only recognized carrots and daikon. Daikon is a big root (or tuber) that the Japanese revere. It is kind of like a radish/potato. It isn't bad, but I won't be buying any soon. The other things looked like various medieval shapes. First off was a vegetable that looked like an octopus tentacle with suckers on all sides, then struck me as looking like a mace with rectangular points for bludgeoning. In this medieval medley there was a...food substance (though there is no way to be sure) that looked like side of a tiny gingerbread castle. It was cut in a way that made it look like it had battlements across one side where archers could shoot. I hesitate to say it was food because it had the texture of Styrofoam. In addition to the rest, there were at least 3 other things I didn't recognize, but I choked it down.

I am sure it is good for my character, and I bet my digestive tract is thankful for the insoluble fiber. I have resolved to find out what it is called and make sure that I bring a backup the next time lunch is brought to you by the words egg and slimy.

Lunch the second. Monday, September 5th. Nagasaka Junior High School

Even as I write this, the glory of the lunch recently eaten sits in my belly. As I looked at the plate, I could recognize every single thing I was being served. I saw white bread, chicken, potato salad (kind of) and egg soup. You may think, based on a recent run-in with eggs, that I am not a fan of egg. I assure you that I am, but not when they are slimy. With the bread was jam and butter in a package. I watched those around me to see how they would eat when I saw the head teacher squeeze the jam and jelly onto the piece of bread, slap the chicken and some potato on there and start going to town. Interesting, but not for me. I enjoy my flavors separately and allow my pallet to tie them together.

I used one piece of fine Japanese white bread as a counter balance for my soup, and put the butter and jelly on the other. The chicken, though small, was delicious. I don't know how the Japanese do it, but I have yet to have an un-juicy piece of chicken. Even the stuff I cook at home comes out bursting with juice. After my potato salad (with ham nonetheless) was finished, I moved on to my dessert. 3 green grapes. You may be thinking, as I was, that 3 grapes is a rather odd number to choose. Empowered by a meal eaten that I enjoyed and could recognize, I moved on to my grapes a little faster than the rest. I popped one of them into my mouth and bit down only to discover that the grape contained garbage.

Farbeit for me to criticize the Japanese on their grape production, but it was not what I expected. Most green grapes in this country are still sweet; this thing was tart and sour. These facts alone don't condemn the grape, but the seeds and stem in the middle do. The skin was also thick and unchewable. Not knowing about these things before hand, I just bit into it and started munching away. Initially, I thought I had broken a tooth on the evil Japanese sour "fruit." I discovered that it was just the 5 seeds inside. I know I have been lucky to have only seedless grapes before, and there is a reason...seeded grapes are too much work for not enough enjoyment. After spitting out my garbled pile of undigestibles, I threw the other two grapes away. Fool me once, strike one Fool me twice...strike three.