Kyushoku - much consternation has this cultural tradition caused me. Kyushoku, or school lunch, is a major social meme in Japan. Kyushoku began originally as a governmental response to mass malnutrition among Japanese children in the post-WWII era. At that point, poverty and malnutrition were rampant, so a government-subsidized lunch program was introduced to combat the issue. Originally, kyushoku consisted of such simple foods as milk (from powdered milk solids), bread, and so on. Today, it is a daily changing menu, prepared by the students themselves on a rotating basis, usually consisting of a soup or salad, a rice or noodle dish with some meat like curry, katsu, or stir fry, a carton of fresh milk, and a dessert - sometimes a sweet like pudding, sometimes a piece of fresh fruit. Kyushoku is considered as much a part of schooling as any class - teachers eat with their students, monitoring their nutritional intake, table manners and socialization. In middle school and elementary school, no students at my schools pack lunch from home - everyone eats the school lunch.
This has actually caused me a bit of consternation. I asked if it would be alright if I packed a bento from home, not being overly fond of cafeteria food in any form. The immediate reaction was NO!…except from my one elementary school where nobody really speaks English. A day later, a wonderful English teacher from my middle school approached me, telling me that the non-English-speaking elementary school was very concerned about the idea of me packing my lunch as all previous ALTs (my job title - Assistant Language Teacher) had eaten school lunch, and would much prefer that I eat school lunch than bring a lunch from home.
Not wanting to cause trouble, I conceded to eat school lunch - which while healthier than American school lunch is still nothing to write home about - and so it was settled.
Or so I thought.
My first day of work, my boss at that school walks up to me and says “So what did you bring in your bento today?” I said I didn’t have one, I was eating school lunch, and he acted horrified.
My reaction: this guy was so opposed to the idea that he called teachers at my other school to tell them exactly HOW much he opposed me packing my own lunch. Now that I have conceded to doing things his way and eating the semi-gross school lunch, he wants to know where my bento is and is acting like it’s a major imposition that I am expecting to eat the school lunch? This is a classic WTF Japan moment. Clearly something here got lost in the cultural translation. Regrettably, I am now apparently committed to an entire year of Japanese cafeteria food. On the upside, it’s quite funny if you think about it. Above is a sample of what my daily luncheon might look like - this one was some kind of meat stir fry with a soft-boiled quail egg over rice, a salad of some sort, and a big slice of watermelon (suika in Japanese). All school lunches are served with milk, and if you eat in the teacher’s room as I do at my elementary school, also usually with hot green tea.
Google kyushoku if you’re curious - it’s certainly an interesting cultural notion that the government has a responsibility to ensure not only the provision of one nutritionally complete and balanced meal a day to every student at a subsidized price, but also that that meal should include adult supervision, student responsibility in preparation, and throughout good manners and responsible cleanup behaviors. The phenomena is directly a result of World War II, so it may be of particular interest to history or sociology buffs.
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