Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Lunchtime...Japanese Jr. High style

I never finish my lunch. Let me explain...Lunchtime is about 50 minutes, but only about 10 of those minutes are for eating. It is mass chaos. At my last school I ate in the teacher's room and had tons of time. At Katsutadai I eat with a different class each day. I go to my assigned lunch class, then sit and wait for them to say 'itadakimasu', which is said before meals. At this point, you start inhaling your food as quickly as possible. I'm the world's slowest eater, so this is horrible for me. I usually come home with at least 1/4 of my lunch un-eaten. After 10 minutes have passed, the bell rings and then everyone says 'gochisosamadeshita', which is said at the end of meals.

Lunchtime is stressful for me since I'm trying to eat all my lunch, and try to talk to my students. They get their textbooks out and try to ask me questions. That part is actually fun, but I think I'd rather go back to having my 30 minutes to eat...

Differences in lunchtime (other than the time):
-No cafeteria--they eat in their classrooms
-The students serve each other. They bring the food and trays, etc to their classroom and then the 'lunch leaders' serve the food.
-They eat rice (just about) everyday. (I only say 'just about' because today they didn't have rice, but that was the first time I've not seen rice on their plates.)

I will try and take pictures sooner or later of lunchtime.

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