給食-kyushoku-school lunch

Today at Togari I ate with the 3rd graders.  It just so happened that today's menu was chosen by the class.  Usually once a month one grade level can choose what they want to have in their "ideal lunch."  Here was today's menu:

Fried cocoa bread--bread that's fried once and then doused in cocoa powder
Kimchee soup--kimchee flavored soup with pork and vegetables
Grilled cod--with a mayonnaise, apple and onion mix on top
Sea vegetable salad--cucumbers and various types of seaweed mixed in a vinaigrette
Coffee Milk--no, not regular milk...delicious, sweet, coffee flavored milk!!!!!
Strawberry Jelly--almost frozen with real pieces inside!  It was kind of like water ice >3< yum

I must admit when i first saw my tray I was concerned , but by the end of the meal I was proud of the 3rd graders!  I asked the nutritionist later how many calories were in this meal and she avoided answering me for a bit... lol over 900 kcalories, 200 over the usual 700 they are allotted! hahahaha but it's all good.  As long as there's no shrimp, it's okay!

Rainbows and Butterflies?!

Most of the time I love being in Japan.  Other times I find myself in situations that I feel like I never would be in if I were in the US, which makes me uncomfortable, which makes me long for the comfort of home.

Most of the time I love working with children.  Other times I cannot find the patience within me to get through the day dealing with rambunctious students who don't want to pay attention in class.

Most of the time I am extremely happy with Japanese cuisine.  Other times I cannot hide the grimace on my face as I attempt to eat fried squid rings or slimy mushrooms in my soup.

This past summer I almost died of heat exhaustion.  As winter draws near, and the mornings and nights are now cold, I wonder how I'm going to get through the super wintery winter here.  

I spend most of my time trying to keep busy and occupied.  But I also spend many evenings alone with my computer, longing for my dearest of friends and wasting an immeasurable amount of time on facebook.  

I am here.  This is a decision I made.  I am here. 

The other day someone asked me if I was happy, and I immediately answered "yes!" without a thought.  I took a moment to think about my answer, and realized that I meant it... yes, I am happy. 

I also mean it when I say that sometimes living in Japan is a challenge for me.  Things are definitely not always rainbows and butterflies...but I think that's okay.  I know that I'm growing, and I know that I will look back at this experience years from now and be grateful that I took on this challenge. 

So to you and your adventure/challenge: Face it, take it all in, conquer it, and have fun in the process.  As Masami likes to say, "You're only (insert age here) once...just do it!"

ps. i miss you, everyone.

What do you do when...

You are riding on the train and minding your own business during rush hour.  A businessman in a sharp suit and laptop bag boards the train and takes a seat next to you.  He has probably worked a 9-10 hour day and still has work that needs to get done.  He has awhile to go until his stop, so he decides to pull out his laptop and use whatever portable wireless connection available and get some work done.  

But he's tired...oh, so tired...and he'll be on the train for awhile, so if he can just close his eyes until the next stop, he'll start working...

Or he'll fall asleep.  

He will eventually move into a more comfortable sitting position during his slumber and sigh a little sigh of content, maybe dream about a promotion or bonus at work, drool a little.  What he will not do is realize that his laptop is still open to his work intranet login page and is slowly sliding down the side of his lap. 

The laptop is inching its way toward you.  You glance over and notice that part of his hand is covering a letter that is causing the password section of the log in page to be full of XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXs all the way across.  You exchange glances with your friend sitting on the other side of you and giggle.  You whisper across the aisle to your other friends and tell them what you are seeing on the screen.  More giggling.

Uhoh.  The giggling must have woke the man up.  He glances down at his laptop and decided that right now, it's not worth working, he's just too tired.  So he closes the log in screen and stares at the blank desktop, maybe debating whether or not to actually just put the laptop away and...

He falls asleep again.  

The laptop starts to slide again, and you think he notices, because his hand shifts a little directly onto the mousepad to get a firmer grip on the laptop.  As a result, the cursor opens the windows list and is now scrolling up and down the list of programs as if it has a mind of its own.  The laptop is still sliding down.  You move your hand in position to catch it, just in case.  You are laughing so hard you are crying, your friends are laughing, other people around you are staring, some even on the edge of their seats, waiting to see what the gaijins do next.  A friend sitting across from you snaps a picture.  You keep your eyes away from the laptop screen because the scrolling cursor is just too much for you to handle at that point.

The laptop is now practically falling into your lap.  The man is still asleep.  What do you do?!?!!?!

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We laughed.  And then I tried to compose myself.   I tapped the man on the arm to tell him, but my friends started laughing, so naturally, I did too.  The man woke up with a start, and I told him in a low voice to try and hide the laughter, "Excuse me, this is about to fall..."

I  kind of felt sorry for the man, really.  I would be totally embarrassed to wake up in his shoes with four gaijin girls laughing at me.  He shut down and put away his laptop, and moved down to the other end of the train bench a couple stops later.  I think he even took a picture of us with his phone to probably cry to his wife through text that a bunch of girls were laughing at him on the train.  But we didn't really mind, cuz we got this one:

Photo courtesy of Kim :)