Entrance Ceremony Lunch (8 April)

Although not technically a kyuushoku meal, I thought I’d show you the insides of a “celebratory lunch box”. Yesterday was the entrance ceremony for the new seventh graders. It’s almost exactly like the graduation ceremony but with less crying. It’s custom (I guess) to get a lunch box for all the teachers containing “celebratory foods” for lunch.

The Japanese love their lunch boxes and take them very seriously. There’s an entire section at stores dedicated to lunch box decorations. You can get little rice presses to turn the rice balls into Mickey Mouse heads and cut up seaweed for the eyes. My personal favorite is the tiny hot dogs that you can make into octopi. There are magazines published solely on the topic of lunch box decorations. This isn’t your brown bag lunch in America.

Anywho, so I’ve learned from many many…many experiences that it is far better to make your own lunch than to rely on the teacher’s choice of a lunch box. The celebratory lunch boxes tend to be overly elaborate, expensive and just inedible. (This is just at my school, I’ve heard other schools getting mythical delicious lunches, although I’m skeptical) But since this is probably the last time I will be eating the celebratory lunch, I thought I’d sign up for a lunch box and hope for the best.

And this is what I got.

To be fair, this is miles above the previous lunches. I was able to eat a good 90% and most of it tasted decent. The first thing that always gets me about these lunch boxes is that they always include sashimi (top right) with a little ice pack to keep it cold. Then there is always the shrimp (top left) that taunts me because I have no idea how to eat him. Luckily he was sitting on top of this disgusting thing called “nuta”, so I just gave up and ignored the two of them. He was also fraternizing with another enemy of mine I call “scallop”.

In the bottom right there was this bizaare collection of fish parts, boiled pumpkin parts, fish egg cake, seaweed wrap and some traditional Japanese sweets. None of these flavors went together at all. To me it was like putting your spaghetti on the same plate as your steak and cake. The rice in the bottom left was sprinkled with various Japanese seasonings like pickeled plums dried tiny fish and dried tiny shrimps.

In the top centre compartment was the “fried” corner. There were two pieces of Japanese fried chicken, a cut off portion of a fried chicken cutlet, spaghetti/potato salad, a delicious almond covered fried pumpkin and….a kiwi piece. Naturally.

It wasn’t all that bad, it just doesn’t mix. Pick a fish or chicken dish and stick with it next time. It was like having a 20 course meal in one box, you just don’t need that much.

If you can see in the bottom right, there’s a little fish full of soy sauce. Oh Japan.