Amami Superman Photography

Today was a special day at my daughter's school. All the 2nd graders' parents were invited to go and eat lunch with their kids. My wife and I both went. Last year we weren't able to go for work reasons so we asked Jade's grandmother, Kaoru, to go. This was my first time and I was kind of excited.

At first they had all the parents gather in one big room to explain what rooms we were supposed to separate into. They then asked 20 of us to help bring the food from the kitchen. The menu for today was dry curry, naan, vegetable soup, milk and pumpkin pudding. I was one of the people who volunteered to go pick up the food from the kitchen and this is how they bring it to the individual rooms.

I remember in school they wheeled in lunch carts that kept the food warm. Those were the lunch lady days. It reminds me of the song by Adam Sandler, Lunch Lady Land. This lunch line was just a bit shabby, though. I've never been in the service or prison, but would it be something like this? LOL, I don't know.



One of the cool things I like about the schools in Japan is they make the students do most of the work. From serving lunch to cleaning, they have the students take turns doing the work. I don't even think they have janitors at my daughter's school.



I remember they gave us the choice between regular milk or chocolate in elementary school. I don't remember if it was everyday, but I remember they had chocolate milk and sometimes cinnamon squares if we were lucky.



All the 6th graders are on a field trip to Kagoshima so we got to use their rooms on the 3rd floor to eat in. Jade's classroom was on the second floor so I went downstairs to see her. It wasn't until afterward that I noticed her shirt collar all messed up.






"Itadakemasu" directly translates to "I humbly partake." If you say, "It's a dirty mouse." fast enough, it sounds like you're saying "itadakemasu".

The man sitting next to Jade is Hikari's cousin, Chikara. The lady and boy on the other side of the table is Chikara's wife and son, Etsuko and Naoki. Naoki was born three days before Jade and my wife and Etsuko shared the same room when they were in the hospital together. Jade was actually 10 days late and Naoki was a few days early if I remember correctly.



Here it is. I've heard of dry curry plenty of times, but I'm not exactly sure what it is. Is it curry that isn't as soupy as regular curry?



The food and utensils really made it feel like a prison meal. I've never had one, but if I had to imagine one, this is what I would imagine.





Jade is nutorious for taking her time eating lunch. No matter how much we get after her, it still takes her forever. I really don't think it's because she doesn't like the food, she just eats slow.





When you finish your food and leave the table you say "gochisousama deshita". I'm not exactly sure how to directly translate it to English, but a nuance of it would be "Thanks for all the delicious food."

After that, Jade had to go back to her classroom so we helped clean up a little then headed home. Today reminded me a bunch of when I went to elementary school. What I wouldn't give for some macaroni & cheese with little smokies in it. Mmmmmm smokies...