I thought it was beef.

Just let me say that straight off.

I. Thought. It. Was. Beef.

So yesterday I was talking to my neighbor, also a JET, and we were discussing our normal complaints about the school lunch, mainly that its too much to eat in too short a time. She told me how on that day, they had some extra chewing beef, beef that was cooked or fried too much because it was really dark, almost black, and that for once no one was able to finish their lunch on time due to the extra amount of time needed to chew.

We chuckled over it, moved on to other topics, and I promptly forgot the conversation.

Until today, when I went to my elementary school, and I saw that lunch was some very dark, almost black meat. Huh! I thought to myself, this must be the beef Kelly had.

Anyway I go to the class I’m eating lunch with (3rd and 4th graders today) sit at the desk they have for me, and proceed to eat my lunch. Just as my neighbor stated, the beef was very chewing. It also tasted a little…odd.

Not bad by means, just unlike any beef I had ever tasted before. It was chewing and a but crunchy, and had…more of a tangy kick than the beef I was used to.

Interesting! I thought to myself, it must be the sauce. For there was a molasses-texture like seasoned sauce that the meat was all but drowning in. That combined with the fact that it must be burnt, given the color, explained the taste.

Throughout my musing and eating, my kids are trying hard to make conversation with me, (since when they’re in elementary school, they have no qualms with talking and eating at the same time), but are rapidly running out of questions to ask me. Now it just so happens that on that day, I had just had a lesson where I taught them the names of animals, one of them being “cow”. So as the questions dwindled, I thought to myself, now is an excellent time to bring a little lesson into lunch! I’ll ask what the meat is, they’ll say its beef. I’ll ask what animal is beef, and they will either look at me blankly, say “chicken”, or say cow either in Japanese or in English. Either way I can either praise or gently correct them, and it can be a nice way to bring the lesson full circle.

And so, feeling all nice and pleased with my teacher ways (I’m finally getting the hang of it!) I point to the last couple of pieces of meat on my plate and ask, “what’s this?”

And all 12 students announce, in Japanese, as one,

“It’s whale.”

Whale.

As in whale.

Like it’s no big deal.

Whale, in the school lunch.

You have your rice, you have your veggies, you have your soup, and you have your whale.


…Well.

I hope Greenpeace isn’t reading this.

Random happening of the day

I just went out to do a little grocery shopping for the week right? And I'm walking along and I;m about to pass what dad calls the "kmart" when i hear two kids call out "Robin-sensei, Robin sensei!" I turn and I see two little kids, maybe about 7 years old, about to dash out of the parking lot and cross the street to me, but there's a car coming! So I call out, "wait wait!!" in japanese, with my hand out and the kids stop just in time to not get hit by the car. (the car didn't see them until the last moment cause they're small and were about to come out from behind a parked car). Once the car passes I cross the street to them instead of hte other way around, and ask them what they're doing. They were shopping at the kmart (they each had a little bottle of juice and a snack). I asked where their mom was and they said she was working. So I'm like "okaaay two 7 year olds just out and about". So I'm about to leave and I notice they are follwing me, so I'm like "where are you going?" and they're like "to the grocery store!" (i had just told them thats where I was going), so they tag along with me, and i make a big show about looking before ways before i cross the street and such, and they 'help" me shop and all that, and as we're walking back I ask them where they are going now, and they said they hang out at the little arcade in the osada (kmart) until their mom gets off of work. So I drop them back off at the arcade on my way home, but I still notice that every now and then they'd pop out into the street to watch me walk away and wave. Finally I quickly turn a corner in hopes that if they can no longer see me they wont keep going out into the road lol.

They are not the only little kids I've seen wandering the streets without adult supervision here! People think their kids are so safe cause its japan, a small town, and a little island, and it just amazes me! Like even if there's not that big of a chance of them being abducted, they could still get hit by a car or something! Like they almost did trying to get to me. Makes me worried lol, like I could never imagine being allowed to roam the town, or just being dropped off at the arcade and told to wait when I was that young.