Who dares take the 'Q' out of Japan's 5-star kyushoku?

[Behan]

COUNTERPOINT
Who dares take the 'Q' out of Japan's 5-star kyushoku?


By ROGER PULVERS
Special to The Japan Times

...If the culture of the Japanese school lunch, like manga, sushi and karaoke, were adopted overseas and kyushoku became a word used worldwide, a few scores on those intelligence tests taken in the West might be raised. But let's spell it "Q-shoku," where the "Q" stands for "quality." The culture of the Japanese school lunch is high, quality culture.http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/fl20070422rp.html

He should try eating at my junior high school.

[james]

"In their later years, kyushoku may be the thing they remember with most fondness from their school days."

if a few of my students are anything to go by, it may be the only thing they remember.

[Mike Oxlong]

It's generally known as "spew-shoku" & "Q-shock" amongst ALTs

[Neo-Rio]

The only thing I remember is making heaps of onigiri from leftover wakame-gohan.

[AssKissinger]

Japanese school lunches are far superior to American school lunches. American kids usually have access to something fairly decent but with Pizza Hut and Taco Bell setting up stalls in schools across the country most kids are eating processed bullshit everyday. They would be much better off eating miso and fish and rice. Hell, at least 25% of American junior high students eat a bag of potato chips and down a coke for lunch everyday. Japanese school lunches can be tedious to eat but what American kids are fed is appalling. Kids eat Twinkies for breakfast a couple candy bars in homeroom and then potato chips and coke for lunch; then we wonder why they can't behave and pump them full of drugs for Attention Deficit Disorder.

[james]

[quote="AssKissinger"]Twinkies for breakfast a couple candy bars in homeroom and then potato chips and coke for lunch]

don't forget dessert!

it is one thing i've noticed here - there is much more focus on proper nutrition and balance. par for the course in a country where food is the religion of the overwhelming majority. it also doesn't hurt that the kids get *a lot* more exercise and the link between physical and mental well being is long established.

potato chips, candy, twinkies and all that other crap are fine occasionally but i think you'd be hard pressed to get even executives at these companies who think this stuff should be a regular staple.

[Behan]

Japanese school lunches are far superior to American school lunches...

It's been too long for me in terms of time and distance to argue that with you. I have heard that US school lunches were serving fast food, too. When I was in public school in the 70s and 80s(Old fart) our school lunches were pretty healthy. But they could be tedious, too.

After a year as working as an ALT at four different junior highs and two elementary schools, I would agree that the food is healthy but it also a bit bland. Personally, I wish they had more fresh vegetable but everyone has a wish...

Even if there were a need to compare US and Japanese school lunches, and to conclude that Japanese were better, I still think that calling them 5-star is a gross exaggeration.

I thought I had heard on the news that schools in the US were starting to move away from junk food but don't know true that is across the country.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I didn't think the school lunches were particularly healthy at the high school I taught at. The meat, chicken, and fish were always deep fried. But they were definitely better for you than the fast food lunches available in many US high schools.