Japanese Food...or not

Japanese food can sometimes be delicious...sushi, sashimi, udon, soba, ramen, okonomiyaki (is like a mix of all sorts of things with eggs and milk I think and sort of fried), yakitori (grilled chicken kebabs), shabu shabu (which apart from anything is fun to say) and nabe (both hotpot stewy type things) to name but a few. HOWEVER, Japanese school lunch is something that I would not really class as food at all, but rather random high-calorie gloop slopped on plastic plates, usually cold, and usually not remotely complementing the other gloop it is sat next to. And I am eating this school lunch (kyuushoku, きゅうしょく, 給食) EVERY DAY! You're not supposed to leave any...everyone eats it...all students and teachers, with no choice of dish, everyone gets what they're given and everyone gets the same. Sharing it out every day is a prime time for fuss and takes such a long time (hence the coldness of the meal) that the smell has been lingering in the air for half an hour before you can actually eat it. It's actually quite incomprehensible from a British perspective at least that there would be no choice whatsoever and that the teachers would all eat the same as the kids (I'm talking about a lunch designed for 5 year olds being eaten by the 60-odd-year-old head teacher!!). It is a very respected tradition though...at my junior high school, we had a whole week's worth of special (seemed the same to me though) lunches to celebrate its birthday (?) and one of my schools has a song dedicated to it every day (played during the school lunch sharing and distribution fuss, which really deserves its own place in the school timetable).

Today was a prime example of an odd and not particularly appetising lunch...dessert was fromage frais, Danone too (they really pushed the boat out there), so that was ok, the soup was an udon soup which I like, but it was very very salty. The salad was covered, dripping and drowning in a very vinegary dressing (possibly vinegar) and had some very questionable meat in it, which I think was probably innards of some description, but I'll never know because I can't read the menu. Then there was the obligatory carton of (full-fat) milk which I must drink every day! I know that in England drinking milk on its own, let alone full-fat, let alone with a straw, let alone out of a carton with a smiley cartoon cow on it, let alone to wash down a hot meal with in the middle of the day, would be only something kids up to the age of 6 would do, but here ALL the kids and teachers do it every day. Then was the creme de la creme...かまぼこ....kamaboko....a steamed white fish-paste and (very yellow) cheese sausage! I wish I had taken a picture...I can't find one online at the moment. It was this horrible white stick, with the texture of rubber, the smell of fish and taste of horrible cheap cheese...not three things that should go together! They couldn't believe I didn't like it! I couldn't believe I wasn't sick in my cold salty soup!!