We were ecstatic to be at this university in Japan. We could barely believe that we were going to take classes and walk to this campus almost every single day.

As we became familiar with the institution and the grounds with which it stands on, we discovered the cafeteria and the book store. These were of a… different nature than something you would see in American’s school system. Were these sights some bad ones? Not necessarily! So, let’s talk about the lunch time we had.

I will admit right from the get go, I couldn’t read the menu. We’re talk ‘Knees weak, arms spaghetti’ while I’m reading the menu. I found a picture of me while I was trying to order, I’ll post it below.

Let me just say that the cafeteria was clean! Boy oh boy did it become extra inviting with that concept alone. Once you manage to find a food that you can pronounce, you can just say it and they put it together for you. I barley ate well sometimes while on this trip due to my lack of interest in Japanese food. This was a concern almost the entire time. While I finally managed to find something eatable (with my eyes making my decision based on the pictures of food), I was certain that I’d also need to ‘take one for the team’. You see, eating separate stood as an issue as much as it does in America. I didn’t want to make the team wait on me or ruin any plans because I just ‘didn’t eat’ or ‘will survive somehow’ so I worked up the courage to digest some of this seemingly delightful food.

I ordered curry with god knows what. “What?” you say? That’s right! God-Knows-What. This curry was apparently a sauce on rice, just like in the animes, with…cabbage on the side? I believe there was another element but I forgot and I’m not a food photographer so there isn’t any records of that day. I happily got my tray and walked to the checkout which was a super simple process mind you. We ate as a class with some crawling eyes around the room. There really isn’t any reason for the normal student to be interested in us. I look down at my food, glance at my cowpiss (nomsayin) and begin to chow down. The try-hards said ‘Eatadakimas’ but I’m an uncultured swine and started in on my food. One spoonful of the rice with curry sauce went in to my slightly headache brewing head and…. well, it wasn’t bad. Let’s be frank here, the food is as high quality as the college and that showed big time. I’m not a fan of foreign foods at all but this stuff passed my taste buds test on all accounts. I was a happy camper eating this Japanese cafeteria lunch. I tried the cabbage, but that didn’t work out. Still! I had a half-way decent lunch with everyone and no McDonald’s was required.

This was something really interesting and recommend anyone to try it if they decide to study abroad!