Lunch

The hospital cafeteria serves a set lunch every day from 11 AM until 1 PM. I usually eat with my team around 12:30, anticipating what the day's selection will be all morning. For only 350 yen ($3.50), there are two choices of main dish always served with a bowl of rice and miso soup. The two trays are laid out beside the cafeteria line with plastic wrap over them. You glance over them, make your choice, and then go through the line and pick up bowls to match the model tray.

The cafeteria line.

The main dishes range from tempura to curry noodles to fried chicken (which amazingly turned out to be my favorite), and I even had meatloaf yesterday. The miso soup always contains something different - the typical seaweed and tofu, cabbage and carrots, or perhaps something novel and pickled. After you get your food, there is a table with containers of pickles - purple ones, yellow ones, red ones, and green ones - and various creamy and soy-based sauces. A sample of my lunches:

Fried fish and vegies in broth, spinach salad, miso soup, rice with purple pickles and chili powder, and green tea.

Sauteed pork with onions and my favorite side of shredded cabbage that I load up with creamy ginger dressing, spinach and mung salad, miso soup, rice with sweet soy sauce and yellow pickles, and green tea.