#5: Ordering Food in Class and for Delicious Bento Box (June 18)

Japanese class has involved a lot of studying in the mornings and evenings to make flashcards for all the new vocabulary, but the time in the classroom is very interactive and fun. Today we learned how to say any number between one and ten million. Like English, there's a system to it, so you feel powerful once you have the tools to say any one of ten million numbers just like that. We also practiced ordering at the "NUSIP Cafe", where one student would be the cashier and another would be the customer, and they would order coffees, orange juices, sandwiches, beers, etc. When it was my turn I ordered "Hyaku biru, teikuato shimasu." ("One hundred beers, to go.")

For lunch today I found a new cafeteria inside my classroom building--a small stand on the first floor that only serves lunch and does so with bento boxes (to-go lunch boxes Japanese employees or students will take for their lunch breaks). I got to order my first bento box, and I really enjoyed it. Rice and chicken and veggies: simple, delicious, filling, and very satisfying, and right outside my classroom. I will be back there several more times this summer I'm sure. Soon I hope to be able to order at restaurants and buy stuff at stores speaking to the staff only in Japanese. I've still got to keep working on it though: for some reason they gave me two bento boxes after I paid, so I guess I paid for two of them in a mix-up somehow. I gave the second one to someone else in line for free, since it would've been wasted otherwise, and he was pretty excited about that, so that was nice. 

Today I got to just enjoy being in and participating in class, and not stress out about how hard I need to be working on learning the stuff in my study time, and I got to enjoy being like Guy Fieri or Phil Rosenthal and see a new food stand and try it out, and not worry about what else I eat that day or for the trip overall. Both unique parts of studying abroad in Japan, and ones I'll be grateful for and enjoy the entire program. 

Ordering in "Cafe NUSIP" in Japanese class

Bento Box with rice, fried chicken, and veggies


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