Analyzing the blog, "Never Seconds"!

Howdy peoples!! :D

I can't believe the fact that its already mid-November.. Time flies soo fast. 
Next thing we know it would be already 2015.

When I was living in the United States, my family used to make a trip to New York almost every November to see the Thanksgiving parade and do some shopping :D

It was sooo cold that I thought I would freeze my butt off however it is one of the memories from the US that I cherish the most. 

It recently hit me that Christmas is just around the corner with all of the decorations done in Shibuya and all of the Tokyo. How are you guys going to celebrate Christmas?
I'm planning on going back to Shizuoka on the day the school finishes and spend Christmas with my family :D One of the culture shocks that hit me when I came back to Japan was how Japanese people celebrates Christmas. That is due the fact that "Christmas" in the US is a celebrated among families but in the Japan it is all about couples.. Like really what is up with that lol and oh yeah! There is no such thing as a Christmas cake in the US... 
So I'm planning on celebrating Christmas in the US way lol.


Recently (especially last week) i have taken a trip to a dream world where a word called "reality" doesn't exist... I went to Disney Land and Sea twice and to a concert of my favorite idol group in a week..
if anybody knows a great way to tackle with a reality pleasee plaeeaseee tell me...lol 

soooo to the main point..

What do you think of Martha Payne and what she accomplished?

I personally thought it is fascinating that a girl who is much young compared to us came up with an idea to start a blog as a way to make an action to make a change in her and also other school lunches among the whole society.  What she has accomplished through her blog is just remarkable. She just recently celebrated her 10 million access to her blog. That number just indicates how remarkable and fascinating this blog is, especially putting into a perspective that this blog and the charity was founded by a young girl's intention to make a change in her school's cafeteria food. 

What are your memories of your school lunches?

My view towards cafeteria food varies between which country you are referring to, Japan or the United States. A great term that describes my perspective towards Japanese cafeteria food is..... "DISGUSTING"! I don't have much memories towards cafeteria food in Japanese school since I moved to the US when I was in 2nd grade of Elementary school and my high school didn't offer cafeteria food. However, I was forced by my parents to attend the local Japanese school for two weeks when I returned to Japanese for a summer vacation. During those two weeks, what I hated the most was the lunch time. That is because the students were forced by the teachers to eat everything that was served or we weren't allowed to go to recess. To add to that, I just could not tolerate the food that was served. Especially the noodle that is like udon but not udon.. sorry that i forgot the name... But I clearly remember that I couldn't go to recess the half of the times because I couldn't eat all of the foods that was served. 

On the other hand, I have a great and positive image toward cafeteria food in the US. Cafeteria food in the US is completely different compared to the one in Japan. I am not sure that this is a case for all of the schools in the US, but in the school that I attended there were multiple options to choose from. For instance in elementary school we were given two options of cafeteria food or you could bring your own lunch. My favorite dish was Chicken fajita, BBQ chicken and mac n cheese. My favorite memory of cafeteria food in the US is probably in high school where students were given variety of food to choose from. For instance, they were a system similar to a Subway where we could choose what to put into a sandwich or fajita, two or three types of hamburger, salad, pizza, chilly cheese fries, chicken nuggets were served every single day. For the health purposes all of the french fries and nuggets were baked rather than fried. Also cookies, baked potato chips, and diet sodas were also sold. What I loved the most was that everyday during lunch, pizza hut came to our school and sold a piece of pepperoni pizza for a dollar.... 

↑Chicken Fajita

↑Chilly Cheese Fries

Did you feel that you had any input on the nature or quality of your school lunches?

I do not feel that I had any input on the nature or the quality on my school lunches. That is because we the students were not given any opportunity to state our opinions towards the cafeteria foods that were served to us. Even if we had a negative perspective towards the cafeteria food that was being served, we were not given an opportunity to make an action to make a change. We just ate the food that were served to us without telling the cafeteria staff about our feelings towards what the food we were served. Unlike Martha, even if we wanted a change we weren't given an opportunity to do so.

What do you think of the dining facilities at AGU and how do you think they can be improved?

I rarely eat at a cafeteria in AGU because I personally think portions of the food that they served are too much. I barely could eat it all or even if I did I get too stuffed that I get a upset stomach. I would appreciate if AGU cafeteria would put a student like me into a consideration and serve a dish with smaller portions and with less calorie. :D

What creative way(s) do you think we (individually or as AGU students) can help others in the world less fortunate than us...especially in connection to food?

The elementary  and middle school that I attended in the United States held a very unique charity to aid the people/children who were not fortunate enough to be fed, which was by canned foods. Each class competed with each other by bringing canned foods from our house and the class that brought the most canned foods were awarded with an ice cream party. All of the canned foods that were collected where given to the people who were encountering with an economic problems. I think this is one of a creative ways to help people especially in  our local society.