[jasonbvr]

7. What are the typical elements of a Japanese lunch?
Differs from person to person but I can tell you what the kids eat at school. School lunch for junior high kids is a 900 calorie meal. It will either be a rice day or a bread day so you will always be getting plenty of carbs. Except maybe once or twice a year for special days when we don't drink milk, we get a little carton of whole milk. Unless you look very carefully for it, most milk in Japan is whole milk and not the reduced fat milk like 1 or 2% milk. Then you will have something like a main entree of curry, spaghetti, ma-bo dofu, fried pork or some fish. Lastly is the horrible excuse of a salad we get sometimes. It will be a soggy and just not apetizing. Or you might get lucky and have a peice of fruit instead.

8. What are the health impacts of a lunch like this every day?
Eating the junior high lunch will help the kids get enough calories to do all the active stuff they need to do, but for lazy kids and the teachers you really shouldn't eat the whole meal (especially the carbs) because you will put on weight.

9. What are the typical elements of a Japanese dinner?
About the same as lunch, think carbs in the form of rice, noodles or bread. That usually forms the base.

10. What are the health impacts of a dinner like this every day?
Pass

11. How often do most Japanese people snack throughout the day?
Depends person to person but as I noted before the size of the snack is likely to be smaller.

12. What are typical healthy and unhealthy Japanese snacks, and how much of them does the average Japanese person consume between meals?
Healthy, maybe onigiri. Unhealthy, chips, fried conbini food, salty yakitori, processed meats, etcetera.

13. What is the significance of the way Japanese meals are presented at the table?
None that I know of but it seems they reverse it with the main entree in the back and other things up front.

14. How does the average Japanese person feel about eating and food?
They're usually hungry so eating is a great feeling. I don't really get the gist of this question.

15. What do you think is the most important lesson a typical American should learn to follow about Japanese eating habits?
I don't know. All these questions have been about traditional Japanese food, but I should mention that Japanese eat just as much junk food as Americans. Maybe in smaller portions, that is the real key. Like they love McDonalds and beer just as much as most Americans, but there is an idea of not eating, spending, or using anything in excess. Because that would be moutainai-yo (wasteful).

16. How easy is traditional Japanese food to prepare in an American kitchen?
Depends on where you are in the US. Some places it will be easier to find the right ingredients.

17. What do you think is the least healthy element of the Japanese diet?
I would rather them trim the fat off my meat, but to them not eating the fat is once again wasteful. I am not too fond of the high prices for fresh fruits. Oh yeah, I rarely ever see a Japanese person drinking just water. It is always like tea, soda, coffee or a sports drink.

18. Do you worry that increased Westernization in Japan is having a negative impact on the health of the nation?
No. And you have to realize that no one is really Westernizing Japan in the sense that it has been happening in other countries. Japanese Westernized themselves a long time ago. The thing is, Japanese have a way of taking things from the outside and making them their own.

19. If you had the power to change some things about the food eaten by a typical Japanese person, what would you change?
Fiber. There is nothing wrong with whole wheat bread and brown rice.

20. Is there any other information you think is interesting on this subject?
I hate natto.