Surprisingly Not Too Bad
I was in hospital recently for an operation, and ended up spending eighteen days in the hospital as an inpatient on a ward.
More than the operation, before going into hospital I was most worried about the food. I’m a somewhat fussy eater, and there are a lot of foods here that I normally wouldn’t touch. I tend to describe my relationship with Japanese food as loving 50% of it and hating 50% of it (as opposed to most countries, where you might love 20%, hate 20%, and be largely indifferent to the other 60%).
To compound my anxiety, a friend whose (Japanese) father stayed in the same hospital told me that the food was so bad it caused him to angrily complain about it to the nurses.
Things were not looking good.
I checked into the hospital in mid-March, so my first meal was lunch that day. I also had dinner, then missed breakfast and lunch the next day as my operation was scheduled for the early afternoon.
I ate dinner that day and breakfast the next, but didn’t take photos as I was out of it from the anaesthetic and discomfort. My apologies. I did get photos of the other forty-six meals though.
Japanese Hospital Food
In general, the food was pretty good. The hospital seemed to have various basic meal plans (based on patient/treatment type), and then just used the amount of rice to adjust total calories.
My meal plan was unrestricted (as I was there for an operation on a joint, and not due to heart disease, kidney failure, or similar) and they set it at 2,000 calories per day, which seemed about right as I was hungry before meals but not excessively so, and also didn’t lose as much weight as I was hoping to.
Generally speaking, there was rice with almost every meal, milk with breakfast, fish a lot of the time, a soup most of the time, vegetable side dishes, and the odd dessert.
Surprisingy, I found that I ate around 90% of what I was served. It probably helped that I was hungry and there wasn’t a choice. A lot of the time I found myself reluctantly eating things I normally avoid, washed down by the copious amounts of white rice. With every meal there were at least one or two things that tasted good, however.
There was a convenience store in the hospital, and I was able to get down there from the third day when I started using a wheelchair, but I made a point of not buying food (just water and from time to time, a fruit smoothie).
So this is what 18 days of hospital food in Japan looks like -possibly the most boring blog post in history 😉
Congratulations on making it this far! What did you think of the hospital food? If you’ve spent time in a Japanese hospital, was the food similar, better, or worse?
It seems like all those pics are in your room (same place/position). That’s great for scrolling thru, but was there also a commons area where you could eat? (after you’d become more mobile)
Also, while you may have mentioned it elsewhere, how was the wifi? There was a small article in today’s paper talking about the need for this to be available–given the ongoing restrictions on visitors.
Nope, all meals in rooms.
And no wifi.
I wrote an article about the hospital experience -should be published soon on another site. Will link to it once it’s out 🙂
Thanks for the pictures. I am glad to hear that your biggest fear was not realized. All the meals look quite varied as well!
I had my doubts about hospital food when I went in for surgery many years ago. I spent three weeks there after the surgery and actually gained weight.
I had a few days in hospital a few weeks ago with a longer stay planned for the middle of next month. The doctor’s were concerned with my weight – I am of Yokozuna proportions. After three days of IV only I was able to eat lunch – 250g of white rice and fried chicken. An interesting choice considering I am so fat.
Being vegetarian, I worry that if I was ever hospitalised in Japan, I’d starve!
They ask about dietary requirements before you go in, so I presume they would be able to provide vegetarian food 🙂
I was in the hospital a few years back. I suppose it would depend on the hospital, but I told them “no cow or pig meat”, and they complied. There was fish (not too much), which I was OK with at the time. Also “no” on the dairy. The word “requirement” is important, as they said they could not just adjust the diet based on “preferences”. It was all pretty tasty.
Good grief, white rice three times a day! I’m impressed you could digest it all. V. glad to read that everything else went well!
Odaiji ni.
A lot better than the bought in bentos served to people in hotel quarantine!
You might be able to ask for genmai. Vegetarian was available in both the national and private hospitals I’ve stayed at.
For Vikki: I forgot to add that my daughter was in a private hospital for about a week two years ago after a summer holiday accident. She says:
I did enjoy the hospital food in Japan. Plus they had the vegan thing down.
Thanks everyone. It’s good to know I’ll be fed adequately if necessary! I just hope they give me some bread; not sure I could eat rice 3 times a day…
Very interesting post! As a mostly vegan these days–but a picky one who does not like Japanese food that much–I am not sure how I’d do. Lots of trips to the hospital convenience store, or go hungry, probably.