Everyone I speak to who has spent any time in a hospital, including here in Japan, has some sort of beef about hospital food. Upon announcing that I’d be spending a decent chunk of time here at the Shin-Sapporo Orthopaedic Surgery Hospital, getting a ski-related maisonneuve fracture fixed up, messages have been peppered with the following comments.
- Good luck with the pain fight…and the food….
- Hope the meals are good!
- I was ready to be done with rice after three days!
- …the food [in hospital in Japan] made me gag at least once every couple of days…
And so it goes that it seems a lot of people don’t like hospital food.
I suppose on first visual inspection, the meals I’ve been having here at Shin-Sapporo Orthopaedic Surgery Hospital do look a bit anaemic and light.
Here’s the very first meal I had here – dinner on the 10th of February.
It was actually really good.
A big bowl of rice to eat with three okazu (side dishes), along with miso soup.
- Rice – maybe 300g
- Sweet and sour fish
- Vinegar Cucumber pickles
- Spinach and chicken mince dish
- Miso soup with Chinese cabbage
Every meal (except one – an udon noodle bowl) has followed a similar pattern. Rice, with three okazu side dishes, and often miso soup. In the morning, there might be a yoghurt drink or milk.
I’ve enjoyed every single one. They’re simple, soul-food sort of Japanese dishes. Tasty sides to make the rice taste good.
I suppose if you weren’t a fan of rice, you’d certainly struggle with the standard fare.
How To Eat Rice and Okazu
Even if you know the rice + okazu Japanese meal format, some people struggle with Japanese hospital food. So if you’re not familiar with the rice + okazu format, the struggle might be even more daunting. Here’s a quick primer.
COMPONENTS
- Rice – short-grained, slightly sticky rice. Holds together well when eating with chopsticks.
- Okazu – strongly-flavoured side dishes. Can include meat, fish, vegetables, tofu, beans, eggs…anything really.
- Soup – Often, but not always, the rice + okazu format will include some kind of soup, most often miso soup.
RICE + OKAZU THEORY
- The okazu are not there to be eaten on their own; they’re there to be eaten with the rice. They’re often too overwhelmingly flavoursome to be consumed on their own. Shovel a small quarter-mouthful of rice into your mouth with your chopsticks (or spoon/fork), and then follow immediately with a small portion of okazu. Chew together and swallow, along with a small sip of soup.
COMMON MISTAKES
- Eating all okazu and not keeping up with the rice. I.e., ending up with a lot of rice left with no okazu left.
- Ignoring the soup until the end. Have to drink the salty soup without any rice to tame it.
- Reaching for sauce to douse the rice with. If you’re doing that, you’re doing it wrong. Refer to “Rice + okazu theory” above.
PRO TIP
- Treat the rice + okazu meal format like an “every-bite is a customizable donburi” (rice bowl). Hold your rice bowl in one hand. Grab a small portion of okazu with your chopsticks (or spoon or fork) and sit it on your rice temporarily. Pick it up again, put it in your mouth, quickly followed by a mouthful of rice, with the rice bowl near your mouth. This reduces the lag between having only okazu in your mouth. This is also useful when eating in a hospital bed, when there might be distance between the okazu dishes and your mouth; use the rice bowl as an okazu transport device.
Meal size
Any mildly active person will look at those meals above and raise an eyebrow. They look small.
In terms of calories, they average around 1,700 per day across three meals (as per the weekly menu below).
I’ve found that even just lying around in the hospital bed all day doing nothing, at this default 1,700 calories, I do get hungry towards mealtimes. But I figure I’m not moving about, so this amount is just fine. If necessary, I can always add a protein shake in between (Haidee brought some from home). For reference, I’m a relatively athletic 45 yr old male, 179cm, 79kg.
On average, it’s around 64g of protein for the day, 45g of fat, and 260g of carbohydrates. Salt, at 7.5g a day, is perhaps on the high side.
The meal sizes are not set in stone – there is wiggle room. About three days in, the resident nutritionist dropped by and asked if the food was OK.
“What about the volume? Too little? Too much? Just let us know and we can adjust things,” she said.
As an aside, the hospital confirmed that they can provide vegetarian meals, and cater to other dietary needs.
There’s also a vending machine in the main shared space. I use this for my morning coffee fix.
As mentioned above, many of my friends don’t rate hospital food. Many who have had Japanese hospital food in particular have not had ideal experiences. But so far, I’ve enjoyed the meals here. So this made me wonder if perhaps Shin-Sapporo Orthopedic Surgery Hospital was in some way special. Perhaps they pride themselves in having good tasting food. I asked a nurse if this was the case. I asked if she had worked at other hospitals, and if there was anything different at Shin-Sapporo Orthopedic.
“I’ve worked in a number of hospitals. This hospital moved to these new premises in August 2022, but about ten years ago, Shin-Sapporo Orthopedic ran their own meal system, and was known for having very good food. But for a long time now, they’ve been outsourcing the food making, so it’s not really all that different from other hospitals,” she said.
“That said, if your friends have had a bad experience with food, maybe ask if they were at an internal medicine hospital. Orthopedic hospitals don’t have much of a limitation on what they can feed patients, whereas other specialities might be more limited. Food can get pretty bland if you’re being treated for diabetes, for example,” she said, laughing.
“That said, even some of our Japanese patients don’t particularly like the food here at Shin-Sapporo Orthopedic, so it all varies by individual too,” she said.
Meal costs
I mentioned in a previous post that the meals are an extra cost that is not covered by public health insurance. Each meal is 510yen each, for a total of 1,530yen per day. Whereas for most other costs associated with hospitalization I only have to pay 30% (up to a maximum monthly cap – details here), meals are billed at 100%.
That means that for an almost three-week stay, this will cost me 29,070yen (19 days x 1,530yen) for meals.
Note: While hospital-provided meals are an “extra cost”, this doesn’t mean they’re optional. They’re part of the inpatient experience and can’t be opted out of.
10 thoughts on “Hokkaido Ski Accident (Part 4): Japanese Hospital Food”
The food looks good to me. I guess there’s a similar reaction to hospital food here: some say it’s good (like me) and some say it’s awful.
It really has been quite good. Personal preferences will always be strong, I guess!
During my 10-day TKR I relied on Care Packages for survival.
Haha, sounds like it was brutal!
Awwwhh man sorry to hear about your accident. Sending lots of love from Aus, hope you heal up soon!
Thanks Nicole! Making progress each day it seems!
I think rice for breakfast would be a challenge but otherwise the meals don’t look too bad. A lot depends on how wedded you are to your own cuisine. Some people don’t take to a change of food very well and others enjoy tasting something completely different. I think I could survive these menus and even enjoy them as long as a coffee machine was nearby!
The vending machine, with cold canned coffee is my friend 🙂
I think it’s the boredom factor – not just that the food is healthy/bland. In your home, you can follow a classic Japanese food day with tacos or good curry…but in hospital you know it’ll be rice, side dishes and soup for days and days. And also just white rice….my saving food was breakfast cereal delivered by a friend!
Yeah I can see how that might be a bit boring. I think the portion sizes work in my favour in that regard – I’m usually so hungry by the time meals come around that it all tastes amazing 🙂