Woman Shares Photos Of Japan’s Free Hospital Meals And We’re Jealous

Hospital food doesn’t always have the best reputation for quality, especially here in the United States. Thus, these photos of a woman’s Japanese hospital meals are definitely making people jealous for the delicious food they get over there.

I recently gave birth in Japan. Here is some of the hospital food I ate.

Imgur user @hahahah1111111 shared the images in the above Imgur album of the gorgeous and bountiful meals she received after giving birth in a hospital in Okinawa, Japan. Each of the descriptions lists off like the food was being served at Nobu, not a hospital. Imagine sea bream served with pasta salad, chicken meatballs, rice, pickled daikon, miso soup, chawan mushi (a savory steamed egg custard), and green tea. Even humble chicken fingers got elevated with a shredded cabbage salad, bitter melon stir-fry, agedashi tofu, carrot salad, rice, and miso soup.

The final dinner the woman had was the most grand of all. Called the Oiwai (or celebration) dinner, she dined on a multi-course assortment of Camembert with raisins, roast beef with mashed potatoes, kabocha squash, lotus root, and gravy, corn soup, rice, salad, tiramisu, orange juice, and green tea. I’d be happy to get a feast like that at a banquet, let alone a hospital.

In total, the woman consumed about 2000-2500 calories per day, she told Today. Her total cost would’ve amounted to about $4,000, but was completely covered by national insurance. She even gets a parenthood cash incentive of 15,000 yen (over $2200 in US Dollars) per month now that she has a child, thanks to a Japanese government incentive.

We definitely wouldn’t get any of those gourmet meals or awesome stipends in the United States. For Japan, though, meals like these are the norm when it comes to hospital fare. The emphasis of veggies and fish over meat and dairy, control of portions, and overall healthier diets in meals like these contribute to Japan’s children having the longest life expectancy in the world.

Of course, that’s not to say that other countries like the United States aren’t moving towards how Japan does meals. However, judging at how the food looks in this Okinawan hospital, we still got a long ways to go.