Some schools may have a cafeteria, but most do not. Even in schools where a lunch is prepared and provided to the students, they usually eat together in their homeroom classrooms. In most schools, students bring a box lunch from home, almost always consisting of foods prepared by the mother in the early morning hours, such s rice, fish, eggs, vegetables, and pickles.
http://www.indiana.edu/~japan/digest9.htmlIn many elementary schools, the students eat lunch together in their classrooms, enjoying meals prepared by the school or by a local "school lunch center." Small teams of students take turns to serve lunch to their classmates. School lunches contain a rich variety of healthy and nutritious foods, and students look forward to lunchtime.
http://web-jpn.org/kidsweb/japan/schools.html I'm currently teaching English at elementary schools and a junior high in Japan. Everyone in the school, including students, teachers, secretaries, and even the principal eats the same required lunch every day. It always consists of a glass bottle of milk, a bowl of rice, usually some type of fish, a pickled salad, some kind of soup usually with tofu and vegetables, and a piece of fruit. The menu changes every day, and as an American who grew up dreading the provided school meal, the Japanese lunch is actually a tasty treat to look forward to. It's healthy, with tofu and lots of vegetables and protein, and hardly any fat or sugars. From a subjective viewpoint, the only bad thing about it are those not so lovely "jako," or little whole dried fish (eyeballs and all) that they love to sprinkle on everything.
Briana Winter, Kochi, Japan
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4298245.stm
