This is the uniform worn by lunch servers at Little Brother's elementary school. A group of students serve lunch for one week. They take the uniforms home in a little white cotton bag on Friday. The uniforms are washed and ironed and put back into the bag. They are taken back to school on Monday and are hung at the front of the room. Masks are generally not worn.
You may notice that I didn't show pictures of the students in the post about serving lunch. To post them, I would have to get permission from each parent. That would take a lot of time, so I just took pictures of the food and their hands serving it. This picture was taken at our house.
Lunch service in elementary schools is common. There may be some elementary schools that don't provide it. At our elementary school, a fee is paid each year, and students receive lunch every school day. Some students who don't like school food or who have allergies may decide not to sign up for the lunch service. They would have to bring their own lunch (obentou) from home. That is very rare, though.
The food is prepared in the school kitchen. It is then taken on a cart to the classrooms by students. Kitchen workers take the food to first graders' rooms. First graders serve the food once it is set up.
I observed lunch service on the day of the class observation. Desks were kept in groups of four or five after the science class. Lunch mats were placed on top of the desks. The lunch servers put on their white serving uniforms. This was the table group for the servers. See the white bags on top of the desks? The uniforms were in them.
A long, low table was moved to the front of the room. The food, trays, and dishes were taken from the cart and arranged on it.
Students went to the hall to wash their hands. The teacher was washing her hands with them in this picture.
Here is a sink in the hall opposite the classroom. There is a bar of soap in the net hanging from the faucet.
Students lined up by table group. They got a tray and a spoon. On other days there may be forks or chopsticks. As other students waited to line up, they read or some even played cards. The teacher was at her desk stamping students' work and recording it in her book.
This was the day's lunch. The rice and vegetable dish was called bibimba. It is a Korean dish. There was also a bowl of soap with seaweed and vegetables in it, a fried potato, and a cup of plain yogurt. When yogurt is served, they don't have their usual bottle of milk.
When everyone was served and was sitting down, the teacher stood at the front of the class with two of the servers. Everyone sat up straight, put their hands together in prayer position, bowed, and said, "Itadakimasu!" or "Thank you farmers!" That's how Papa translated it to me years ago.
I didn't stay to watch them eat. It smelled so good it made me hungry. On my way out of the building, I passed the kitchen and saw this. It is the display of the day's lunch. They sometimes put it in the entrance of the school or leave it here for the children to see. Each month a menu is taken home. That helps prevent dinner duplication. Sometimes I don't pay attention to the menu and my kids get fish twice in one day. They don't appreciate that!
Little Brother has lunch service every day in his classroom at school. Today he had to take a plastic container, chopsticks, a water bottle, a plastic sheet to sit on, a wet towel to wash his hands, and a bag to carry it all. He was given a memo with a list earlier in the week. Members of The Neighborhood Watch went to his school today to eat lunch and to play with the students. They were served outside their usual classroom and their food was put in their plastic containers. They got to mingle with students from other classes.
(His homework is in the background.)
Here are examples of Japanese lunchboxes. Big Sister used the pink one in kindergarten. I used to put a cherry tomato or mini tomato in the little pink plastic star so it wouldn't roll around. Little Brother uses the yellow and green lunch box for elementary school outings and Sports Days. We got it as a gift from Baskins & Robbins. (The ice cream shop is called "31" here). The little green container that has Pluto on it is for onigiri or rice balls. Little Brother prefers to have several onigiri along with other things. Sometimes I need to put an extra onigiri in this container. He has school lunch service so he doesn't need this lunch box every day.
The other picture shows Little Brother's lunch box in its carrying bag. The black box is the lunch box Big Sister used in junior high. The long thin black container is for chopsticks or ohashi . Someday I'll show you full lunch boxes. Hopefully, I'll be a better photographer by then!
Kids Web Japan--lunch boxes
Setsuko Watanabe's site
Bento Box
Elementary students have hot lunch at school. Parents pay a fee for it each year. The food is wheeled to the classrooms on carts, and the children eat at their desks. Before school starts, a cloth mat is made or bought to put on the desk under the lunch tray. The mat is about 30 x 45 cm. It is folded and carried in a drawstring bag that is hooked to a strap on the randoseru or public elementary school bag. Students usually use the same mat every year unless the design gets too young for them. This one is looking pretty old and worn. Snoopy is cool for all ages, isn't he?
Listed here in For Kids- Japan
HTJ is listed here.
