Japanese timetable in school ~Milk with rice for lunch!?~

How was your school timetable? I guess it’s different depends on countries. It’s fun to compare the school schedules!

Japanese school timetable

Japanese kids go to school about 8 o’clock by foot with their friends. You might know that Japanese elementary school students have the unique school bags called Landosel ランドセル. All kids have the same kinds of school bags!

In Japan, you have 5th or 6th periods in each day from Monday to Friday in general. And you have 20 or 25 minutes break between 2nd period and 3rd period. In addition, you have school lunch that they serve you for lunch, after the lunch time you take a lunch break for about 20 minutes. Then you take 5th period and 6th period in the afternoon.

Japanese school class

In Japanese elementary school, you are in a same class for one year from April to March. The class are composed of about 30 students. A teacher is in charge of a class for one year, and the teacher teaches almost all subjects to his students. Usually, a homeroom teacher is shifted to a different teacher, and the classmates are also changed in every year.

Japanese school meal

A school nutritionist thinks up all school menus, and chefs cook the lunch meal at a school kitchen in a school every Monday to Friday usually. The menu is different every day and the students take the same menu lunch in a classroom. Even if the lunch is rice and fish, a carton of milk is served every day! It’s weird!
Some students are on lunch serving duty in every week in each class. They serve the lunch to all classmates and a homeroom teacher. After serving lunch, the teacher or student say a word of lunch “Itadakimasu いただきます” in front of all classmates, then you eat lunch with the classmates. Even if you finish eating lunch, you are not allowed to stand up until your classmates finish eating. After finish eating, the teacher says a thankful word for lunch “Gochisousama ごちそうさまでした” in front of the classmates. Then all students start to clean up the lunch.

After school

You go home by foot with your friends after classes. Some students whose parents are working and they are not in their home stay in school.
Many Japanese elementary school students go to some lessons like piano, English or sports after school. They go to lessons by foot or bicycle or taking a train alone. On no lesson day, you go to a park to play with your friends after school.

Summary

I’m not sure about the school schedules in other countries. Is the Japanese school life interesting? What are the differences between your country’s school life and Japanese one?