The Week in Lunches

Posted on 05/13/2022 Last updated on 05/13/2022

School lunch is one of the most unique parts of working at an elementary or junior high school in Japan. Coming from America, where we had a relatively set menu (Pizza Thursdays, Hamburger Mondays, etc.) it can be downright shocking. So much variety! So many unfamiliar foods! So much milk!

While there will be much repetition throughout the school year (even throughout the month) it is possible to never eat the exact same combination of items even after years of teaching at various schools. Sometimes it’s curry, but with salad on the side. Or maybe it’s curry, but with quail eggs. And there can even be curry, but one of the other items of the day is フルーツポンチ (“Fruit Punch”, or mixed fruits). The possibilities are seemingly endless.

Here is a typical week of school lunches at an anonymous school in Saitama prefecture. At this particular school, school lunch is served in metal trays, but this might not always be the case at your school. Separate plastic dishes or trays seems to be more common these days. While some schools provide chopsticks and spoons, others require students (and teachers) to bring their own (that’s what the green thing off to the side in some photos is).

Finally, though this was a bread-heavy week, it’s just as common to go a week with 4 out of the 5 days having rice, or having noodles on some days. You just never know what you’re going to get (unless you can read the schedule, of course). Here’s what we had:

Monday

Borscht or Minestrone seem to be one of the more polarizing items on the school lunch menus, but they make a great complement to bread. In this case, twisty bread!

Tuesday

We mentioned quail eggs before, and we weren’t kidding. They turn up in soup quite often. Also, while on this day the rice is of the standard white & sticky kind, there are many others such as barley rice, pickled plum rice, and others.

Wednesday

Creamy stews and even clam chowder show up from time to time. The bread of the day can sometimes be hamburger-style buns, which you might put another item into (such as korokke).

Thursday

As you’ve seen from previous days, lunch generally consists of a base starch item (rice, noodles, bread) a soup/stew, a vegetable or tofu-based dish, and a meat item. For the latter, today had mini-nikuman (Siopao).

Friday

We finish off the week with pumpkin soup, bread, fried fish and corn salad. Also note the presence of “drinkable yogurt”. Dessert-type items pop up occasionally, from fresh fruit to chocolate pudding.

As mentioned, that’s just one week! There are plenty of other school lunch combinations to experience- what’s your favorite?

Want to try Japanese school lunches for yourself? The best way to do so is to become an Assistant Language Teacher, or ALT. Find out more about how you can become an Assistant Language Teacher with Borderlink today!

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