A day in the Life of a Student

This is a really cute video a Korean student made of his student life.

yes that sums it up.

But in a Japanese JHS...

Yeah, yeah, for all you who watch any kind of anime...it is more or less exactly like that. There are rows of students. There is assigned seating (typically boy girl boy girl but sometimes a row of boys and a row of girls). There are the window seats that everyone wants, accompanied by windows that they are allowed to open as they please. On the other half of the classroom there are the windows to the hallway, that also have opening functions. This is a semi popular hangout spot in the ten minutes between classes, where another classes students come for a visit.
Speaking of these windows, they are also accompanied by curtains that can be shut when the students are changing into and out of their gym outfits, as they have separate changing areas for guys and girls. A larger curtain adorns the outside facing windows which is also covered at this time, but also whenever the touch screen is in use.
A bit of an irregularity in many classrooms and a large step forward, my school had large touch screen TV's in every room. For myself, I personally put them to use for powerpoints and short video clips and such when relevant to the lesson. These TV's are hooked up to a laptop that every classroom and teacher desk in the school sports (for more on this charming hardware please check out ). The laptops are stationary objects and never moved from their classrooms.
In the convenient location of next to the television, is the teachers domain. In my classrooms, the teacher prevails over the class upon a mini stage. This stage is perhaps half a foot high and deceptively easy to fall off. Just ask me! This stage is always on the right hand side in every classroom. Essentially all the students west.
Behind the teacher is a 3 meter or so long blackboard...greenboard? well it is a chalkboard. I hate chalk. The chalkboards are magnificent and beautiful and can move up and down and are occasionally concave so that students from either side will not have a hard time seeing the opposing side of the board. However, it is these chalkboards that I find the most behind the times. Even my middle school had SOME whiteboards. Maybe it is just because I hate chalk (have I mentioned that?), but I cannot stand these blackboards even more so than the laptops. Also with these boards come the chalk dust. The chalk dust that covers EVERYTHING. There is a permanent coating on the floor that makes the floor boards very soft. Soft enough to run and slide on. Soft enough to slip off the stage.
There are cubbies at the back of the classrooms. They are filled with papers and other school artifacts that go untouched. The students book bags all resemble plastic sports bags that guard their desk. Girl will occasionally have fashionable bags instead, especially if they are not on a sports team. These bags are deceptively expensive and are treated...well like a regular school book bag - slung around, plopped down, tripped over (ok the last one is largely me, but they are like obstacles in a katamari game!). They actually have hooks on the side of their desk which is used for a smaller bag is they have such an item.
Above the cubbies is yet another of my favorite chalkboards with the daily schedule on it. As well as paper posting of anything important, but ignorable.

These students themselves, have 6 classes a day each class lasting 45 to 50 minutes. The time depends on the school and if there are any important up coming activities that they have to practice after school for (like field day, school festival, graduation...). Classes start at 8:45 but for the fifteen minutes before that they have home room. The class that the students start in is essentially their homeroom and more or less the students will always stay in that class and the other teachers will come to visit that room. However there are a few classes that have their own room, like science, cooking, home economics, there are a few English classes that go to the actual English room ( we have 2), and well P.E. but really how could you even consider doing that in the classroom. Ok, so there are less classes actually in the classroom but all these classes and the ones that take place in the classroom rotate throughout the week. There are 4 morning classes and midday, the students lunch for 30-45 minutes each day and if they are in elementary school they then get to have recess for another 30 minutes. In middle school they are expected to bring their own lunch, but my elementary school provides lunch for the students. Following lunch there are two more classes and a homeroom closing that the students then go through before being officially released for the day.
Psyche. Afterschool, students are required to join a club. Such as handicrafts/cooking club, art club, judo club, chorus club, ping pong club, soccer team, baseball team, tennis team, basketball team, badminton team, volleyball team, or the track team. Whew I think that is all the teams and clubs. Notice how we do not have kendo. How sad. They typically stay at school until around 5pm (they get there around 8am).

These activities and schedules and even setting is largely based on a JHS setting, I tried to throw in a few elementary examples, but if you are curious for more information, please don't hesitate to ask me!

ごちそうさまでした!

or Gochisosama-deshita!

This is something that is often said after a meal as a way of saying "Thank you for the delicious food"!

It is the opposite of the more widely known いただきますor " itadakimasu!" Which is said at the beginning of a meal.

So one of the questions I often get is what about lunch? What do you eat/do for lunch?

Well actually it depends on which school I am located that day. My JHS does not have a school lunch that all the kids get. Everyone more or less brings their own lunch. However there is a bento that the teachers can order. 

My JHS school desk with my ordered bento.
Please note: you do note keep the box.

A picture of today's bento and rice.

 Now these bento's may look delicious and sometimes that is quite the case; however I need to warn you that the order for these is placed at 9am and they are often here by 10 and they wait around cooling for the next two and a half hours, making the meal on the cooler side. This is actually normal. Many of the students wake up and prepare their meals early in the morning thus by the time they can eat them they have cooled; therefore this taste is acquired since childhood. Thus making the warmest thing during my meal often my tea...which I suppose it would be regardless.
On a side note, one addition that is quite common is a type of flavoring for the rice. Whether it is dried vegetables and eggs or a type of seed they put on it, I find that many of my coworkers enjoy flavoring their rice with something. I have it actually pictured in the first picture - it is the green packet.

However it is more common for the teachers to bring their own lunches, which I do as well so that my leftovers don't go to waste!

Elementary school lunch
This is more often served with silverware.

 Above is my elementary school lunch. These always consist of a main meat containing dish which seems to be often some kind of thick stew, a vegetable or fruit dish and a grain. Typically I most meals are accompanied by bread, but on an odd day I actually got rice as seen above. These meals are also accompanied by cold milk. Now the cold part is optional, my Interac mentors have told me the horror stories of having warm milk for lunch; therefore I count my blessings that it is cold.
Until lately I have been eating these meals in office, but have since my lunchtime presence has been demanded by my students for their eating entertainment.

One of the things that I sometimes get asked as well is if I can go to a convinience store to get something to eat. Well I think that it is for the most part considered not as polite to leave school, even during lunch time, unless it is for a genuine issue with something like the post office or bank that must take place during their business hours. Now that is not to say that is it not acceptable to eat convinience store food at work....it is ENTIRELY acceptable. Just buy it beforehand.

Here are a few more lunch time pictures to satisfy anyone's lingering curiosity.

 





For anyone who is curious as to the nutrition value of these meals, here is a bit of information for you.

These are the average values obtained in a study on the health content of the meals served at school two years ago.

Elementary school                    Junior High School

Calories: 628.1                       Calories: 781.7

Protein: 25g                           Protein: 30.7

Fat: 19.9g                               Fat: 23.6