School of Life: Japan’s Classroom Cuisine metropolisjapan.com

When lunch bells ring at Japanese elementary schools, instead of students flocking to cafeterias to eat miscellaneous meat in various shades of beige, or to the playground to eat class-divisive packed lunches, it looks something like this: students set their classroom desks with a luncheon mat, chopsticks, cup, and toothbrush for post-lunch dental care. Then, a group of students on lunch duty for that day don an outfit akin to a factory line worker — apron, cap and surgical mask — and run through a hygiene checklist (cough? No. Fever? No. Sterilized hands? Yes) before divvying out nutritionist-curated meals prepared by licensed chefs, and all sit down to dine together with the teacher. This is all wrapped up with a group tooth-brushing session, then back to studies. And this happens daily.