A Hampton school literally had a taste of Japan as they enjoyed a nine-day school exchange to the Far East.

Ten children and four staff from Hampton Hill Junior School travelled to Japan and visited Johyama Elementary School in Nagano City as part of a 12-month joint curriculum project.

The focus of the trip was to look at school lunch provision, which is vastly different from here in the UK.

All the primary age children eat a hot lunch which is served by the children themselves, in their classrooms.

The food is delivered from a central lunch preparation centre, which the Hampton Hill group were lucky enough to visit.

They were able to watch lunch being prepared in enormous vats for 8,500 children in over 21 schools.

The English children also took part in the daily cleaning of the school which takes place after lunch and before afternoon lessons. One of the most noticeable aspects of lunch was that all the Japanese children ate everything, and all ate the same nutritionally balanced and healthy meal.

The children also took part in regular lessons, made sandwiches and rice dumplings, tried origami, flower arranging and the traditional form of Japanese tea ceremony.

They also experienced life with a Japanese family during their time in Nagano.

The group enjoyed fame during their stay, featuring in two local newspapers, and Bill Jerman, headteacher, and Zoe Griffiths, project leader, were interviewed live (in Japanese) on local radio.

Their jam packed trip also incorporated sightseeing in Tokyo at the beginning and end of their stay, enabling the children to appreciate the contrast between one of the biggest cities and the world, and the predominantly rural environment of Nagano.

Mr Jerman expressed his delight at the success of the trip: "We were fascinated by everything we saw and we are looking forward to developing our project further now we are back. We are looking forward to welcoming Johyama children back again in the summer of 2008. We have made some long-lasting links with the children, staff and families in Johyama and we hope it will be a long and productive relationship."