卒業式

Graduation day was March 16th for all the Kagoshima public Junior High schools! I went to Nagata JHS despite being terribly torn up about it the night before. Japanese graduation ceremonies are, how do I put this, very solemn and formal. Every single bow and turn is precise and calculated. Well, they certainly should be, since they had spent days practicing the ceremony before hand. (There were dragged out moments where teachers kept repeating "One more time!" and students had to 'practice' bowing until they were all bowing at the same height and in unison!)

Here's the stage! They moved all the pots of flowers inside from the school courtyard.

Most of the graduation ceremony went as we would expect, students got called up one by one and received their certificates. However, there were no awards or other recognitions. The student speakers were the new and old student council presidents. The ex-president choked up during his speech, while his successor remained steely jawed the whole way through.

Some beautiful window displays made by students!
The one on the very left says "Happy Graduation".

One thing that distinguishes Japanese graduation ceremonies from the ones I've been to was the choral music! The graduating students will perform a song as a farewell and the whole school may sing some songs as well. (It was slightly different when I went to Kotokuji's graduation practice.) Oh and did I mention, they play SAD violin music when the students are walking across the stage?? It really does seem like their graduation ceremonies are DESIGNED to evoke tears.




Both Kotokuji and Nagata graduates sang 旅立ちの日に (On the day of departure/travel?). This was when all the students started crying, even the normally tough boys! You could see them all furiously wiping at their eyes, awww. I didn't know what the song was about at the time, but I found a subbed version on youtube(If you're interested, search Tabidachi hi ni".) The lyrics are really touching, I would have cried too if I was graduating and singing this song, haha.

The most dramatic part of the ceremony was when the graduates walked out in procession. All the teachers started tearing up, including me! I almost felt a little bit like I didn't 'deserve' to cry, because I'm only at that school 6 days a month maximum! You could almost feel the tension in the graduate seating area too, like they didn't want to get up and leave. Sorry I cut the video off so untimely, but I wanted to clap, haha! (Plus I was tearing up a little bit :P) They said "ありがとうございました！" which means thank you(past form). It was quite an emotional and dramatic exit.

Here's one of the teachers I teach with, she wore an absolutely beautiful hakama!

(P.s Please don't confuse kimonos with yukatas! My yukata cost about 30CAD... and her kimono is probably worth a few thousand CAD! They are so gorgeous though. You can NOT wear a yukata to any formal event either, think of it like a bathrobe! )

After the ceremony, the students went back to their homerooms for one last time. Their homeroom teachers gave them some final words of wisdom and advice. I saw one of the male teachers go back and cry in the teacher's room, only to re-emerge with a bright smile to say goodbye in his homeroom. By then all the students' tears were gone, thankfully, and it was bright smiles all around!

Finally, the students lined up with the parents and headed hand in hand out the front gates... with the rest of the school cheering them on! One of my fav students at Nagata, Gakuto, actually told me "Stacey, I'm very sad." when they were waiting to walk out. Awww. The procession out of the front gates wasn't as sad as I thought it would be, actually, it wasn't sad at all! It was probably because all the kids were happy to be 'free' out on the field and the boys were too busy trying NOT to hold their mom's hand! For the most part, they were surprisingly willing! Maybe because everybody had to? You would never catch Junior High boys back home holding their parent's hand though!

They were such great kids, I'll definitely miss them! (Plus the entire floor where my office is at is empty now... good thing I'm not back there till April when school starts again!)

Good luck and all the best to the 三年生! We're very proud of you, ganbare! :)

A small P.s .... The Japanese have a different view of copyrights to photos and videos... they think the people in the photos own the photo instead of the photographer! Technically I shouldn't be posting these photos or videos(especially on Youtube!), so if we could just keep it a secret between us... ;)