Graduation

Today was graduation day for the third-year students at the junior high school (which is equivalent to American ninth-graders). It's an odd event, partially due to the fact that all over Japan the same sort of ceremony has been happening this week. So many things in Japan are really quite uniform; even down to the containers used to hold the food for school lunches. Let me explain that comment for a minute and digress: School lunch in Nishiokoppe (and I assume in many other schools all over Japan) is prepared off-site in a separate kitchen. It is then transported to each school in large stainless steel containers. Some are tall and round, for soup. Others are rectangular and hold a variety of other foods. The dishes used for eating are also brought in each day and taken away when lunch is finished. The reason I know they are the same all over Japan is due to a news report. Last week, a report on the English-broadcast news described the theft of some food containers used to transport the school lunches in a city somewhere else in Japan. Lo and behold, judging from the photo, they looked just like ours. I swear, the uniformity in Japan is astounding at times.

Okay, back to my original subject: graduation. It was a sort of bittersweet day for the kids. The four students who will be starting high school in April have actually been together a long time. Two of them have been together, in the same class, since they started pre-school about 11 years ago. Now they will go to separate high schools. Here, high school isn't mandatory. You have to take an entrance exam, and you can choose which high school(s) you apply to. Last year, one student applied (and was accepted) to a high school in Sapporo, which is a five-hour drive. He lives in a dorm and only comes home during a few holiday times. I can't imagine sending my fifteen-year old off like that! So, lots of students were crying, but they were excited as well. I wasn't feeling too teary until I saw the homeroom teachers weeping. Both teachers have been very close to this group of kids for the past three years. They get really attached, I think. Being a homeroom teacher in Japan is almost like being a substitute parent, as they play a very important role in the lives of their students over the three-year period that they are with them.

Graduation is a rather solemn and serious occasion. The students have been practicing for it for several days, a bit like you would expect to see in high school. Everyone wears a dark suit and the students, of course, wear their uniforms. I think I described graduation last year, but I’ll do it again, since I understand things better now.

1. Students, parents, and teachers file into the gym and take their seats.

2. The principal files in, followed by the Important People (the mayor, police chief, school superintendent, PTA representatives, and others).

3. After being announced, the graduating students and their homeroom teacher (in this case there are two, one being the special ed. teacher) enter. Each person stops at the doorway and bows, and the audience claps. They very formally walk in straight lines to their seats, which are placed in the front, facing the stage.

4. A pre-designated teacher rises, comes to the microphone, and cues everyone to stand and bow. The music teacher moves to the piano, plays two chords, and then everyone bows in unison (to the national flag). Another chord is played and everyone straightens, then sits.

5. The same teacher then announces the National Anthem, which is played via tape recorder (wired to the sound system, so it’s nice and loud). Only the older men sing along.

6. After the national anthem comes the school anthem, which students and teacher alike all sing.

7. The same teacher then cues the vice-principal, who rises from his seat and walks towards the stage. He bows to the Important People, then to the flag, and then approaches the podium, where he then bows to the audience. After the triple play bowing, he announces that the graduation ceremony for Nishiokoppe Jr. High School will now begin.

8. The principal and once teacher (who is holding the diplomas) then go to the stage. Meanwhile, the homeroom teacher approaches the mike and calls the name of one student. The student rises, bows to the Important People, turns and bows to the teachers, then walks up to the stage, and bows to the flag. The homeroom teacher then reads a “message” to the student. This inevitably brings the teacher to tears. The student then walks across the stage, bows to the principal, and is given his or her diploma. They walk to the other side of the stage and wait at the top of the steps until the next student is on the stage. Then they return to their seat and the procedure is repeated for each student.

9. After all the students are seated again, the announcer-teacher announces the principal’s speech. The principal rises, does the triple play of bowing, and goes to the podium to give his speech. The is repeated for the mayor’s speech, the head of the PTA’s speech, and Mr. Tao’s speech (I don’t know his role, only his name). It’s interesting to note that when an Important Person rises, the principal and vice-principal rise and return his bow. After the adults give speeches, two students from the student body give a speech. The last speech is from a representative of the graduating students.

10. The graduates them move to stand in front of the student body and each student gives some sort of a message. By this time, most of the girls in the student body are weeping visibly, the homeroom teachers are choked up, the parents are crying a bit, and the graduates themselves are having a hard time speaking.

11. The graduates then sing a song for the student body.

12. The student body then sings a song for the graduates.

13. The graduates and teachers file out and line up near the door, everyone facing the audience. The audience then claps, music plays, the graduates bow, and file out. The doors close behind them.

14. A teacher then rises to the mike, cues the vice-principal who repeats Step 7, only this time he declares the ceremony to be finished.
The Important People leave.

15. Everyone else relaxes and/or leaves.

Complicated, isn’t it?

This is the Japanese national anthem. It is called: “Kimi ga yo”. “Kimi” refers to the emperor. Here are the words in English.

May the reign of the Emperor
continue for a thousand, nay, eight thousand generations
and for the eternity that it takes
for small pebbles to grow into a great rock
and become covered with moss.

It sounds like a dirge, for some reason. It’s very solemn and it seems that only old people can sing along with it.

On a final note…a word on the photos. One is just Holt sleeping in my lap and Ridge listening attentively as I read to him from a book of original Thomas the Tank Engine stories. The other is just a silly photo I took of Holt at the same time I took the Lost Tooth picture of Ridge. Holt likes to make sure he gets equal photo time.