Graduation
Today was the Graduation ceremony at my Junior High School. I couldn't go last year, so this was the first one I've been to. The concept of "graduation" is very important here. Much more so than in the US, I think. There are tons of graduation songs within Jpop, with a whole slew of them being released every spring. When someone chooses to leave a group, such as a band or sports team, they often announce it as their "graduation" from that group, and probably will have a ceremony for it.
The graduation ceremony in Japan is a very formal occasion. How formal? Let's just say that at least half of the male teachers and staff were wearing full on tuxedos. There are no jokes. There is no applause except for at the very end as the graduates leave. (It was killing me that I couldn't applaud after speeches and songs and such. There was just this tension in the silence that was begging for applause) What there is are lots of looong dry speeches and the synchronized bowing-capades. I think the students must have bowed at least 50 times over the course of the ceremony, and the principal easily bowed over 100 times. Later, the head teacher admitted to me that most Japanese people find all the speeches to be really boring, but they do it anyway, because that's just how a formal graduation ceremony should be. The one quirky thing was that the students walked in to the opening music from the nutcracker suite.
To go off on a bit of an "odd choices of classical music" tangent, they sometimes play classical during lunch, and the other day they played the music from 2001: A Space Odyssey. You know, the one that goes "dunnnn dunnnn Dunnn..... DA DUM!!! Dundun Dundun" So there I was, walking down the hall to put away my lunch dishes, not paying much attention and suddenly..... "DA DUM!!!!". It was all a bit surreal.
Back to graduation: they had the gym decorated really nicely. Red and white bunting all around and lots of flowers on the stage. I couldn't take pictures during the actual ceremony because I was busy sitting with the teachers and trying to time my bowing properly, but here is the flower arrangement from the entryway.
Isn't it beautiful? Those were the biggest, reddest, most perfect roses I've ever seen.
After the ceremony, the non-graduating students lined up to cheer on the graduates as they left the school for the last time. I took a bit of video.
Now here's something you might find interesting. There were three girls who could not attend the actual graduation ceremony, two because they had bleached their hair and one because she had a nose piercing. Apparently, these rebellious girls would ruin the formality of the occasion. So, they had their own mini-graduation ceremony in the principal's office after the real ceremony. The moved the flowers and the bunting in there and everything. The teachers sang the school song, the principlal and a teacher gave little speeches, and the girls got their diplomas. It was so weird... Those girls all cried a lot too, which I thought was sort of odd since I know they hardly ever come to class. I noticed that while a lot of the girls cried during the ceremonies, the ones who seemed the most upset were the "rebellious" type girls. You can tell how rebellious a girl is at a glance by observing how high her skirt is rolled up. Below the knee= NERD. A little above the knee= normal. Miniskirt= problem child.
The graduation ceremony in Japan is a very formal occasion. How formal? Let's just say that at least half of the male teachers and staff were wearing full on tuxedos. There are no jokes. There is no applause except for at the very end as the graduates leave. (It was killing me that I couldn't applaud after speeches and songs and such. There was just this tension in the silence that was begging for applause) What there is are lots of looong dry speeches and the synchronized bowing-capades. I think the students must have bowed at least 50 times over the course of the ceremony, and the principal easily bowed over 100 times. Later, the head teacher admitted to me that most Japanese people find all the speeches to be really boring, but they do it anyway, because that's just how a formal graduation ceremony should be. The one quirky thing was that the students walked in to the opening music from the nutcracker suite.
To go off on a bit of an "odd choices of classical music" tangent, they sometimes play classical during lunch, and the other day they played the music from 2001: A Space Odyssey. You know, the one that goes "dunnnn dunnnn Dunnn..... DA DUM!!! Dundun Dundun" So there I was, walking down the hall to put away my lunch dishes, not paying much attention and suddenly..... "DA DUM!!!!". It was all a bit surreal.
Back to graduation: they had the gym decorated really nicely. Red and white bunting all around and lots of flowers on the stage. I couldn't take pictures during the actual ceremony because I was busy sitting with the teachers and trying to time my bowing properly, but here is the flower arrangement from the entryway.
Isn't it beautiful? Those were the biggest, reddest, most perfect roses I've ever seen.
After the ceremony, the non-graduating students lined up to cheer on the graduates as they left the school for the last time. I took a bit of video.
Click to viewNow here's something you might find interesting. There were three girls who could not attend the actual graduation ceremony, two because they had bleached their hair and one because she had a nose piercing. Apparently, these rebellious girls would ruin the formality of the occasion. So, they had their own mini-graduation ceremony in the principal's office after the real ceremony. The moved the flowers and the bunting in there and everything. The teachers sang the school song, the principlal and a teacher gave little speeches, and the girls got their diplomas. It was so weird... Those girls all cried a lot too, which I thought was sort of odd since I know they hardly ever come to class. I noticed that while a lot of the girls cried during the ceremonies, the ones who seemed the most upset were the "rebellious" type girls. You can tell how rebellious a girl is at a glance by observing how high her skirt is rolled up. Below the knee= NERD. A little above the knee= normal. Miniskirt= problem child.