A Graduation

Hi, there. Welcome to my blog. I’m Japanese learning English. I guess my literary English sounds wired occasionally, but I hope you can enjoy reading my journals. I would like to introduce more small stuff that expand your interesting or knowledge about Japan from now on. I hope you will follow my blog!

So anyway, today was my daughter’s junior high school graduation ceremony. Therefore, I would love to introduce Japanese traditional graduation ceremony. I can tell you that this ceremony is very conservative and haven’t changed since I was a junior high school student.

Our entrance ceremony and graduation ceremony of schools are done into school gymnasiums. Tone of chairs are lined for parents, teachers and students. Some females teachers dress in “hakama” that is sorta “kimono”. “Hakama” is one of the best outfits for graduation ceremony. When I graduated from university, I also dressed in “hakama”. On the other hand, junior and high school students must wear their school uniforms. It is our school role.

Although it all depends, the ceremony starts at around 9:00 am. After parents, teachers, first grade students and second grade students seat, graduates come into the gymnasium with lines. All of us welcome them with clapping. Well, the ceremony has started!

Our ceremony is very calm, and nobody talk during the ceremony. After some important people in our city deliver congratulatory addresses, a principal give diplomas each student hand in hand.
After that we sing some famous songs for a graduation ceremony.
Since most of songs are very sensitive, lots of female students cry. That’s because in Japan after graduation, students go to different high schools. Our high school depends on our intelligence. Therefore, all students never go to same high school. We have leaned about a true separation through a graduation.
After singing a school song, graduates are out from gymnasium with lines.

This clip is a sample and no related to my daughter’s school.

When I listened to the song, I almost cried. This song is very sensitive, Buaaaaaaa!!!!! My daughter also sang the song. This is the most common song for a graduation ceremony in Japan.

In my daughter’s case, she transferred to another school three months ago. We must transfer from one place to other place every 5-7 years because of my husband business transfer. Therefore, she had no sweet memories about her new school. In first month some female students ignored and bullied her. I sometimes heard her complain about her classmates. She sometimes asked me that she didn’t want to go to school anymore. When I listened to her story, my heart got hurt, and I also almost cried. Before transfer, she was a cheerful girl and had a bunch of friends. However, after transfer, she changed her character. I can understand it was very hard and tough for her to adjust herself about new circumstances. It is also hard for me to adjust myself after transfer.

My daughter never cried among many female students were crying. When I looked at her, I couldn’t helping tears. She has no memories to be able to share with other students. She looked at a loss. It was really sad. I think she became a very very strong girl mentally. This transfer made her more mature.

She will become a high school student from next month. I hope she will be able to enjoy her new school life with her new friends. I really hope her future will shine with lots of happiness!!!!