This morning I went to my junior high school's graduation ceremony. Actually, I didn't know I would be going, because this week I'm teaching at elementary school, with classes scheduled for this morning. However, when I arrived at school, the principal asked me if I was going to the junior high graduation. I was like "I can't. I have classes." So he jumped on the case and arranged for my classes to be re-scheduled for the afternoon, so I could attend the graduation. He also was going, so that was pretty cool of him. I'd never attended a Japanese graduation, so I'd been looking forward to the event all school year.
About a half-hour after I learned I could go, I jumped back on my bike and took the 5-minute ride over to the junior high school. Unfortunately, I didn't have the proper attire for the occasion, since I didn't know I would be going. When I got to junior high, I greeted the principals and apologized for being under-dressed. They said it was quite alright and thanked me for coming.
All teachers and students attended the ceremony in the newly-built gym. The parents, mostly moms, were seated separately according to whether they were parents of girls, or boys. The parents wore normal dress attire, although the graduates wore the same uniforms that they wear everyday, except with flowers tucked in their breast pockets. But the jiggiest of all were the teachers: they were decked out in super-formal attire. The principal looked like the father of the bride in his coat-tailed suit, white silk tie and pinstripe pants. When the homeroom teachers of the graduating classes led out their students, it almost looked like a fashion show; in co-ed pairs, the male teachers walked out laced in swanky suits typical of the likes of groomsmen, while the women teachers all came out in elegant kimonos with matching hair accessories.
The ceremony started with the bowing to the national flag, and the singing of the national anthem, which sounded pretty melancholy, like something you'd hear after the final death scene in a samurai flick. After about another hour and 10 minutes of a lot of diploma-passing, short speeches, singing, a lot more bowing, and some muffled tears, the homeroom teachers led their graduates out of the gym in a mini-procession.
About a half-hour after the ceremony, the graduates and their parents marched out in front of the gym in a "Sayonara Parade." While the school band played on the front steps of the gymnasium, the 1st and 2nd year students and teachers lined up on both sides of the newly-paved school gym entrance road and saw the the grads off, as they said goodbye for one last time. Luckliy, the weather today was sunny and reasonably cool, so we could stand outside without freezing to death. Most students were smiling as they strode alongside their parents, taking snapshots along the way, though a handful of girls were dabbing away tears with their signature hankie-towels, a common accessory of most Japanese schoolgirls.
After the mini-parade, the graduates and family re-assembled on the school's massive sandlot for photos. At that point, it seemed like the teachers became the stars of the show, as students presented them, male and female alike, bouquets of flowers, assorted gifts and cards. Most of the students were trying to pose for pictures with their teachers and get them to sign their yearbooks. I went out on the lot to congratulate the students one last time and say my sayonara's. I didn't receive any gifts, though I was surprised how many girls and boys wanted to pose for pictures with me. I just went out to shake everyone's hand, but people were running up to me and calling me left and right to take pictures. Some of the moms spoke to me and thanked me, as well as the students. A couple boys had me sign their yearbooks. It felt good to be acknowledged and appreciated by parents and students, especially considering I hadn't been officially invited to the graduation to begin with.
Afterwards, the teachers all returned to the school staffroom for lunch. They'd ordered some pricey bento boxes, specially prepared lunches with assorted seafood (including raw fish), veggies, rice, fruit, and a dessert, packaged and delivered in boxed trays. Good stuff.
After lunch, I returned to elementary school to teach my afternoon classes. I had the 5th-graders for their final class, including my most problematic class, 5-2. In general, I get along with all my elementary students pretty well, however, in 5-2, there was a small clique of girls who'd decided at some point early in the school year that they hated me, the cause, still a mystery to me to this day. I'd worked all year to use kindness and natural cool-ness to break up the coup, which was led by a couple of mouthy little girls. I could see that some of the girls really liked me deep down, but to keep face in front of their peers, they had to maintain their front of disdain for Amen-sensei. I learned this year that winning back the hearts of kids is a very difficult task. Fortunately, 97% of my students dug me.
With the element of hate still present amongst 5-2, I was surprised at the end of class, when everyone thanked me for a year of teaching them English. On top of that, they all gave me hand-written thank-you letters. I'm sure the homeroom teacher, Mr. Kanie had probably forced some of them to do it, including one little girl who rudely threw her letter at me, but it felt good to walk out of the last class with a stack of appreciation letters nonetheless.
I can accept some feigned love with the real. For now.
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