High School graduation is a huge rite of passage for many people around the world. One of the most enjoyable things about living in another country and culture is seeing how a seemingly straightforward event is presented differently. Here are two weeks worth of facts about graduation in Japan.
1. On March 1st every High School in our area had their graduation ceremony.
2. My (Alyssa’s) schools had Friday off (no classes), but instead held classes on Sunday. Classes were held in the morning and graduation practice was held in the gym during the afternoon.
3. Graduation is held in the gym.
4. Instead of graduation robes, students wear their nicely pressed school uniforms.
5. Teachers wear black (or dark) suits. Men wear a cream color tie with their white shirt and women wear pearls and a light colored shirt.
6. Graduation is held in the morning, on a school day. The ceremony is only one hour (or so) long. The whole school attends with their school uniforms. The third year students (equal to 12th grade in the U.S.) sit in the first four rows of chairs next in front of the stage. The second year sits in the next four rows, and the first year in the very back.
7. Graduation is over by 11:30 A.M. All teachers order a special Bento or lunch box. School is out for the day, but the teachers finish the day out until 5:30.
8. Instead of students individually receiving their diploma, a homeroom (40 students in each) representative goes on stage to bow and receive their homerooms diplomas.
9. Unlike most meetings in the gym students are seated in chairs not on the floor.
10. The homeroom teacher announces their students names as the respond with “hai” (“Yes”) and stand. When all 40 students in that homeroom are standing the bow in unison and sit. There are 5 different homerooms at my schools.
11. For about 200 students only 150 or so parents attended. This is a stark contrast from American high school graduations where each student has between 4 and 10 family members present.
12. As the students leave they walk through a line of teachers clapping (like in America). My favorite part.
13. For the 1st and 2nd year students its back to the books. Classes continue the next day as normal (collective: “Booooo”). The new school year begins in April, which we just can’t get through our Western brain.
14. Students have a little less than a month to move their belongings to their University and get settled in. (So much for that last summer of fun).
What’s your favorite graduation tradition or ritual?
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