Pomp and Circumstance, Japanese JHS-Style

I should have a number of posts up in the next couple days.  I was traveling with my parents who were visiting for two weeks and only got back two nights ago.  After a brutal March of drizzly cold weather, spring has finally come, bringing with it warm breezes, cherry blossoms, and the ending of the Japanese school year.

Unlike America, where the school calendar was determined when parents needed their kids at home to work on the farm during the summer, Japan's academic year begins in April and ends in March.  It's a time of happiness but also great stress for the 3rd year students in junior highs across the country because they have to take the public school exam.  I strongly disagree with it in almost every way.

High schools are ranked academically from high to low, the lowest functioning as trade schools with no college expectations for their graduates while the highest are essentially college prep.  Each 3rd year junior high school student has to choose between the available options and take an entrance exam.  If they fail the test, they have to study for another year and take an exam again. 

So not only does their test performance decide the rest of their lives at the age of 15, they have to aim at specific schools at their level--if they aim "too high", it's their teachers' job to recommend they take the test for a lower school.  Again, high school level determines college accessibility.  A student who goes to a trade school has basically no option to change their mind/habits, study hard, and get into college.  I'm sure in the short term it helps organize curricula and teachers' plans; in the long term I believe it hurts the country.  I've heard failed tests result in suicide sometimes, too.

Anyway. 

The school emblem in purple for the ceremony.

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Me with the 3rd year teachers.  Kimonos are incredible.  It was pretty surreal to see these women, who I have known for eight months in casual clothes or at most suit jackets, come into school looking so gracefully beautiful in a completely different way.

 

After taking the test on March 11th, they graduated on March 16th this year (they didn't get the test results until after the graduation ceremony).  Because of the test and because junior high marks the end of compulsory education, it's a big deal.  The teachers dress in their finest suits or kimonos, and most of the parents fill the school gym.  There are some traditional songs, some modern songs, and speeches by the principal and an elected student.  Some important business and education figures from the neighborhood observe as well.  All in all it's pretty similar to American graduations, if quite a bit more formal and stiff-backed (several students fainted in the rehearsal from standing too straight).

A highly formalized way to receive diplomas.

 

 I had a bad seat to watch it, but this happened about 245 times.

After the ceremony, the younger students, teachers, and parents made two lines leading out of the entrance for the 3rd years to walk through.  They got their backpacks and umbrellas and left one last time.

I asked a couple of the boys what they were going to do that afternoon.

"Go to his house (pointing).  And...games."
"Oh, you're going to play video games"
"Yes yes yes, bideo games."

Sounds about right.