Day 9: Welcome Ceremony for the New Kids

Even though today is Saturday, I had to go to school, because the welcome ceremony for the new kids was held today. The ceremony is always held on a Saturday so that as many of the new students' parents and guardians as possible can attend. Many of them have to drive as much as three or even four hours in order to get to the school, which is located in the northwestern corner of the prefecture.

In Japanese, the welcome ceremony is know as an "entrance ceremony." I consider it the exact opposite (or reverse) of the graduation ceremony, because the two ceremonies really are so similar. For instance, at both ceremonies, the students being honored march in and out of the gymnasium, down the middle aisle, at the beginning and end of the ceremony; there are a bunch of VIPs in attendance; each student's name is called; there are several speeches; a representative of the parents addresses the teachers; and there is some singing.

The entrance ceremony is really not that exciting. If it were held in the United States, I have a feeling it would be an exciting, happy event, rather than a robotic, you-can-hear-a-pin-drop event. At least it wasn't that cold in the gym, unlike at graduation (on March 3).

After the welcome ceremony, each of the six grades had a class picture taken, and then the teachers had a group picture taken.

The new first graders also went to their classroom for the first time (which was decorated especially for them), where a stack of books was greeting them on their desks.

When it was time for lunch, everyone sat with their "family," which more-or-less consists of one student from each grade, plus a teacher who is either the mother or the father. A family is either made up of all boys or all girls, except for the teacher. We always have bread rather than rice when there's a family meal, and we also almost always have dessert, which is pretty unusual for lunch.

Not much else went on for the rest of the day, but the returning students had the pleasure of getting to take tests. See, even though they were on vacation for about two or three weeks (only!) before the new school year started, they had tons of homework, including studying for today's tests.

The studying simply never ends in Japan.