i heart kyoto: I ♥ Fushimi

One of the many ways Japanese schools differ from American ones is the term dates. In Japan the school year runs from April-March. With that being said, can you guess what major school milestone is "commencing" at this time???? If you guess GRADUATION you are correct!

Last year I unfortunately had to teach at one of my elementary schools and subsequently had to miss out on my junior high's graduation...but not this year (my principal and students got upset with my supervisor last year because he had scheduled me to work instead of attend the ceremony...I feel so loved). From what I remember about my junior high graduation there were speeches made by the principal, vice-principal, various student performances (some not so good, but what are ya gonna do?), and awards. So, I was a little surprised to see how boring and formal my junior high school's ceremony was! The principal, vice-principal, and student body president made speeches of course but, instead let's talk about how all these men starting off the water works!!! I felt like I should have been crying too, but I had nothing in me (I'm so cold I know...). It was sad to see my tough, macho rugby boys crying and the girls hyperventilating but...

Aaaanyways, aside from the crying there were a couple other speeches made by the 2nd year (8th grade) representative and PTA chairman and then the diplomas were handed out. As each student went up one by one I was observing their hair and uniform (yup, they all still had to wear their uniforms that they have worn EVERYDAY for the past THREE years to graduation), as there was nothing else subject to judgment, and you would think that some of the kids would do their hair and wash their uniforms for their last day at school, but alas...hahaha.

After each student had their diploma and the ceremony was all said and done the teachers then applied their power over the 2nd years to clean up the gym. I must say, the gym was clean in no time, it must have been some kind of record for sure!

It was sad to watch this particular 3rd year class graduate because I really enjoyed most of the kids. I don't what it was about this class, but they always were very friendly and wanted to talked(in the wonderful language of broken English/Japanese) which always made the day entertaining. Hopefully I will get the chance to see some of them again before I leave Japan because they were simply great kids.

My favorite 3rd year boys!

The boy on the right, Nishida kun, is going all the way to Hokkaido for high school for baseball!

Ren, on the far left next to one of my English teachers, Hirai Sensei, was my music buddy. He always won the music games in class! And next year he is off to a private art school!

**Below are just some pictures of the notes/presents my elementary schools made for me and presented me on my last day of teaching their classes for this year.

The 3rd grade girls, found out when my birthday was and since we wouldn't be in school at that time they made me presents and brought them to my last class! And they learned how to write "Happy Birthday" and little messages to put in the cards...how cute is that?!!!

***And today my favorite elementary school called me over to take a group photo with the graduating 6th grade class. These 6th graders are my little angels and by far the BEST out of all my elementary schools...seriously not one brat in this class!!!!