Saturday, May 20, 2006

Asae JHS Graduation - March 10th, 2006

Japanese graduation day is much different from what we see back home. I thought it looked more like a crowd standing around waiting for superstars to come out. In a way though, I guess that was pretty much how all the 3rd graders (JH 9th graders) felt. After all, it is their special day. Another major difference were the emotions involved in a Japanese graduation. I remember whenever I graduated, it was like... "YAH!!! I'm DONE with this... PARTY!!!" We'd celebrate and be super duper happy. That day though (March 10th to be exact), was filled with tears and sorrow. Even I, the gaijin, teared up a bit. So fascinating how the same thing could draw up such different emotions from one society to another. Boy do I love culture.
(Above: Impatient 1st and 2nd graders waiting for the stars of the day)
 (Above: 2nd graders waiting to give presents to the graduated 3rd graders)
 (Above: Sho Higaki and I. An interesting tradition of graduation is that the boys would often give the second button from the of their uniforms and give it to the girl they love. That day, Sho gave me his button and told me to remember him forever. I didn't know what it meant at the time so I took it. After being told about the tradition, I was a bit embarrassed but nonetheless, felt honoured to be his junior high crush.) (Above: Students looking at me like... what the hell are you doing?)
 (Above: the 3rd graders and I bringing the popular peace signs to a whole different level)
(Above: This is where I said, "ok... sexy pose." We really tried.)
(Above: The bold, the shy, the good, the bad, the young, the mature and of course, the cool... Asae's got' em all)
(Above: The obento served to every teacher during lunch that day. You think sushi is what they eat everyday? Boy are you ever off)

(Above: The last part of the graduation... 3rd graders being asked to leave the school premises... I'm serious)

posted by DiVa @ 4:29 PM 0 Comments

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Parental Check-up

I was sooooooo super duper happy when my parents came to Japan in March. It felt like a dream. So weird to see family in Japan. I tried to be a good daughter but that didn't last for long. They got really irritated with me because I kept telling them not to do this and that because it's not the Japanese waaay. BUT nevertheless, they were good times.

I took them to Kyoto to do 2 things; See Maiko san and Cherry blossoms. We saw neither. We got ripped off by my local travel agency for seeing Maiko san perform and all they saw of the Cherry blossoms were the buds.... ooops!!!

But I did manage to bring them to the infamous Kyomizu Temple and walked around Gion so hopefully they weren't too disappointed.
My students went NUTS when I brought my parents in as guests. They were all screaming "HELLO OKASAAN" (mom). I'd have to say that the students liked me a bit better afterwards too. Don't know why but who cares, it worked.
This is my last attempt at professional photography: putting the parents in a bucket. AHAHAAA.... don't they look ridiculous.





This was during Golden week (early May) when we went out to Hiroshima for a flower festival. The strange thing about that festival was that there were more candles than flowers. What we're holding up are peace themed designs to be wrapped around the candles.

posted by DiVa @ 5:42 PM 0 Comments