e ceremony will last about two hours and is a rather formal occasion. Formal dress for the Japanese, at least in this case, means wearing black. The female teachers and faculty members traditionally wear black suits and the male staff members traditionally wear black suits with white shirts and white ties (just as Ichiro did when he accepted the All-Star Game's MVP Award last year).A couple of weeks ago, I bought just such a white tie so I could fit in with the crowd on occasions such as today's. But I guess I didn't realize that today's ceremony was so formal. After all, we had a ceremony just two days ago to welcome the new teachers, and that was only semi-formal. So for whatever reason, I just assumed today's ceremony would also be semi-formal. But it turns out today's ceremony is probably even a bigger deal than the graduation ceremony we held just a few weeks ago. In any case, once again, I didn't get the memo.
So I'll be wearing a colorful shirt and my trusty ol' red tie, and I'll probably be sticking out like a sore thumb. Or will I be?
See, you have to understand something. If I wanted to wear a white shirt and a white tie, I would be doing so. I have my white tie in my locker here at school, so all that is missing is my white shirt. But I decided to leave that at home. After all, one of the reasons I'm here in Japan is to show the Japanese that there are different cultures out there. So I guess it's better if I do things my way. At least sometimes.
(Several days have passed since the ceremony.)
The welcome ceremony was very similar to graduation, minus the crying. For instance, just as at graduation, a representative of the students who were being honored addressed the rest of the student body, and a representative of the student body addressed the students who were being honored. And a representative of the parents addressed the teachers and other faculty members. And there were several other speeches, all of which were in reverse, if you will. (Instead of being about the end of a long road, the speeches focused on new beginnings.) And there was a lot of standing. And bowing. And sitting. And there were VIPs (all 19 of whom happened to be male this time).
The best part of the event was that it only lasted for about one hour, not two. Thank goodness!
When the ceremony was over, the green carpets covering the floor had to be rolled up and put away, along with the chairs. The advantage of having the carpets is that you can sit on a chair during long ceremonies. The disadvantage of having the carpets is that they have to be rolled up methodically, a process which is rather tedious. Whenever we have shorter ceremonies, we end up standing throughout or sitting on the gym floor, neither of which is very fun. So pick your poison. It's too bad we don't have an auditorium.
After all the carpets were rolled up and put away and all the chairs were stowed, group pictures were taken. I'm not technically assigned to any particular grade, so I joined the third-graders for their picture. And, of course, I also joined the teachers for the staff photo.
Besides with the ceremony, the new first-graders were welcomed in another nice way: Their classroom was decorated by their fellow students. (Over here in Japan, just like in Germany and Austria and probably most countries besides the U.S., the students have their own classroom, even at the junior-high school and high-school levels.) I even had a chance to help, making some red and white flowers out of crepe paper. I was very impressed with the effort that went into making the new students feel at home!
Finally, to finish off the welcome, a stack of new books was placed on each student's desk. I imagine the new students must have been really excited to walk into their classroom for the first time. Welcome to Gokase!
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