Go West!

 
See below for details. Not taken while sole guardian for Jonas.

Tricia returns tonight, and we’ll be glad to have her back. I’m not saying that Jonas is tired of me, but last night after his bath, Jonas decided to skip the nightly book reading and milk routine. After getting him dressed, I went over to straighten the covers in his bed. Meanwhile, he pulled a chair over from the wall, climbed up on it, climbed up on the railing of his crib and dropped into his bed. I guess that was his way of saying, “Enough. I’m calling it a night.”

Tomorrow, we’re off for Kyoto. This is our one BIG TRIP during our stay here in Japan. We’re meeting friends Meredith and Abe, whose wedding we missed as it was held on the exact same weekend that we arrived in Japan. They’re flying in from Milwaukee, and together we’re going to see just about everything possible in that area in a week and a half.

Graduation was a couple of weeks ago, but here are some highlights from the weekend.

Inexplicably, a lot of people asked me whether this was my first Japanese high school graduation – people who know that I’ve only been here for half a year. I’m not sure what that was all about. As it turned out, they aren’t all that different, and are just as boring for everyone, from American graduations, minus the hat throwing (which a lot of people also asked about). Only, and for me, this was a big only, we had to sit through the ceremony twice. On Saturday, we all came in to work to rehearse graduation.

Among the details of which MUCH time was spent practicing and re-practicing:

The volume, enthusiasm and overall genkiness of the students who stood and shouted “Hai!” when their name was called. Many (mostly the girls) were too soft, some were delayed a bit, and others, I think (this was all in Japanese, so who knows, really), were actually too loud. I suspect the louder they were, the more likely it was they were seen as mocking the ceremony – but that’s only a guess.

Again, volume – this time during the singing of the national anthem, Kimi ga Yo. They practiced this so many times, that another teacher was able to fill me in about all about the various controversies over the anthem, which are actually pretty interesting.

Clapping in concert while the graduating students entered the auditorium. Oh, I didn’t mention that all the students, years 1-3, were required to attend. In retrospect, I’m surprised the parents were not required to practice their watching.

The actual ceremony, like those in America, was long and boring. Two of the female teachers wore kimonos, including my supervisor, which was pretty cool to see.

 
 
I would call the whole deal uneventful, except for the following:

All of the parents carrying their house slippers with them, then putting them on and taking off their dress shoes for the ceremony. I tried to discretely take some pictures of this. There is nothing funnier than seeing a grown woman in full makeup and dress wearing fuzzy, flowered house slippers.

 
 

The student who, instead of simply shouting “Hai!”, stood up on one leg, balanced himself on his right foot, stuck his left leg out at an angle, did some militaristic-looking gyration with his arms while shouting what sounded like “Api! Api! Api!” Not surprisingly, this set off a tremor of murmurs in the audience. It was quite the scandal, and I have not managed to find out what it was he was saying.

After the ceremony, and after the celebratory party and dinner, I went to an after, after party with the coaches of baseball, rugby, basketball, cross country – and two older guys, one of whom pad 10,000 yen for a bottle of whiskey for the group. The less said about this whole outing, the better. Somehow, they convinced me to sing “Go West!” which is what I’m doing at the top of the page.