An attempt at an update (long overdue)

How lazy am I, putting photos on my blog without any explanations! No excuses… before April ends I will try and summarise almost two months of blog…
Here goes, the end of March was a lot of wrapping up and farewells. The
head of the Board of Education retired so we had official farewells for him and a couple of the staffroom helpers, then it was the junior high school graduation. I felt almost like I was attending a funeral everyone was so sad. Some of the teachers were so choked up that they were almost unable to finish their speeches. The ceremony is all very formal and each person who walked up to the stage, including the graduates all performed an elaborate series of bowing, students bowed to teachers, teachers bowed to guests, guests bowed to parents and everyone bowed to the Japanese flag.
The average Japanese student with graduate four times in the course of his or her education – from elementary school through university…none of these graduations is more important than the junior high school ceremony, which marks the end of compulsory schooling.
Preparation for the ceremony consisted of daily practice in the gymnasium during which the other students repeated countless times how to sit, how to stand and how to bow in unison.
Learning to bow is a continuous process that students must practice from their first day in school…to their last – in the gymnasium. Bowing, derived from the Confucian custom of showing trust towards strangers by dipping the head in respect, is far more than a mere social greeting: it is the prime ingredient in the syntax of Japanese life. Students learn that by adjusting the depth of their bows, they can express themselves as effectively with their bodies as they can with words…a friend rates only a slight nod of the head, while the principal merits a full body bend…
(Italics taken from “Learning to Bow" by Bruce S. Feiler pp211-214)
There was also a party for the teachers and the parents of the graduating students to conclude the ‘celebration’ of the graduation despite the sadness expressed for the students who would now disperse to different high schools around the region, leaving behind their close knit groups formed throughout elementary school and high school years.
Elementary school graduation followed approximately the same format, except that I am lucky enough to have small schools so each graduating student gave advice to the remaining students and the students said something individual about the graduating student which was extremely sweet…ranging from ‘thank you for eating lunch with us and showing us how to prepare for lunchtime’ to ‘thank you for always playing soccer with us at lunchtime’.
Then it was officially spring break, although you would not know it because the teachers and students still go to school! There are no official classes but students attend their sports clubs or do homework, and I guess the teachers ‘prepare’ classes! This is also incidentally the end of the Japanese school year which actually starts in April. This means that some of the teachers change schools over the break and although I believe they are allowed to submit a preference, this is not guaranteed.
I however did not intend to sit around and do nothing for two weeks, so I was off the day after graduation to Tokyo and then to Europe for an action packed two weeks of visiting friends. I could write a whole lot of things, but on the whole the best summary is that the weather was crap the whole time from Paris, to Reims, to Chalons, to Troyes, to Paris, to Strasbourg, to Brussels and the grand finale in London of a massive snowstorm the day I left! Despite this however I had a wonderful time catching up with friends, rediscovering cities which I had not been to in a while, marveling at the architecture in Paris, eating lots of good bread and pastries, and chocolate in Brussels of course, and never ceasing to be amazed by the bad fashion sense in London!
I returned just in time for the entrance ceremony for new students at the junior high school, equally as formal as the graduation but not quite as sad! I think then my body caught up with its tiredness and I have had a cold for a week that I can’t seem to shake, so I am not a very happy camper at the moment and am quite tired. Hopefully it will get better soon. Even if the weather was not springlike in Europe, it has been quite warm here already and there are pretty flowers everywhere especially at the schools where the planter boxes are full of different varieties of tulips, pansies and various others.

Cultural notes which I hope will assist in understanding the complex workings of the Japanese education system.
May thy peaceful rein last long:
Beyond ten thousand years.
Until what are pebbles now,
Into mighty rocks shall grow,
Which graceful moss doth line.
- ‘Kimi Ga Yo’ the Japanese national anthem

One of the primary pillars of Japanese education is keijime which can be roughly translated as a ‘line of demarcation’. Originally the name for a bamboo screen that divided two rooms, kejime today implies a code of behaviour that one accepts upon reaching a certain status in life. At each stage you close the door on your former life as you enter the new level of status. High school students earn more free time than junior high students but have the added burden of preparing for university entrance exams. Workers enjoy the perquisites of company life but must accept long working hours in service to the corporate good. Kejime, in essence, is the law of the land: as one grows from a pebble into a stone, one gives up certain personal freedoms in return for the benefits of achieving a higher position in the community.
(Taken from “Learning to Bow" by Bruce S. Feiler pp216-217)