Graduation

Various graduation pics.

Match the caption to the pic!! (This is an actual English activity we do with our students.)

The gym before the graduates arrived. Every student in the school is required to attend graduation.

Students holding diplomas. All are wearing rented kimonos.

Moemi, Natalie, and I. Moemi's holding up the box that contains her diploma. The diplomas are given out as scrolls.

Getting ready for a homeroom class picture (in Japan, all students are organized by homerooms and they remain with their homerooms throughout their high school careers)


Students at my school are scolded if they dye their hair during the school year. Graduation has traditionally been the day when students show off the hair they wished they had been allowed to sport over the past three years. No more school = no more school rules.

Natalie and I were invited to stand in on the classroom photo for a class that we frequently taught----3-K. One reason I love kimonos so much is because they are so colorful. If this were a picture of graduating high school students in America, it would be monotone due to all of the caps and gowns saturated with school color.

Some of the more popular dudes in the graduating class.

*Note*--- Most of the kimonos you see are rented.

Rental cost: $1,000 for one day!! Why do the girls rent? Because a new kimono set-up can cost up to $10,000. My school tried to ban kimonos a few years ago to protect parent bank accounts, but the girls wouldn't have it. Many girls wear dress suits because they can't afford to pay the astronomical rental fee.