Graduation was the reason for going. It seemed to follow a standardized format - obligatory songs, obligatory speeches,students receiving their graduation certificates individually. I couple of differences from the graduations I have been to in Tokyo - there is no school uniform, but the graduation sixth class students all wore their junior high uniforms. For a country that feels very at home with appearances of conformity, it was a surprise that there was no uniform - it may be the same in Tokyo for government schools - I'm not sure. A second difference, to the all girls school graduations that I have been to, the gender divide..... I nearly choked when the girls marched in after all the boys. The boys got their certificates first, and marched out first.... Apparently that is how the class roll is written historically and that is the way it remains....
Further investigation is required to find out if this is still the norm in urbanized parts of Japan ...
3 comments:
Eeeek! First boys, then girls? Coz that's how it's always been done? (@_@) You know I love this country to bits, but its gender apartheid drives me bonkers.
I asked the hairdresser today whether it was an old fashion countryside thing, some relic of the past, and he said he'd never thought about it being strange but that it was probably more common than not....
hmmmm....
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