Gradu-ma-ation

Japan prides itself on having a good education system. When we first got here, the informed us many times that over 99% of students graduate from Junior Highschool, and "a similar proportion" graduate from Senoir Highschool. What they don't tell you is that everyone graduates from Junior Highschool. No matter what. Some kids - literally - do not go to school, but still recieve a diploma. Case in point is what happened at Joe's school (for those of you that don't know her, Joe is the wonderful ALT who also works in Kameyama; for those of you know don't know what "Kameyama" is, that's the name of the city I live in; for those of you who don't know who "I" am, then nice to meet you. I'm Louis). Ok, maybe I took that one too far.

Anyway (did you know "anyways" is not actually a word, even though it sounds more natural?), at Joe's school, one student, who was never particularly stable, just flipped out one day. He attacked a bunch of teachers, and basically all the male teachers who were in the classroom at the time had to restrain him. He broke the ribs of one teacher, and probably would have seriously injured, or possibly killed another one if someone hadn't grabbed the fire extinguisher out of his hands that he was about to slam down on a teacher's skull (I think I lucked out on which school I got in Kameyama). So this kid got sent to wherever they send juvenile delinquents, but on graduation day was still allowed to come back to the school to get his diploma. Oh yeah, a "C" is the lowest grade you can get in Japan, by the way; even if you break their ribs, apparently.

Bad seeds aside, most of the kids are great, and graduation was altogether a happy affair. The speeches seemed really meaningful, and I'm sure I would have been moved if I understood anything beyond "friends" "very fun" and "very interesting". Graduations are a very formal affair in Japan (hence the suits), and once they are over, the students get split up into different high schools based on ability (and not on location; it's not unusual for kids to travel an hour by train to get to school). A lot of them will never see each other again.

Then, the cameras come out, and everyone takes a million pictures.

Oh yeah, I find out about med school in June. Interview was fine, but the competition is stiff, so we'll see.

Will try to catch up on the last 8 months that I have been rather lazy in posting over the next little while.