Senior High School entrance ceremony

You would think after having 10 school entrance ceremonies in Japan to date, I would know what to expect by now. But today was my very first Senior High School entrance ceremony and so I wasn't sure exactly what it would be like. There was always a chance that it would be different to what I am used to. But as it turns out - its much the same as a Junior High School, Elementary School and Preschool entrance ceremony.

The ceremony itself started at 10 am, but the "reception" opened from 9 am. I wasn't sure what time to go for, but my sempai Mom friends recommended arriving as close to 9 am as possible. For one, it looks good. But more than that, the main reason people seem to arrive early, is to line up to get a photo by the "entrance ceremony" sign, pictured, that is posted outside the schools. I have removed the name of my child's school from the photo, but they all do have the name of the school as well as the date on the side of the banner sign.

We arrived at about 9.10 am, which was a reasonable time. There were only a few people in line to get a photo and we were able to proceed to the next stage punctually. The next stage, is the student going to their classroom and handing over relevant documents, while parents move to the hall to wait for the start of the entrance ceremony. We had to bring slippers and a plastic bag to put our shoes in. That is different to the other schools to date. Normally, we can leave shoes in a cubby hole, but at the senior high school there are far too many students and parents have to carry their shoes with them.

To be honest, when I got into the hall, even though about a quarter of the parents were already there, I felt that we'd probably arrived a little too early. Because I ended up sitting in the hall for nearly 40 minutes. However, there was live entertainment in form of the school band and they were really good. I also popped to the toilet to help time along! It was a good thing I did that at 9.25 am, because there was a queue for the toilet. Mainly Moms, but there was a couple of students in the line too. 

The ceremony started promptly at 10 am. After words of welcome and the national anthem, they called out each and every student's name. The students responded 'hai' (yes) to their name and stood up one by one. The principal of the school greeted them, they all bowed and sat down, and the principal gave a speech. That was followed by several other speeches, an introduction to the first year student's various teachers and then a performance of the school song. After closing remarks, the curtains were drawn on the stage and a couple of announcements were made. Despite all that, it was done by about 11.15 am. 

The students moved to their classrooms with their teachers. The parents moved to another classroom with members of the PTA directing them. They decided the new PTA members within minutes. We were lucky that three Moms volunteered and we were finished and reunited with our children by about noon. We talked to a few people briefly, but then had to go, because I was going on to catch some of my third child's junior high school entrance ceremony. 

All in all, the Senior High School entrance ceremony was painless and more pleasant than I had expected! The time went relatively quick too.