Graduation Day!

Tuesday, March 24th, was the Kozakura Kindergarten graduation ceremony. It was a delightful day filled with a ceremony, delicious food, entertainment and drinks. All of which, I enjoyed to my fullest potiential but struggled to stay awake through it all. I think the Japanese differences and language still leave me a bit sleepy from time to time, and after a weekend in Tokyo with no sleep I was "spacey" all day. It was quite hillarious to see all those rugrats in formal clothes, participating in such a formal event that we would only do for a highschool graduation or wedding. It was nice however, to show congratulations to these kids for completing something as easy as Kindgergarten!! Their parents were very proud. In this picture you can see each child got a flower to take home, a diploma and other various gifts. The event was kinda sad for me becuase I was just starting to get used to some of these kids, build relationships with them but now they will move onto elementary school. I had a few buddies around that would help me read hiragana, or we'd draw together, and I'd attempt to teach them English words.

Once the afternoon reception was over I had a few hours to spare before the evening drinking party with the parents began. I ended up being in a rush to get there as usual and part of me didn't want to even go. I felt tired and exhausted just from the hour long meal that afternoon. I went anyways not knowing what to expect. It is difficult becuase I can't really speak Japanese and these people can't speak English. That is the hardest thing for me, not being able to talk as much as I'd like. Despite all of that once you get some drinks going the socializing begins. I had a great time chatting it up with all these parents. Also, I realized how appreciative they were of my teaching their children English, and many commented how their son/daughter loved English class. It's nice to hear that becuase a lot of the time at Kindergarten I don't feel needed or wanted.

A thing to note about Japanese people, especially Nagai people is they love to drink, and they never allow a glass to become empty or even partially empty. I lost track of how many drinks I had. We ended up going to karaoke, which was super fun! I think I even sang a few songs solo which is quite unilke me. By the end of it all, about 2am, I was terribly inebriated and needed to go home for a sleep! These mom's were quite worried and sent me home in a taxi. Once home, I ended up falling asleep on my apartment floor. I think next time I will pay more attention to how many times my glass is re-filled!