Graduation - part 2

So after all that excitement, the graduation ceremony continued.

The teachers formed two lines leading to the gym doors and clapped as the students said their farewells, bowed and walked out. There weren't as many tears this year compared to last year.

Afterwards in the staffroom, the teachers were huddled around the stove heater ('stove meeting' as kendo-sensei calls it) warming up our hands and chatting about Gackt's surprise visit. It was the hot conversation topic for the rest of the day. More excitement stirred in the room as our bento lunch boxes were delivered. It was as always, totemo oishii!

After lunch I went upstairs to take photos with the students and wrote in some of their year books. Their yearbooks seriously kick ass. They are big, hard covered, full colour, professional gloss photographs on thick card pages. These are what yearbooks should be like - they were so, so nice!

Bento lunch box goodness

Adzuki (red bean) rice is usually prepared for special occasions

The girl on the right did an exchange in Texas for a year and speaks great English,

she works at Marui-pan bakery

Some OC boys (Bruce Lee, Nelly-hip-hopper, me & Team Tachikawa)

This student was one of the girls I coached for the speech contest last year,

is one of my top students in English and she also works at Marui-pan bakery

This student is going to study French in university, her English is really good too

Gyaru gang

This is my 3rd year ESS girl - I'm going to miss her a lot. I started tearing when she said 'Thank you' to me and that she really enjoyed my classes and thinks many other students began to like English because of my classes. She said that she didn't see me as a teacher but more like a big sister. *tear* Her English is really good and she's going to study English & Russian in university.

Badminton club girls

Letters of 'Congratulations' and well wishes from local VIPs and schools

These girls are from the track & field club - the student in the middle made me the birthday cheesecake last year.