On March 25^th, almost a month ago already, I was able to attend the Tokai University Graduation Ceremony.

Now just to give you a little background on the Japanese culture, first of all, most students have a set time of 4 years of studies, with the first semester starting in April, the second one in September. They do this for four years, and as long as they passed all their courses, most of them all graduate at the same time. Also, it is very common for some people not to attend their own graduation ceremony. Some of them have already found a job and are working hard or being trained.

This day was a very special day. I would say that about... 80% of the friends I have made so far in Japan were now all graduating on this day. This meant that it would most likely be the last time I see them before I head back home. So I packed up some of the organic hand soaps I had brought from Canada into little packages, making one for all of my friends. I also printed out and framed a picture for Chipa and Anzu, who were the ones who helped me the most since I've been here.

Now I actually had to attend two ceremonies. Since they all had to graduate on that day (but there were too many students to fit the gymnasium), they needed to separate the arts and the sciences students. And still, the room was filled! First up was Chipa's graduation. He graduated from the Architecture Department. I watched the ceremony which lasted about 1 hour. Gift where given to those who excelled, speeches were made, a video was showed and it was then time to leave.



After that, I gave Chipa his gift, and he headed off to his department to receive his certificate.

Two hours later, I headed back to the gym to attend the art's ceremony. But this time, my friend Kenta who was a staff at the dorm, invited us to go down with him. Being a little crazy, four of us who aren't graduating headed with the graduating students to watch the ceremony from a student's perspective. It was quite funny, and it didn't bother anyone. Since I won't really be graduating from Tokai, this gave me the opportunity to know how it feels to graduate from a Japanese university. Besides that, the ceremony was exactly the same.


After it ended, I had to chase down all my friends to take pictures with them and give them gifts. They all had to head to their departments, so it was quite interesting to try and spot them out of the hundreds of students coming down the road. Here they are, all dressed up for the ceremony!







*I didn't get a picture with all of them since some of them took it on their phone and still haven't sent them over...*

Most of my friends were graduating from the International Department, so I followed them there, and ended up listening to the last speech they received from their teacher. I must say, it really felt like I was graduating. Many of them actually asked me if I was haha!

Random but funny, the judo guys that were graduating saw me at one point, and asked me to take a picture with them. Most of them had never spoken to me before, but I don't mind. I just don't think I'm never going to see that picture since I don't have them as friends on Facebook.

But yeah, after saying goodbye to everyone one last time, I headed back to the Kaikan. That night, we had a supper to celebrate Chipa and Kenta's graduation and departure from the dorm.



Feelings:
 - First, most of my friends are going to leave, which makes me quite sad. I had really built this family atmosphere with all these friends I would come across on the university campus. Many of them had helped me at least once and I was really thankful for them.
 - This means that next semester, I get to start "anew". Since most of my Japanese friends are leaving, this makes me anonymous again. Not a bad thing I guess.
 - Every single one of them said that their four years had gone too fast and they wanted to stay here. All I could think of, is how fast my own trip had gone so far, and it really just made me scared that I wouldn't be able to accomplish all my goals within the remaining time.

One thing you might notice, and that I also noticed that day, is that most of my friends are girls! Well, what can I say... haha, no I did not do this on purpose. It is because most girls' Japanese is quite easier to understand, and they actually teach me Japanese. Also, guys in Japanese simply approach me to have "international experience", and so I prefer to keep my distance, although I believe I might change this for this next semester, but we'll see. ;-)