I recently went to Aoyama Gakuin's graduation on Saturday. My tutor Yuri, who's not only been a very helpful and supportive but a great and sweet friend, graduated along with some other friends of mine.
When I met Yuri's mother, she surprised both Yuri and I by saying "Hello, nice to meet you!" :D I also met Yuri's sister and they were having a ball taking pictures of Yuri (and sometimes with me in them). I felt really special to be part of her graduation memories, even though I've only known Yuri for a respectively short time.
Here are the pictures I took:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033379&id=1230390045&l=1ef4d8c9bd
I ended up not staying for the actual ceremony. I had to take care of some things (like write a message in the card that I bought for Yuri!) so I decided to skip on that. I also figured I wouldn't get much out of it honestly. I ended up staying with my friend Charlie on campus watching graduates gush, laugh, take pictures, and chat with their friends and families. I saw a few guys take their female friends and throw them up into the air. It was quite the scene. I felt like a tourist taking pictures of the great spectacle of girls in their traditional kimono or hakama, but I felt more legit when my graduate friends came back. I'm happy I got to celebrate with them.
(The guys wear suits to their graduation, so it's not as interesting with them. However, I did spot a few of them wearing traditional wear and it was very exciting. I couldn't get pictures though. There's something incredibly attractive about men in hakama. Or it could have just been them. Or the combination....Anyway!!)
It was very nice, the whole day. The weather was even nice!
On April 1st, I'll be attending my first real hanami with the old and new exchange students and Japanese students of Aoyama Gakuin. I will have to remember to take my allergy medication. As much as I like flowers, I don't like flowers at the same time, if you know what I mean.
And school starts (finally) in a two weeks! *gasp!* I need to step up my game (a.k.a. study Japanese a.k.a. stop pretending that I'm learning from watching anime - don't worry, I don't actually believe that. However, it is good listening practice. And it gets me in the mood. While I was home in America, I managed to watch 43 episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood in Japanese...for the rest of my time at home, I couldn't stop thinking in Japanese. Effective? I think so.)
(You know what's not effective? My labels/tags for my posts, they're all so random and I have no consistency. I'm sorry)
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