Results Day

One teacher mentioned to me, upon seeing how excited these new students were, the irony of their enthusiasm: “if only they knew how hard they will have to work for the next three years…”

It was like a scene out of a movie. I walked confusedly through the crowds of students in uniform, teachers, and parents, all gathered around to see results from the school’s entrance exams. Some of my students would find me and say “Hello!” and stuff pamphlets and candy in my hands, only to disappear into the crowd moments later. I saw a few students and teachers with cameras up on the landing outside of the gym doors and thought that this would be a good vantage point for some perspective on the scene. I was about to talk to some of the photo club members when the doors behind me opened on either side and teachers carried out large bulletin boards with the numbers of those who got accepted to the school. Immediately, I was in a swarm of Japanese people, young and old, who were eager to see who would be among those to study at our school next year. The band started playing, and the sports teams – all in uniform, began shouting their school cheers. I’d never seen so many people excited about school before!

There were no classes this day as students from all over Iwaki came to our school to check their results. Iwaki High school is considered the top school in the city (and 3rd in the prefecture – something I’ve had mentioned to me many times while at this school) and so, there is a lot of excitement amongst students who get accepted. Also, many of Iwaki’s school clubs show up in uniform to hand out pamphlets and encourage the new first-years-to-be to join their clubs. The real excitement however, comes from the brass band playing while the sports teams shout their chants and find people to cheer and throw up in the air.

Again, I didn’t realize that this was going on and I didn’t bring my camera. I did get a few videos with my phone however:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxw1AWJvtaQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS5olTd24-I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LskGKhrpXVk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lslb5Kf0vXY