Kindergarten entrance ceremonies

Yesterday was the entrance ceremony at the kindergarten. It was a Saturday so all the fathers and brothers and sisters and grandparents attended too. Entrance ceremonies and graduations are always big events in Japan.




I remember one year a foreign family was enrolling their child in the kindergarten and when the mother brought the little boy for the first day she was wearing jeans and a sweat shirt or something while all the other mothers were in formal suits with corsages and their hair piled high and all around extra fancy. I felt a little sorry for the foreign mother because no one had told her that this was going to be a formal event. I probably should have warned her but I'd completely forgotten to mention that Japan thinks of the first day of kindergarten as a MAJOR event in a child's life and that mothers will get dressed to the T. Of course the kids are dressed up like little dolls and yesterday most of the little three year olds were wearing little short pants suits or frilly dresses. I was also interested to see that all of the kindergarten teachers wore beige or white dress suits whereas at the graduation ceremony last month almost every person attending wore black. (By the way I wore the outfit I bought for Leiya's graduation last year... Third time I've worn it. I would have preferred to go in jeans and a sweat shirt.)


But I've been asked not to take pictures of the kindergarten kids so you'll have to miss out on everyones' finery. Instead, how about a glance around the kindergarten?


Mifumi Kindergarten (Mifumi means "Word of God") is surrounded by lovely cherry blossoms (as are most schools and kindergartens) and the cherry trees were in full bloom. As we were leaving, the blossoms were just beginning to flutter to the ground in the breeze and it looked like a lovely spring snow fall! Wouldn't you love to be a child and be making mudpies and swinging on the swings under those trees everyday?