幼稚園入園式
If you can read Japanese, you already know what this photo is about. If you can’t, try and guess. A funeral? A wedding? But why all the kids? I’ll give you a hint, I took this photo in April. Still not getting it?
April is when school starts in Japan. This is the first day of school at a Japanese kindergarten. And the first day of school for these four- and five-year olds is a huge deal. Just getting accepted to some Japanese kindergartens is a big deal. One of my Japanese friends paid tens of thousands of yen for a kindergarten prep-school for her three-year old daughter so that she could get into a good kindergarten. Crazy right? This is not a rare occurrence. If you see a Japanese mom with a three- or four-year old, both dressed to the T, in a train station in Japan the odds are very good that they are on their way to, or from, one of these kindergarten prep schools.
幼稚園入園式 = yochiennyuenshiki = Kindergarten Entrance Ceremony