Graduation Ceremonies and Spring Vacations

This past Thursday was the graduation ceremony at Konan University for seniors graduating in 2010. The past two months have been spring break for Konan students, so the campus has been very empty, but on Thursday, it suddenly became very lively as 2,000 graduating seniors and all their friends came to the campus to celebrate. The graduation ceremony took place in the gymnasium, but I heard the ceremony was full of speeches and was not terribly interesting. But afterward, I heard so much noise coming from the main campus area. I don't know how university graduation ceremonies and the celebrations afterward work in the U.S. (never having attended one myself), but at Konan University, it seemed as though everyone was meeting up with schoolmates and friends from their extracurricular activities. The younger students in the sports and culture clubs made sure that the graduating seniors received presents, bouquets, and cards from all the other club members, and everyone takes pictures together and makes a big deal out of presenting the seniors with their gifts. Then every single club seems to have its own drinking party planned, and on Thursday night downtown Sannomiya, the center of Kobe City, was filled with drunk graduates and their younger club member counterparts.

Also, I feel as though despite Japanese college students being on break for the past two months, they still come to school a lot during their spring vacations. If the students are second year or third year students, they are starting job hunting, but other students still come to school to study, which seems very different from what myself and other U.S. college students do during summer vacations. High school students are also on spring vacation right now, but I see so many high school students that attend the school across the street from my host family's house dressed up in uniform and walking to school every morning. I guess they are doing sports and music practices every day, but it still seems like a greater percentage of students come to school every day here in Japan than high school students in the U.S. do during summer vacations.