Bring out the graduates!

Today was kindergarten graduation. These three and ten more dressed up in little suits and acted like perfect adults, complete with songs and memorized lines. None of them even flinched. They were seamless, united, almost royal in their self-presentation. The ceremony was grueling, long, and unfortunately for the one year olds and Tedo-sensei, boring. I felt like the tone of this graduation was even more serious, in some ways, than the tone of the middle school graduation.

Understandably I would never want my kids to go through this. I am only a temporary member of the family in this town and country and I am honored to be introduced to this experience, but I am not a real member of the society and nor could I ever be one even if I tried from this day forward with all my might.

The kindergarten graduates mimicked the smooth and seamless process that I see throughout Japanese society. It is a kind of clockwork that means that people just work here, the society just works (with its kinks--see last month's posts). Crime is low, obedience is high. But like a clock there is a mechanical element to it; it has been engineered to function in a very careful, precise way. It is inevitable that a society that works like a well-crafted machine (in most ways) will also suffer from the mechanization of its individuals. But as you can see in any of the photos of the people here they are full of life and vinegar. These kids especially, when they are away from school, are much freer spirits. No society or culture could completely cover up the oddities that make up our humanness; but they can do more or less of it. And who is to say which way is better, if it is even a useful question? Even if it were a matter of taste most people don't get the choice. They are born into the society that shapes them. And some societies do more intense shaping than others.

Confusingly and mysteriously I get to be like a big brother to these kids, helping to socialize them in a very Japanese way. My quirks are certainly exposing them to other ways of thinking but my job requires that I obey and respect the rites and the ways those rites are carried out. There is really no other way for me as I must also conform while I am here and while I am a part of the community. It is an interesting study in sociology and anthropology, that is for sure.