Japanese Elementary School Events: Unique Events & Real Stories

Japanese Elementary School Events: Unique Events & Real Stories — YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Let's talk about some of the school events I experienced as an elementary school student in Japan. Please compare my experiences with your own!

I've introduced various aspects of Japanese elementary schools in my articles, so it might be helpful to read those first to get better understanding of the school events in this article.

Entrance Ceremony#

First, when you enter elementary school, you have something called an Entrance Ceremony. Parents can also participate in this ceremony to record their child's big day.

I don't have any memories from that time, but looking at old photos, I see children in their school uniforms entering the gymnasium led by their homeroom teachers. The principal probably gave a speech, and congratulatory telegrams from local officials were read out. Many Japanese ceremonies follow this formal style, so even though I don't remember, I'm sure the entrance ceremony was the same.

Entrance ceremonies are also held for junior high, high school, and university, but they change a little as you get older. If I have a chance, I'd like to talk about that too.

Graduation Ceremony#

Elementary school lasts for six years, and in the final year, there's a Graduation Ceremony. Just like the entrance ceremony, parents can attend, and my mother came to mine.

From my personal experience, unlike the entrance ceremony, we, the graduating students, didn't just attend; we prepared for weeks. First, during art class, we made our own diploma cases. We had wooden boxes for the diplomas and we used carving tools to engrave patterns on them. I carved an eagle on the lid. After that, we sanded the boxes to make them smooth, colored them red, and applied lacquer to give them a glossy finish.

During the ceremony, there were also performances like group recitations and choir singing. We practiced for these things over and over for weeks. Since it was a practice for the entire grade, around 200 students would gather together. We also practiced our entrance and exit marches so that we could do them without breaking formation.

It's rare now, but back then, if there was a mistake during practice, the teachers would get angry at the entire grade. I remember the teachers' angry voice often flying around during practice.

The ceremony proceeded with speeches from the principal and guests, performances by the younger students, and then our own performances.

Sports Day#

Unlike the entrance and graduation ceremonies, Sports Day is an event for the entire school, and parents are invited to watch. It's held every year, and each of the six grades has their own events and competitions on the school field.

Sports Day is a full-day event, so we would eat lunch with our parents in a bento box. Since we usually ate school lunch, having a bento for lunch was a fresh and fun experience for us elementary school kids.

In my case, all students were divided into three groups: red, white, and yellow. We would compete to see which team could earn the most points. There were about five classes per grade, so with all six grades, we had a total of about 30 classes, with 10 classes in each group. We would get points based on the results of each grade's competitions, and the group with the most points at the end would win a trophy.

Each grade had one performance and two to three competitions. For example, in my sixth year, we did a school-wide dance as our performance, and for competitions, we had an obstacle course and a relay race. Each group would earn points based on the results of these competitions. Because of this, even if it's not our turn, we would cheer for our teammates from other grades to help our group win the trophy.

The performances, like the whole-grade dance, were something we did just for fun and didn't affect the final score. We would practice these dances many times during physical education class. Just like the graduation ceremony practice, the teachers would often get very strict.

Music Festival#

When I was in elementary school, the Music Festival was also a school-wide event. Each class from every grade would perform a chorus and a musical ensemble. All the students would gather in the gymnasium, and each class would perform in order, from the first grade to the sixth. This was also a full-day event.

The songs and music for the first grades were usually simple, but as we got older, the chorus songs would include harmonies, and the musical ensembles would use instruments like xylophones, metallophone, drums, cymbals, and pianos, not just recorders and melodics. The chosen songs also become more complex.

For each grade, every class had a different song, so we would practice during music classes and homeroom time. The songs were basically chosen by a majority vote from a list of options provided by the teacher. We could also choose our own part in the chorus or which instrument we wanted to play.

Since the instruments were available in the music room, we would practice our ensembles during music class. I really liked the Music Festival practice because I got to use many different instruments.

Marathon Race#

Finally, my school had a Marathon Race every winter. By the time we were in the upper grades, we had to run about three kilometers. This event was held every year for each grade, and usually only the students participated, with no parents in attendance.

I really hated this event. First, it was held in the middle of a very cold winter, but we had to run in short-sleeved shirts and shorts, which was freezing. It was also just physically tough, so I would often pretend to be sick to avoid it.

However, we also had practices for the race. Just when I thought the actual race was bad enough, we would have to run repeatedly during physical education class. I couldn't always pretend to be sick, so I sometimes had to participate in practice, which I really disliked.

There was also another kind of endurance test called a Shuttle Run. A Shuttle Run is a fitness test where you run back and forth between two parallel lines 20 meters apart to a set rhythm. This is a common test in Japanese elementary, junior high, and high schools. The rhythm of the Shuttle Run gets faster and faster over time, so combined with the distance, it gets very tough towards the end.

I hated both the Marathon Race and the Shuttle Run, but these kinds of endurance events continued in junior high and high school. Even in college, we had the Shuttle Run in P.E. class, so I could never quite escape them.

So, that's a look at some of the major school events in Japanese elementary schools. There are also many other events like school trips, field trips, and excursions.

Closing Remarks#

Thank you for reading my article today. I hope you found the information helpful.
If you have any questions, please share comments on Twitter or YouTube.
thank you