A draft I found in the system from my time in Japan:
I went to a graduation for the sixth grade students I teach at the school today. Japan has a love for fixed, rigid rituals with long speeches. It was a painful experience.
When I got married we made a decision not to have long speeches in it. It was our day and nothing could ruin that faster than having to sit through long monologues in a language you can barely understand.
Perhaps not understanding the language fully saved me. After 4 years, I have a good grasp of Japanese but the complicated way the formalities were conducted in left my head swirling.
The ceremony was novel however – the grade below sang songs to the upper grade after the relentless parade of speeches had finished which was a nice touch.
At one point the head teacher called upon different groups of the audience to stand up and offer congratulations to the graduates. The PTA started, then on to the people who provide the school lunches and then the bus drivers. They were sitting right next to us and it looked like we would have to stand up and say something. “What do we do?” I asked my colleague as I had not been prepared for this.
“Just copy everybody else.” he answered. In the end we were left out. Happy this time to be excluded.
