Japan knows how to do a ceremony, whether it is sitting under the cherry blossoms singing and drinking and taking in their beauty (something I've long advocated we should do with our jacarandas by the way...but I digress, dear reader) or formal company or, in my case, university inductions.
Friday was the new staff induction. Today the pomp was multiplied by hundreds as all the new students and their family members and staff gathered in the stadium near the uni to be welcomed in a similar fashion to us last week.
In substance, there's not a lot of difference between what chancellors or vice-chancellors or faculty heads say to new students anywhere...the students are stepping into new territory, a new stage in life, anticipation, nervousness, excitement...and just who will be game enough to sign up for the class with that foreign professor to learn about Japanese politics...(quite a few apparently, according to the enrolment list).
Anyway, there's probably a very good reason why Japan also chooses to undertake all its formal welcomes, inductions and starts at this time of year: it is springtime, where a few million cherries blossom and in more recent times...a hundred tulips bloom...
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| Classic red |
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| Many reds |
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| surreal orange (no filter, no edits) |
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| Ready for the festival of the tulip |
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| Jostling for space |
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| The wheel is not far away |
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| A rare double-header |
[Camera : Canon EOS60D, 28-80mm, 4.58pm-5.03pm, 4 April 2016]
