On Friday the 10th of April, 2015, the 61st Entrance Ceremony was held at Tokyo City University Futako Kindergarten, and 68 excited but nervous new kindergarteners joined the school. Many of the new kindergarteners practiced hard outside for their big debut, and were praised for their efforts by the principal. He also asked them not to cry the next morning when they left their parents for their first full day at kindergarten. Tomorrow will most likely be a difficult time for both the children and the parents, as the kids take the first step towards independence. As I watched them tearing around the room and standing on the furniture, I hope that they will soon get used to kindergarten life, but also that they don’t lose that wonderful freedom too soon.
On Monday the 6th of April, the Tokyo City University Shiojiri High School Entrance Ceremony took place in the newly-finished auditorium.
Addressing the new students, the Shiojiri High School Principal and the President of Tokyo City University spoke of the founder Gotoh Keita and the establishment of the school, and their wishes that the students spend their high school years with a dream and a goal in mind. The new students looked nervous under the watchful gaze of their parents and teachers, but excited to begin their next stage as high school students.
Congratulations to all the new students. I hope that you will grow even further as people, and stride forth bravely to the future that awaits you.
On Tuesday the 7th of April, the 2015 entrance ceremony was held at Tokyo City University Todoroki Junior and Senior High School.
Congratulations to all the new students.
201 junior high school and 184 high school students joined the school, which has a seventy-year history.
I hope that you take the school spirit of noblesse oblige to heart, and become global leaders by challenging yourself to try many new activities.
Tokyo City University Elementary School 60th Entrance Ceremony
On Wednesday the 8th of April, 80 new students entered Tokyo City University Elementary School under the watchful gaze of their parents, teachers and senior students. Many celebratory messages were sent not only from the principal and the Vice-President of Tokyo City University, but also from the surrounding preschools and educational institutions. Their message was, ‘come to school with a big dream in your big randoseru*.’ Some students want to be pilots, others police offers. I look forward to seeing these new first graders, whose backpacks are still a little too heavy for them to hold, grow into healthy, dignified young adults. Congratulations to you all!
*randoseru: a traditional leather Japanese backpack used by elementary school students. A hand-sewn randoseru costs around three hundred dollars and is designed to last for the six years of elementary education.
On Tuesday the 7th of April, Tokyo City University Junior and Senior High School marked its sixtieth anniversary with a grand entrance ceremony for new students. Although the weather was unfortunately cold and rainy, the brass band put on a hot performance for the newcomers, teachers and parents. Principal Ono welcomed the new students with a speech encouraging them to chase their dreams, but to make them useful ones. The cherry blossoms may have scattered, but the journey is just getting started for three hundred boys. As a surprise, one student who had graduated the school just last month came back for the day especially to assist the brass band.
Congratulations to all the new students on joining Tokyo City University Junior and Senior High School! I hope that over the next six years, you will have such a good time at ‘Toshikou’ that you too will want to come back!
On the 2/4/2015, Tokyo City University held its entrance ceremony at Setagaya Campus in Tokyo, under a blanket of blooming cherry trees.
New students from over the country, all with their own hopes and dreams, came to join one of the six faculties (eighteen schools) or two graduate schools (twelve schools).
The entrance ceremony for new undergraduates, held in the Sakura Center (gymnasium) also featured a performance of the national anthem as well as speeches by President Chitoshi Miki, Chairman of Gotoh Educational Corpration Isao Adachi, and the president of the Parent Teacher Association. Vice-Chancellor Ron Oliver of Edith Cowan University (Perth, Western Australia), the partner school in the Tokyo City University Australia Program which officially began April this year, also spoke. Professor Ron Oliver’s address encouraged new students to study abroad in Australia, stating that “Studying abroad in Perth, Australia will open your eyes in so many ways.” At the conclusion of the ceremony, a rousing performance of the school song “Give Wings to Your Dreams” urged the students forward to a new stage of their lives.
Many senior students gathered in front of the arena to invite the new students to the various club activities, enveloping their juniors in a welcoming mood.
Congratulations to all the new students!
Translator’s Note: Were you surprised to see so many eighteen-year old students wearing suits? At the graduation ceremony last month many female students wore colourful hakama (traditional Japanese pleated trousers), but at the entrance ceremony everyone wears black. This kind of simple black suit is known as a recruit suit, and many will recycle it for job-hunting in their third year.
Tokyo City University, Setagaya Campus: The school flag and the flags of Australia and Japan were flown above the Gotoh Memorial Hall.
Address by Vice-Chancellor Chitoshi Miki
Address by Professor Ron Oliver (Vice-Chancellor, Edith Cowan University)
Performance of the school song and Tokyo City University Group song “Give Wings to Your Dreams” by the Tokyo City University Brass Band and Glee Club
