Completion ceremony at Ritsumeikan!

My first semester at Ritsumeikan is over. I´ve had all my exams, finished all my reports and done all of my assignments for this time.

On Friday we had a completion ceremony for the students who has already been here a year/only are staying one semester. Though I´ve still got another semester left, I decided to participate as well. There is not that much to say about the ceremony itself, you have the usual formal speeches and everybody is dressed up nicely.

Vice-chancellor of Ritusmeikan; Monte Cassim, and our student representative.

But there were also some entertainment during the ceremony: The students who took the traditional arts course Shamisen (三味線) preformed some songs they had been practicing during the semester. Shamisen is the name of the instrument they are playing; a Japanese three-stringed banjo. I´ve added a video where they are playing and singing as well, feel free to check it out;)

After the ceremony we had a reception at school, with a lot of more or less traditional Japanese food. 美味しかった！ Of course now that the semester is finished there are students who will be leaving for their own countries. Eki-chan is one of those who has finished her year abroad, and at the reception she, among others, received her completion diploma.

But we did not only spend the evening eating delicious food and listening to speaches. After the reception at school, most of us spent some hours of the evening at a Nomihōdai (飲み放題) where you can drink as much as you want for a certain prize, of course with a time limit to it. Though we only had 90 minutes to go we sure had a memorable night:)

Besides the completion ceremony at school we also had a farewell party on Saturday for the students living in iHouse 1, where everybody brought some food from their representative countries. It was both fun and sad at the same time; I´m particularly bad at saying goodbye, and it is always hard to let go of good friends.

So now I can finally relax and enjoy some weeks of freedom, though I´ll probably still be hanging around the library a couple of weeks more. I´ve prepared myself for the holiday by buying some crime novels by Higashino Keigo, and I must say it is great to be able to study by reading stuff I actually want to read out of interest.. :P

In the end of February I am going to travel a couple of weeks in Japan along with my family, and in March me and Adaora are going to Taiwan, Thailand and Cambodia.

Other posts about Ritsumeikan

About Anette
Anette came to Japan as an exchange student in 2010, met the love of her life and got stuck. From her base in Tokyo she writes about her experiences as a full-time worker in Tokyo and about her travels in Japan and abroad. She's a free-spirited adventurer who enjoys both the great outdoors and her urban lifestyle.