成人式

Which basically translates into Adult Ceremony. Sounds a bit..lewd, if you ask me. This celebration, which takes place on the 9th of January every year, is done to celebrate the coming of age-ness(?) of everyone who turns 20. I'm not sure when this started but it's a huge deal in Japan. Every year parents spend at least 100,000￥(around RM3689.1347) for the rental kimonos, the make-up artists, hairstylists and photographer. If they bought the kimonos, then a whole set can cost up to 1,000,000￥(around RM36891.3475). Scary shit.

It turns out that I was the only international student to get invited to this year's celebration. Lucky me. Big whoop. I asked my host mum what she thought I should wear, and she said I should wear something from Malaysia. So I decided to wear a simple purple baju kurung that I had, thinking that the gold thai silk kurung would be too over-the-top. Stoopid me. When we got there, I was probably the most under-dressed person.

The ceremony started at 1.00pm. The Hitachinaka-shi representative gave a short speech about how we were all now adults and that we had to start giving back to the community and had to work hard to a better future. A student representative also gave a short speech about all the responsibilities that we all have to bear now. Then a slideshow of teachers from all the participants's junior high school was shown. Lastly, a lucky draw was held. The lucky ones got an iPod touch, PS3, a pair of tickets to Disney World, a pair of tickets to Fujikyuu. The not so lucky ones got a tumbler.

It all ended around 2.00pm. The most exciting part was probably when a gang of guys, who I'm pretty sure were drunk, started to pick a fight with a few of the officers near the stage area because the officers had given them a warning about being too loud. Lame lah weii..

Kpala singa..roaarrr!

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