On August 11, 2024, a time capsule buried in the schoolyard by graduates from about 40 years ago was opened at Iwataki Elementary School in Iwataki, Yosano-cho, Kyoto Prefecture. Participants nostalgically picked up graduation anthologies and photo albums and reminisced about their memories of the time.
In conjunction with the reunion, 26 people gathered from Okayama Prefecture, Kyoto City, and elsewhere, including Akiko Takeuchi (75 years old) from Miyazu City, Kyoto Prefecture, who was the homeroom teacher for the sixth grade class.
The mementos were stored in a two-meter-high enclosure made of stacked blocks, and on the front of the enclosure, each graduate had a carved portrait of themselves on a piece of pumice pasted on it. When the lyric cards for the songs sung at the graduation ceremony were brought out, participants said, "I still remember this song," and the conversation became lively.
Yukari Takahashi (51 years old), an employee of an NPO in Yosano Town, said, "Some members were able to achieve the dreams for the future that they had written in their anthologies. Although the group has fallen apart, I'm glad that their teachers can come back in good spirits."
