Two cultures, one great adventure: Japanese and local students share their summer

The tears were flowing Tuesday at Sound Transit Station in Auburn.

Two sets of students – neither of whom had set eyes on the other until last week – were making an emotional departure from each other.

But it wasn’t all about being sad. They all knew that within a week, they’d be seeing each other again.

The students, 14 in all, were involved with the Kent-Auburn-Tamba Sister City Organization, embarking on a summer of exploring each other’s cultures.

And the best way to do that, they were finding, was to jump into it – up to their proverbial eyeballs.

The group of seven Japanese teens – two boys and five girls – were wrapping up a nine-day stay at the homes of their newfound American friends. And the local teens – six boys and one girl – will be flying to Tamba City, Japan, June 12, to embark on a nine-day visit of their own.

“It was hard, but I know I’m going to see her again,” said student Celena Hansen, who with her mom, dad and sister, hosted Tamba student Aya Kishida.

Of their drive to the station that morning, where Kishida would meet the rest of her group and be driven to the airport for home, Hansen said, “we were making faces in the car, teaching each other songs.”

“It was too short,” chimed in Celena’s mother Christine Hansen, of the time Kishida was with the Kent family. “It was too short. The time we spent together was so dear.”

Celena, who started to cry, looked down at the letter Kishida had written her family, thanking them for their hospitality.

“It was very fun, nine days,” Kishida wrote on the loose-leaf paper, which she had decorated with stickers of Japanese pop stars. “Everyone isn’t absolute forgot. Thanks.”

Hugging, crying, and giving each other high-fives, the teens Tuesday morning were markedly different than the two groups who had shuffled into Kent City Hall July 29, two days into their exchange experience. While warm with each other, the two sets of students seemed a lot more hesitant, and it was obvious they were working around a significant language barrier.

“There’s been a little bit of a challenge,” said Janalyn McKeehan of Auburn, whose son Javan Chow was in the program, and who was hosting Tamba student Kana Yoden. Speaking during a break July 29 at Kent City Hall, after students met with Mayor Suzette Cooke, McKeehan said it was going to take some time to get comfortable with one another, an issue heightened by the two sets of languages.

“But they’re warming up,” she added. “You’ve got to get to know someone before using (their) language.”

For organizers of the exchange program, that’s just the kind of learning they want to see: appreciating a culture, one person at a time, beyond the barrier of mere words.

“I think our youth need to have an understanding of the world around them,” said Auburn resident Kim Isom, who is chairing the KAT Sister City Organization, and will be going to Tamba later this month as a chaperone.

People are people, she said. Even though their outward trappings and beliefs are different, there is that spark of commonality.

“Even though things may look different, people are the same,” she said. “Even though they’re from another part of the world, they’re still kids.”

Chaperone Yoshio Hisago, who was looking after the Tamba teens, said during their Kent City Hall visit that he wanted his teens to really begin understanding the concept of American culture. And being immersed in it was the best way to do that, he added.

“I want them to not only understand native English conversation, but also to understand American life and American culture through their host families,” he said. “We have stayed here only three days, but they are very happy.”

The smiles and commonality were evident throughout the day July 29, as the teens participated in several official visits – to the mayors of Kent and Auburn, as well as a welcoming banquet that evening in Auburn. With every break in the proceedings, the teens made an effort to connect with each other, through shared games, but with a lot of gesticulating to make up for the missing words.

By the end of the banquet, most of the adults were sitting at their tables, still talking, but the teens had gathered into a big circle, playing games with each other, and with their hosts’ brothers and sisters. The words may have sounded different to both groups, but the laughter was the same.

Auburn resident Dillon Hurley said he and his Tamba guest, Sho Hirose, were making a go of trying to understand the other.

“Initially it was very hard to communicate, because I know no Japanese, and he doesn’t know much English,” Hurley said. But the student acknowledged he wasn’t about to let that stop him from appreciating Hirose’s culture.

“Ever since I was a kid I’ve loved Japanese agriculture, architecture and food,” Hurley said.

As for having someone from a different culture in his home, Hurley said that for seven summers they hosted a teen from Belaruss, Russia.

“I’m used to it – it’s nothing new,” he said.

For their own experience, Tamba students Kishida and Yui Kayama said they were having a great deal of fun seeing American culture for the first time.

“Yeah! It’s very fun!” Kishida said during the July 29 break at Kent City Hall.

“They are very gentle,” she added of her host family.

One of the best experiences they’d had so far, the girls said, was the trip to a local water park.

And one of the things they noticed right off the bat, both girls added, were the large-sized portions of food they saw in American restaurants. With giggles and judicious typing on their handheld translating computer, they noted they were worried they might gain weight.

For another student, Cam Scotland of Auburn, a shared excitement about technology was a definite ice breaker with his guests, Takara Yamamoto and chaperone Yoshio Hisago.

His toy robot soon had the Tamba teen and the grownup focused and talking.

“My chaperone (Hisago) came in as we were playing with it,” Scotland said.

As for his own feelings about going overseas to Yamamoto’s family, Scotland, who’s taken two years of Japanese, and whose mother was born in Japan, said he wasn’t stressed about it.

“I’m not nervous, but excited,” he said, noting he hoped to put the experience to good use.

He wants to go to Japan to be a software engineer, “like my dad,” he added.

And now, with their Japanese visitors gone, the local teens are preparing for their visit to Tamba City, Japan.

“I’m not nervous at all,” Scotland said with a grin.

Look who’s going to Tamba

Local students participating in this year’s Tamba City, Japan visit:

• Cameron Scotland, Kentridge High School

• Celena Hansen, Kentwood High School

• Colton Johnson, Auburn Riverside High School

• Dillon Hurley, Auburn Mountainview High School

• Javan Chow, Auburn Riverside High School

• Reed Guisinger, Auburn Riverside High School

• Will Schwindt, Auburn Riverside High School

Students from Tamba City

• Nanami Toyoshima

• Sho Hirose

• Takara Yamamoto

• Minamo Hirai

• Aya Kishida

• Yui Koyama

• Kana Yoden

Learn more

• Tamba is an agricultural community located in the Hyogo Prefecture, Hansai region north of Kobe on the island of Honshu, Japan. It is also the name of a “super city” formed in 2003, by consolidating six cities in the region. One of those cities is Kaibara, with whom the City of Kent has had a long-time sister-city relationship of 40 years. Another of those six communities forming the super city of Tamba is Kasuga, with whom Auburn has had a sister-city relationship since 1964.

Contacts:

Visit: www.katsistercity.org

Japan Youth Ambassador Coordinator Kim Isom: icemanclan@msn.com

Auburn Sister Cities Liaison Duanna Richards: 253-931-3099, or drichards@auburnwa.gov