Japan Students Visit Chelsea

Fifteen Japanese teenagers, three chaperones, and a translator have been visiting Chelsea this week as a part of the Sister Cities Exchange Program between Chelsea and Shimizu, Hokaido, in northern Japan. Staying with host families to learn first hand about the United States, the Japanese youngsters have been accompanying their host "brothers" and "sisters" to classes at Beach Middle School and Chelsea High School. While the adult teachers have taken the opportunity to learn more about how we teach and learn in this country, the teens have discovered that people can have fun together even when they do not speak the same language.

An opening ceremony and potluck dinner were held last Saturday at Beach with greetings presented by Bill Wescott, Principal and Scott Broshar, head of the Chelsea School Board. Takeshi Furakawa, a 10th grade teacher from Shimizu, spoke in English on behalf of the visitors. Sunday was free time for the students to spend with their families. Some had the opportunity to attend American church services. Others went skating or shopping. Two of the guests even attended an Indian pow wow at Eastern Michigan University. That same evening, Chelsea parents hosted a pumpkin carving party, hotdog roast and bonfire complete with melted chocolate "s'mores." The remainder of the week was taken up with experiences in the Chelsea-Ann Arbor area designed to give the guests a flavor of life in Michigan. Wednesday was spent at the Henry Ford Museum and wandering around the Fairlane Mall. Thursday included sights of interest at the University of Michigan with a closing ceremony and catered dinner tonight at the Chelsea Depot. Tomorrow morning the group departs from Detroit Metro for their return trip home.

The Sister Cities Program has significant support in Japan from the schools as well as the government, according to Karen Misenheimer, the tireless coordinator of the weeks activities in Chelsea. Living in a country, whose geographical isolation and unique culture tend to limit contacts with other industrialized nations, young Japanese have little knowledge of America beyond hip-hop music and TV serials. American young people know even less about the Japanese. The Sister Cities Program attempts to remedy that for two small but quite similar towns a half world apart.

Chelsea's involvement with Sister Cities began when Brian Oakley (CHS Class of 1986) proposed the idea to late Superintendent of Schools, Joe Piasecki. Having taught English at the middle school in Shimizu, he was struck by the similarity between the towns and the surrounding agricultural lands. In 1993, he visited Chelsea with two officials of the Shimizu School Board. The following October the first students arrived. Since that time, a group of young people from Japan have visited Chelsea every October, staying with host families and being exposed to the American way of life, from breakfast cereals to backyard cookouts to hanging out at the mall. This past June, for the fifth consecutive year, middle schoolers from Beach and four adult chaperones flew to Japan. They toured the historic temples, shrines and fortresses of ancient Kyoto, and then flew to the northern island of Hokaido. There they were welcomed to Shimizu by the mayor, the head of the city council, and several prominent school board leaders. They were adopted by a host, who took the Americans into their homes where they "ate and breathed Japanese" for one week. During the day, the teens shadowed their "brother" or "sister" for a part of the school schedule. They also visited with children in a pre-school and an elementary, sharing a typical school lunch with them. Lessons in Japanese calligraphy, origami and kendo sword fighting were a part of the week, as were an evening at a Buddhist temple complete with Zen meditation, a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, and fireworks in the parking lot. By the end of the week, 14 Chelsea young people were proficient with chopsticks, eagerly shopping for kimonos and ceremonial swords, and regularly bowing to adults whenever they entered or left the room.

The most recent participants from Chelsea visiting Shimizu last summer were Jennifer Adams, Virginia Bailey, Sarah Brigham, Kyle Brown, Carly Daniels, Caitlin Dark, Jeff Deikis, Genny Gourley, Julie Inwood, Emily Leidner, Erin McLaughlin, Rachel Misenheimer, Jessica Percha, and Mark Tapping. Chaperones were Ann Daniels, Nancy Brown, John Deikis and Karen Misenheimer. Liaisons for the program, which is encouraged, but not officially sponsored, by Chelsea Schools, are Beach teachers Andrea Maines and Carol Strahler. The Chelsea-Shimizu Fund is administered by Deborah Oakley and has been supported in the past by the Chelsea Education Foundation, the Rotary Club, various Chelsea merchants, and fundraisers organized by the students themselves. For more information on the Chelsea-Shimizu Sister Cities Program, contact Deborah Oakley.

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