Last month I became the first college student to represent Hot Springs in the sister
city program with Hanamaki, Japan. The purpose of my trip was to help establish the
new sister school relationship between National Park College and Fuji University.
Hot Springs and Hanamaki formally established their sister city relationship in January
of 1993 and for the past twenty-seven years the two cities have exchanged delegations
of high school students on an annual basis. Our local colleges had never been connected
in such a way until this past December.
For two weeks, I spent time interacting with faculty and students of Fuji University
while also having the privilege of participating in cultural events in the city. These
cultural events ranged from trying on a traditional kimono, to making soba noodles
from scratch. It even included eating a tall ice cream cone with only a pair of wooden
chop sticks, which happened to be a major local tradition. Each day brought multiple
new and exciting experiences. I continuously picked up new Japanese words and began
to understand more of the local customs.
I spent a great amount of time exploring Fuji University and learning about the lives
of Japanese college students. The faculty greeted me warmly and the students were
eager to learn about Hot Springs and National Park College. Every day I met new students
who would lead me around the campus and partner with me during group activities in
class. Students also joined me on many of my cultural outings to help me get a better
understanding of local customs and guided me around each place. I observed a wide
variety of classes including Business English, Sports Psychology, and graduate level
Economics. In every single class, students were eager to learn more about National
Park College and Hot Springs while also excitedly sharing information about their
own homes. I gave many presentations about our college and our city in addition to
engaging in panel discussion about our sister city bond and our newly established
sister school relationship.
My exchange was truly a life changing one. I had the once in a lifetime chance to
completely immerse myself into another culture and view the world through a different
pair of lenses. I still find myself slipping my shoes off at the door and carrying
a handkerchief in my pocket on the rare occasion that I will need it. From time to
time, I crave an odd Japanese delicacy that seems impossible to replicate in the U.S.,
and I still find chop sticks to be more efficient on certain occasions. International
travel is eye opening in so many ways. To see the world from the perspective of a
culture so different from my own suddenly made the world feel so much bigger. I am
so excited for this new sister school relationship and I am eager to see how much
of an impact this trip will have on future students.
