Japanese Students Visit in Exchange Program

Cultures from across the globe met at the Elks Lodge in South City Sunday night to welcome students from South San Francisco’s sister city Kishiwada, Japan.

The 14 students and six chaperones, who arrived Wednesday, were treated with dinner in a night of music, theater and dancing as part of the youth exchange program between South City and Kishiwada.

“I think this gives them a better understanding of how the world works,” said Bruce Wright, coordinator and former president of the Rotary Club. “I think it gives them a better understanding that people are the same around the world.”

Wright, along with local South San Francisco students, visited Kishiwada last year in keeping with the alternating annual visitation cycle that has been maintained by both cities for more than 15 years.

But while the city government funds the exchange program in Kishiwada, volunteers largely maintain the exchange program in South San Francisco.

“On their side, it’s a city project, on our side it’s a volunteer project,” Wright said.

The Rotary Club holds fundraisers in order for students to visit South City and learn about American culture from first-hand experience.

“It’s nice to study it in textbooks,” said Raul Aguilar, an Elks Lodge member. “But unless you can touch and feel it, it doesn’t make any sense.”

The offered the venue for Sunday's dinner, and the donated and served the meal. Aguilar said gatherings like Sunday night’s dinner are vital to continuing communication with international cities.

“It’s very important so that people know what each nation is like because we’re becoming more and more of a global city,” he said.

The dinner also acknowledged the generosity of the host families who have been offering their homes to the students for the past week.

“Tonight’s event is important for the host families to be recognized,” Wright said. “This is the only event where the host families can get together.”

Erna Facultad hosted a student from the exchange program after her son was able to visit Kishiwada in 2004.

“When he came back from the program he was a totally different person,” Facultad said of her son. “He became much more mature.”

Facultad said the excitement has made her feel young.

“The most exciting part is conversing and teaching them,” she said.

Yoshihiro Takita, a Japanese student in the exchange program, said it was his host family that eased his nervousness of travelling to the United States.

Takita spoke through an interpreter when he described of his appreciation to the Wright family for relieving his anxiety.

He said he had a great time at the dinner, and every time he looked around everyone was laughing.

The students of Kishiwada entertained guests as they sang the famous Sukiyaki song and performed a short skit in Japanese and English.

But Takita’s favorite part of Sunday night was dancing with the Basque dancers of the .

“The grammatical structure of Basque is very much like Japanese,” said Valerie Arrechea who led the group.

Students from the Basque Cultural Center performed several dances from various Basque regions to commemorate South City’s newest sister city, Saint Jean Pied de Port, France.

Arrechea noted the large Basque population of South San Francisco and the symbolic significance of becoming sister cities with a Basque region city.

“It means so much to us because we have very strong ties to where we came from,” Arrechea said. “To us, it is a very touching thing.”

In the last dance, the students of the Basque Cultural Center invited the Kishiwada students to join in a dance. Hand in hand they laughed and danced to the Basque music and clapping of spectators.

“Kids like to meet kids,” Wright said. “And they like to go shopping.”

On Monday the Kishiwada students will visit and to catch a glimpse at the teenage American culture.