Japan Chronicle of European High School Students - To Them, it's Still a Wondrous Zipangu!

In a big public hall in Tokyo, high school exchange students from many European countries gave speeches. These students came to Japan to stay with host families for 5 months, and their faces still show naivety. For great occasions like this, the teachers from their schools and their peers came to cheer for them.

In most of their speeches, the exchange students recalled how astounded they were to see great old buildings, temples and shrines. Mathias from Austria says he had a very strange and unique feeling when he was out walking and bumped into "beautiful little shrines in the middle of bustling streets," "you see a high-tech massage chair on tatami mats," or "women in kimonos in subways." He commented that this is the attraction of "having tradition and modernity living next to each other."

Stephanie, a German homestay girl living in Saga, was once taken shopping by her host family. She was impressed to see "hot water in a pot in every convenience store in order to let customers eat their food instantly." But then she was surprised to see "Japanese people come to a shopping center to lie in a massage chair and take a nap and then leave after an hour or so without even thinking of buying it!"

A Slovenian student, Polona, who is staying in Osaka, says she "had a hard time taking a train during rush hour" when she visited Tokyo, shouting, "I could hardly breathe!" Polona is fond of Japanese animation and manga. She was very happy to see Otaku and costume players, stressing "it was exactly what I expected!" Polona's only questions is, "how do Japanese manage to survive without central heating in winter?"

There is one thing most of the students commented about. Max, a French student, told the audience, "students in Japanese schools sleep at their desks during classes," a comment that caused much laughter in the hall. He continued, "We get busted when we chat during class, but the teachers here say nothing at all when we sleep." The teachers who were present could not help but smile bitter smiles.

All the exchange students looked as if they could not stop laughing and giggling, or shouting things when they were together with their classmates. Sharing the time together during their susceptible period of adolescence, they yelled at each other, "Sha-mail! Sha-mail! (let's take photos!)"in Japanese. They immediately start exchanging e-mail addresses when they meet students from other schools. Short conversations such as, "I will e-mail you, definitely!" "Ok!" are exchanged everywhere.

Japanese families are still hesitant to become host families
This program is called, "JESEP 2006 (Japanese-European High School Student Exchange Program 2006)" and is sponsored by the European Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan. Programs such as this have brought large numbers of students from abroad to Japan. The number of foreign students is increasing, but the number of Japanese families willing to host them at home is not increasing in an even proportion.

According to SEKINE Mari, an Exchange Program Coordinator of Keimei Gakuen, "Japanese families are still hesitant about accepting foreign exchange students into their homes due to the characteristic of Japanese people of caring and being too concerned about things. Many families will accept a foreign student for a short stay, such as a month, but not many families are willing to do it for a longer stay.? Mari added that they feel bad for the students especially when they do not speak English or the students" native language.

The exchange students, on the other hand, seemed touched with each family's warm expressions of hospitality. Most said, "My host family, classmates and the teachers are so nice," and "they treated me just like their own child." A British student, Victoria, who stayed with a family in Kochi, was amazed to see in her Japanese peers, "how everyone is constantly working hard and trying their best; the concept of 'gambare' was impressive, though I could not follow it in the beginning."

It seemed that the European students enjoyed their exciting stay in wondrous Zipangu (Japan) to a great extent. The family that hosted Paulina from Poland says, "we feel familiar with Poland now because of Paulina." Globalization is undergoing rapid progress in Japan. Homestays can be the best way to promote international relations through grass-roots exchanges.

Interview cooperation:
The Japan Association for Cultural Exchange (ACE Japan)
www.acejapan.or.jp/index-j.html

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