This summer, in the biggest city on Earth, 10 Gallatin High School students could be spotted trudging up the Tokyo Tower, indulging in Japanese cuisine, learning about the island nation’s history, and forging new relationships all the while.
The cultural exchange, which devoted a week to Naha, Okinawa, was part of Gallatin’s sister school relationship with Naha Kokusai school on the small, southern island of Japan. The group also spent four days in Tokyo.
The inaugural exchange was coordinated by GHS teachers Logan Aytes and Colter Curey, who run the sister-school program. Aytes was approached for the role because of his enthusiasm for connecting students to exchange opportunities, a passion that stems from his formative years.
When Aytes was graduating college, he joined what he described as a “slapdash program” comprised of exiting Peace Corps members who worked with cacao cooperatives in Central America. The experience inspired him to join the Peace Corps himself, where he worked in Cambodia.
Curey, who was involved in the sister-school program at Bozeman High, was approached to become a cultural liaison. In the partnership’s early days, Curey’s classes interacted virtually with Naha Kokusai’s students, exchanging questions to foster mutual understanding.
Preceding Gallatin’s recent exchange, 20 students from Naha Kokusai visited GHS this March, attending classes and visiting local attractions. The students presented to Aytes’ world geography classes about Okinawa and taught the freshmen origami and Kanji script.
To cover the $5,000 price tag, students negotiated with parents, worked concession stands, and interviewed for jobs in fast food.
Before leaving Bozeman, Aytes ensured that the students would be acclimated to spending two weeks together. “Being the nerdy teacher I am … I gave them all a list of, like, 30 questions that they should ask each other.”
The list asked students to speak about everything from an experience that changed their opinions to the merits of living in space or in the ocean.
“I don’t think anybody actually used those,” said Aytes, lightheartedly.
During the week at Naha Kokusai, the GHS students attended classes and broke the language barrier at lunchtime. The independence the American teens experienced allowed for a “reinvention,” according to Aytes.
While Gallatin’s teachers were away interacting with Japanese teachers, Aytes noticed a confidence boost in shy students he had taught or coached with Curey on Gallatin’s tennis courts.
Catching students in post-exchange euphoria, participants chronicled the transformative nature of the trip.
“It was incredible to be welcomed by such friendly and enthusiastic people,” said Carina LeCain, who visited with her younger brother, Daniel. “I was treated as part of the family,” echoed Wade Stohlmann.
The LeCains were hosted by the Okinawan students they housed in March, lending a sense of camaraderie to the trip. Daniel and Carina noted the atmosphere of Naha Kokusai, including the indoor koi pond, friendly student body, and the intense academic focus. Daniel was impressed by the tea ceremony and karate demonstrations honoring the foreigners.
Stohlmann enjoyed playing sports with Japanese students and visiting the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, a group favorite.
“In Japan, people are less quick to judge than Americans, and they do so less harshly than Americans,” said Stohlmann, who brought back greater empathy for others.
This seemed to be the shared sentiment of interviewed students, including Carina LeCain, who said, “I will follow through in life with more of an intention to be kind.”
Participant Nora Leary visited the Okinawa Kingyo Museum, a space completely dedicated to goldfish, and teamLab Future Park, a light show museum. While in Naha, a city of more than 300,000, Leary noticed the collaborative nature of Japanese students and the respect shown to foreigners, inspiring her to travel more.
One highlight from Japan’s main island was visiting the open-air museum and geothermal features in the mountain town of Hakone. Getting to Hakone entailed taking three trains, including the Shinkansen high-speed train, and a rail car.
By the sunset of the trip, Colter Curey said teenagers learned that “stepping out of your comfort zone can be a good thing,” a life lesson hard to teach inside a conventional school.
Through their separate sister school in Okinawa, Bozeman High School will host 13 students from Yomitan High School in October. Japanese students will participate in student life, including watching a Hawks home football game, a highlight of past exchanges, according to liaison Lowell “Jim” Thompson. BHS will recruit community host families when school starts.
Megumi Matayoshi, an English teacher at Naha Kokusai, coordinates the sister school program at Gallatin and visited GHS this March.
“It was amazing. I felt like we were visiting Disney World,” she said of stepping into a land of snow, deer and squirrels.
Matayoshi flew back to Bozeman in late July to lead the Okinawa Global Leadership Program, organized by the Okinawa Board of Education and Montana State University. The educator helped to chaperone 22 Okinawan high school students who joined the program for classes focused on the English language and leadership skills.
The group visited the Museum of the Rockies and Yellowstone’s geological features, with students saying “they felt like the earth is alive.” The partnership also gives Matayoshi access to education about teaching students a second language.
In an interview at MSU, water dripping down their backs from a thunderstorm after the group was inadvertently been locked out of the College of Business, she spoke about the importance of cross-cultural exchange between Bozeman and Okinawa.
“If the sense of ‘us and them’ is strong, that can lead to conflicts like wars,” said Matayoshi, who has carved out time in her more than 11-hour workday to ensure the longevity of Gallatin’s relationship with Naha Kokusai. “People in the states or people in Okinawa, Japan — they’re all the same fundamentally. We smile when we’re happy, and we cry when we’re sad.”
AloJapan.com