A group of local youths visited Japan in July, and some Japanese teens came to town this month as part of the long-running Sister City Program involving Livingston and Naganohara, Japan.
The Japanese children, who were all 14 years old, kicked off their visit to Livingston with a trip to the Peace Garden in 9th Street Park on the morning of Aug. 1. They were welcomed by Livingston City Commission Chair Quentin Schwarz, Commissioner James Willich, and City Manager Grant Gager.
The Naganohara residents visited Yellowstone National Park, floated the Yellowstone River, went tent camping, toured Lewis and Clark Caverns, and more.
The Enterprise asked the Japanese students what they thought of Livingston and its environs. Speaking through a translator, one of them said, “Too large” — a reference to the comparison of Livingston/Park County with their home. Naganohara is 51.7 square miles and includes the core settlement and surrounding rural land, which are relatively compact, with other towns or cities not far away.
Park County is enormous by comparison — 2,813 square miles. It’s also drier than Naganohara and colder in the morning, the Japanese teens noted. One youth observed Livingston also is more expensive. This is partly because the yen is weaker against the dollar, said one of their chaperones, Katsuko Kobayashi.
“The people are very friendly,” Kobayashi said, translating a teen’s assessment of Livingston residents.
Local youths who visited Japan July 6-18 told the Enterprise they saw many temples, rode on an aquatic bus, visited museums, went to a zoo, saw some of Tokyo, toured some schools, went to hot springs, browsed a mall, ventured into a tomb/cemetery, and took part in activities such as archery and judo. They also enjoyed sushi at a restaurant where meals were brought forth on a conveyer belt — a sushi train.
Their journey to Japan involved catching a flight from Bozeman to Minneapolis, then a flight to Tokyo that took 11 to 12 hours, according to Julia Kerr, a local 16-year-old who was among the group of travelers.
Also among the Livingston tourists was Justin Earl, 14, who recounted what it was like in Japan.
“Obviously it was humid,” he said. “The skies were grey from air pollution — not like Montana. The people were respectful… quieter. It was noticeably quieter than in America.”
He said children in Japan begin learning English in the first grade.
Japanese people — including adults — watch a lot of anime films and TV shows, and a lot of soccer and baseball, he said.
In Japan there’s a law requiring that depictions of food on packages be faithful to the actual size of the food, according to Earl.
“Everything has to be the exact size and color that it is,” he said. “You’d hold it up to the package, and it would literally be exactly the same.”
At a temple, the Livingston teens tried out some Buddhist meditation techniques for about 20 minutes, according to Earl.
“It felt like longer,” he said.
The meditation consisted of sitting cross-legged on a cushion while observing one’s thoughts, Earl recalled.
“If you’re overthinking … you just let those thoughts happen,” he said.
The Japanese children he encountered were quieter than Americans, more respectful, and they looked up to their parents to a greater degree, Earl said.
Of the food he tried in Japan, his favorite consisted of tomato-flavored, pretzel-like sticks.
“They sound kind of weird, but they were really good,” Earl said.
Like Americans, Japanese are having less children, and this trend caused Naganohara to consolidate its two schools into one — an echo of what happened with Livingston’s now-closed Washington School in recent years. As for Naganohara’s remaining unused school, it’s being transformed into an English-language campus open to students from all over Japan, according to Yasuyuki Takada, who is on the school board in Naganohara. Students there will be able to study all subjects in English, he said.
One of the other chaperones for the Japanese students, Katsuko Kobayashi, said residents of Naganohara hope the infusion of young people by way of the new school will help the city thrive. The school will have an enrollment of about 100 students initially and open in April 2026, according to Takada.
The Sister City Program is entirely operated by volunteers and privately sustained, subsisting on donations and fundraising events.
“In October, we will celebrate 35 years of friendship with Naganohara,” wrote City Manager Grant Gager in a recent city newsletter. “Much of this success is thanks to the leadership and dedication of Donna Pace, who has guided the program for almost 2 decades.”
Pace, who passed away the first weekend of this month, was indeed the backbone of the Sister City Program, according to her friend, Bev Sandberg, a volunteer for the program. Pace, who was in her 70s, retired from First Interstate Bank and used to work at Chico Hot Springs as a waitress. She also was involved in a catering business and worked in the film industry doing behind-the-scenes kind of work. She had a degree in film from MSU.
Pace also was the treasurer for the Blue Slipper Theatre and volunteered at the Shane Center. She was a bookkeeper and served as St. Andrew’s treasurer for about the last 20 years.
“She was in a lot of plays, too,” Sandberg said. “She just liked being around people, she loved it.”
In addition to the work of its volunteers both in Livingston and in Japan, the Sister City Program has been kept strong by the cities’ mutual affection, Sandberg indicated.
“We really love the people from Japan,” she said. “I mean, they are amazing.”
As is the tradition, the Japanese visitors prepared food for a final communal dinner held at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church on Aug. 8. Attendees included the visitors, Livingston teens who went to Japan last month and their families, and volunteers for the program.
Among the volunteers were Richard Lund and his wife, Janet Lee, who themselves visited Naganohara in 2013 with others from Livingston. Lee’s youngest son went to Japan as part of the Sister City Program in 2005.
“I loved it over there,” Lee said.
She found the Japanese language to be difficult, and noticed her hosts were reticent to try out their English because they didn’t want to communicate badly or make mistakes.
“It is a very clean, very well-organized culture,” Lund said.
The couple noticed it was harder to find dairy products in Naganohara such as cheese and sour cream, but eggs and milk were plentiful.
Bread was nowhere to be found there, with the local carb of choice instead being rice, the couple indicated.
“They don’t have ovens,” Lee said. “Baked goods are nonexistent.”
Naganohara has lots of vegetables and fruit: corn, tomatoes, cabbage, cucumbers, eggplant, apples, grapes, persimmons, and more. One farmer had a particularly ingenious way of organizing his cabbage crops so that the vegetables — which were bigger than bowling balls — matured in sections just as his buyers needed to be restocked, according to Lund.
Lee said the Sister City Program could use more volunteers and welcomed assistance from community members. The program also needs a van or bus so that visitors from Japan and their hosts can travel more easily to Yellowstone National Park, Lee said.
“That’s a real biggie rather than six cars,” she said.
The Sister City Program is open to all Livingston students who are at least 12 and not over 15 years old as of Sept. 1 and who attend school in Livingston or homeschool there.
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