LIVERMORE — The Livermore Yotsukaido Sister City Organization (LYSCO) has begun its 2025 program, with this year’s participants currently in Japan.
The group, composed of 20 Livermore eighth graders, eight delegates and five chaperones, departed from Livermore City Hall on Oct. 2 and arrived in Yotsukaido on Oct. 4.
The LYSCO Student Ambassador Program works to foster increased cultural understanding and exchange with Livermore’s sister city, Yotsukaido. The cities share many similarities, including population and socio-economic circumstances, as well as sprawling agricultural landscapes. Additionally, Yotsukaido is roughly an hour’s drive from Tokyo, about the same as Livermore from San Francisco.
“This is more than an exchange; it is a life-changing experience,” Livermore Mayor John Marchand said in a statement. “The LYSCO program creates lifelong friendships and fosters a greater understanding between our cultures, and I have had the privilege of seeing the remarkable impact it has on our participants firsthand.”
LYSCO was established in 1977 by former Livermore Mayor Helen Tirsell to open a shared communication and exchange of ideas with a city that was in a similar stage of development. Initially, the organization coordinated an exchange whereby every other year, a few selected adults would travel to Yotsukaido for about three days, and likewise, a small number of Yotsukaido natives would visit Livermore.
That continued for 25 years until a Yotsukaido native, Ted Okata, together with Bruce Wolfe, a former president and current delegate of LYSCO, spearheaded the LYSCO Student Ambassador Program.
Okata had attended Granada High School as an exchange student during his freshman, junior and senior years and proposed they work together to make the exchange a regular program, according to Wolfe.
“Around 2001, he reached out to me with the idea of an ambassador program that would take middle schoolers to Yotsukaido every year, and students from Yotsukaido to Livermore,” Wolfe said. “I thought it was a great idea and so together, we immediately got to work contacting both cities and not long after, the first student exchange was held during the 2001-2002 school year.”
The LYSCO student program has continued since, though it was put on hold in late 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It did not resume until 2024. For Livermore students, it marked a break of five years, whereas for Yotsukaido students, who traditionally come in the spring, it was six years.
This year, applications opened in March with 80 students interested, according to LYSCO delegate Lina Smith. Over the following three months, 20 applicants were selected through a rigorous process that began with a written application/interview and included an oral/panel interview in May.
The students selected are all eighth graders, with each Livermore school being represented, except St. Michael, which didn’t send any applications this year, according to Smith. Through the application and screening process, the organization chose students to represent Livermore in a positive light while learning a new culture.
“We’ve been practicing for eight weeks. We’ve been meeting to practice the language and do a roll call,” Smith said. “There’s been a lot of camaraderie between the students. For example, they’ve prepared a dance skit to perform at the welcome-night dinner.”
Students will be paired with host families that have students of similar ages. This will allow the Livermore and native students to attend school together and provide a way of comparing cultures and schools, while also identifying similarities.
“I’m looking forward to going to the school there and getting to embrace Japanese culture, especially calligraphy because I really like art,” said Charlie, a student from Mendenhall.
Although most of the Japanese students are learning English and the Livermore students have been taught basic phrases and key words in Japanese, they’re expected to use dictionaries and miming.
“So many times, I’ve been told by parents when their kids come home that they’re so much more mature and enriched by the experience, and the friendships they’ve made,” LYSCO president Keith Jess said.
The program will run through mid-October, at which point, the 20 Livermore students and 13 adults will return home with a richer knowledge of Japanese culture, new friends and likely lifetime memories.
To learn more about the Livermore Yotsukaido Sister City program and how to apply for the 2026 trip, visit: https://lyscoorg.wordpress.com/.
AloJapan.com