Do you want to dance Beyonce’s Texas Hold ‘Em line dance in front of the mayor of a Japanese city, the CEO of a Japanese corporation, the priest of a Buddhist temple, and roughly 80 other Japanese adults while they clap along to Queen Bey’s infectious beat? Do you want to wear a traditional Japanese yukata dress while dancing in the middle of a Japanese street parade at 9:00 p.m.with the wind whipping through your hair? (There is actually very little wind in southern Japan in July, but just imagine.) Do you want to learn how to make really good matcha green tea while kneeling on the floor of a Buddhist temple nestled in the rolling hills of Japan, and then ring a 10-foot gong signaling good luck for the new year?
If you said yes to any of these questions (or even if you didn’t), then you are in luck.
Every year, Fort Worth Sister Cities International partners with the Harashin Corporation of Japan and its CEO, Kazuhiko Hara, to send eight DFW students and two delegation leaders to Japan for 1o days, completely free of charge.
The Fort Worth students must write an essay detailing their desire to partake in the reciprocal exchange program and their competency to act as an ambassador of the United States, send in two letters of recommendation, and take part in a group interview.
The lucky eight students chosen are paired with a host family from the city of Nagaoka in southern Japan. The Japanese students come to Fort Worth for nine days at the end of July, and then the American students travel to Japan for 10 days.
This past summer, eight Fort Worth students were chosen–two from All Saints Episcopal School, two from Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts, one from Fort Worth Country Day, one from Paschal High School, one from Flower Mound High School, and one from Coram Deo Academy in Dallas.
They engaged in nine pre-trip meetings during the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024 to learn about Japanese culture, prepare to be a U.S. ambassador, make presentations, and plan for the Fort Worth branch of the reciprocal exchange program.
When the Japanese students arrived at DFW Airport at 10:40 a.m. on Saturday, July 20, 2024, they were greeted by 10 enthusiastic Texan families, each holding a custom welcome poster and donning a nice big American grin.
During the next nine days, the American host families managed to stuff every quintessential Texan activity, location, and food into the exchange itinerary.
They ate hot dogs and ice cream sandwiches at a Texas Rangers game (The Rangers won, obviously), rode earthquake simulators and gazed at gemstones in the Perot Museum of Dallas, shopped and ate pizza at Dallas’ Galleria Mall, toured the Texas Christian University and Tarrant County College campuses, learned about escaramuzas at the Cowgirl Museum, took line dancing lessons at Billy Bob’s Texas honky tonk, learned about American art at the Modern Museum and Kimbell Museum, toured the Fort Worth Zoo, watched the cattle drive and shopped in the Stockyards, took a hayride at a ranch in Lipan, Texas before eating s’mores over a bonfire, and ate Crumbl cookies at a cookout pool party.
Whew. That’s a lot.
In addition to all of the fun events already on the itinerary, each Japanese student had a few days alone with their host family where each family got to decide how to spend their time.
Some visited Bucees and Bass Pro Shops; some went to bowling alleys and arcades; some even ventured out to Dallas to watch theater performances and explore the city at night.
Overall, it was pretty fun.
“In Japan, I realized how much more there is to the world. I realized the different kinds of bonds you can make and the same things you can love. While the cultures have their differences, our similarities lie within how we love and care,” Isabella Rodriguez, a delegate from All Saints Episcopal School, said.
The Americans dropped their exchange students off at the DFW Airport on July 28, and many, MANY tears were shared. But not to worry, the Fort Worth delegates were back at the DFW airport just 2 days later on July 30, ready to hop on a 12-hour flight to Japan.
Well, most of them were ready. Some had to purchase a Starbucks double shot espresso cold brew with vanilla sweet cream cold foam and download 20 episodes of “The Office” before they really felt prepared, but to each their own.
The Fort Worth group passed time on the plane by re-watching “Challengers,” “500 Days of Summer,” and Heybear baby sensory videos, applying press-on nails, playing card games, chatting, and sleeping. Then on July 30, 2024, the delegation arrived at the Tokyo Haneda Airport and took a train to Nagaoka Station in Nagaoka, Japan.
Exhausted, the Americans were greeted by their host families and taken home to sleep in a bed for the first time in two days.
On the first day, the delegation met at Nagaoka City Hall and took part in the annual Japanese Peace Ceremony, where survivors of the 1945 air strikes spoke, junior high school students sang, and Russian and Ukrainian bands played music. They ate sandwiches and salads at Meli-Melo, then went to the War Memorial Museum and the Japanese Old House Museum. They then took a Japanese language lesson and got dressed in traditional Japanese yukatas (like a kimono). After a 2-hour long dance class, they walked down to the city center and began dancing alongside hundreds of other Japanese groups in a nighttime parade signifying the start of the Hanabi Festival. (This is the wind-whipped hair part mentioned at the beginning.)
The next day, the delegates toured the brand-new Nagaoka library and ate gyoza and iced coffee for lunch at Nagaoka station. They took part in a disaster-prevention workshop where they learned about the Chuetsu earthquake of 2011 and the measures Nagaoka took to mitigate the damage and rebuild their beautiful city. That night, delegates separated to spend time with their host families. Most students got to see the world-renowned Hanabi Fireworks Festival that night, which everyone agreed was an unparalleled experience.
The next two days were spent apart from the other students, and the Japanese host families got to choose how to spend their time with their American counterparts.
Two families went to the Hotokusan Inari Inner Shrine, some went to the seaside beaches and ate coffee honey ice cream while listening to a jazz band play, others took pictures at the Purikura photo booth, shopped at Nagaoka station, sang karaoke in the city, and a lucky few got to see the fireworks festival a second night in a row.
The students met again on Monday and drove to the rice paddies in the Japanese mountains. There, they learned about rice cultivation and the Chuetsu Earthquake at a roadside museum, ate school lunch at a junior high school, and learned about Japanese agriculture in a Buddhist temple. They took part in a traditional tea ceremony, learning how to make strong matcha tea and hold the cup in such a way that shows respect for the tea host, and then everyone went outside and took turns ringing a gong and watching koi fish swim in a nearby pond.
The next day everyone went to the incredible Niigata Prefectural Museum, where they explored exhibits focusing on life in a snowy land and the Jomon period in Japan. They toured the Nagaoka University of Technology and the Nagaoka Institute of Design and then went to the Harashin headquarters, where they were met by a line of Harashin employees all clapping and congratulating them on their adventure. They listened to Kazuhiro Hara, CEO of Axial Retailing Services and benefactor of the Harashin exchange, speak about his experience leading the summer program, and everyone exchanged gifts.
Next, the students went to Mayor Tatsunobu Isoda’s office, where I and Hiyori Mizusawa of Nagaoka gave speeches to Mayor Tatsunobu, Kazuhiro Hara, and about 25 photographers and members of the Japanese press who collectively decided that this was the right day to embarrass a poor Texan girl who does NOT like public speaking and was struggling to use Japanese words in her speech.
Haha, no biggie. (It was a biggie.)
The students finished off their night by joining the 30th Anniversary Event of the Harshin program, where the Japanese students sang a traditional Japanese song in front of a beautiful slideshow of their time in Fort Worth, and the American students danced to the Texas Hold ‘Em by Beyonce, probably giving off the impression that this was a traditional, classic American dance. (And, isn’t it, really?)
The next morning, students took a kendo class, where they learned the history of kendo and got to whack men on the head with long sticks while screaming really, really loud. That night, everyone went to karaoke, where they heard some really good (and really bad) renditions of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” and the Glee version of “Hopelessly Devoted to You.”
On the final morning in Nagaoka, the students cooked takoyaki and gave presentations on Kazuhiro Hara’s “Three Things” mantra, detailing first the similarities between the United States and Japan, then the differences, and finally potential cause of these differences, and how it changed people’s perspectives of their own lives. The general consensus was the Americans were much louder, fatter, and more confident than the Japanese. At least that’s what the Japanese students said.
The families went to Nagaoka station and said their final goodbyes, exchanged presents and shared tears as the American students hopped (moped) onto a train back to Tokyo. After a few subway rides, one lost student, and one trip to the hotel, everyone got dinner at a restaurant that brought food out by robot machines, which was insane.
Some purchased the all-you-can-eat dinner and stayed at the restaurant for hours until all the food was gone, and others got soup dumplings and then stopped at the corner store for a quick ice cream dessert before returning to the hotel and watching TV and going to bed before 10:00 p.m.
Everyone woke up early the next morning to take the subway to the airport and get a quick iced coffee before boarding Japan Airlines flight 012 back to DFW. They collectively agreed that the 12-and-change hour flight was the worst. (Like actually the worst. The in-flight meal was a tuna sandwich.)
That being said, those who were still awake at the end of the flight got to watch the sunrise from 40,000 feet in the air, which was pretty unbeatable.
After a quick trip through customs, everyone raced to their families and said their goodbyes before heading home.
“I cried so hard after your train left,” Airi Nakayama, a Japanese delegate, said.
Hours of working on applications, prepping for the interview, and begging teachers for last-minute recommendations, months of attending meetings and working on a presentation that was ultimately never shown, days of planning activities to entertain exchange students, and just like that, it was over.
But not to fret, everyone gained many new friends, dozens of new souvenirs, hundreds of new pictures, and countless new memories of the life-changing trip.
So now the questions must be asked again:
Do you want to dance Beyonce’s Texas Hold ‘Em line dance in front of the mayor of a Japanese city, the CEO of a Japanese corporation, the priest of a Buddhist temple, and roughly 80 other Japanese adults while they clap along to Queen Bey’s infectious beat? Do you want to wear a traditional Japanese yukata dress while dancing in the middle of a Japanese street parade at 9 pm with the wind whipping through your hair? (There is actually very little wind in southern Japan in July, but just imagine.) Do you want to learn how to make really good matcha green tea while kneeling on the floor of a Buddhist temple nestled in the rolling hills of Japan, and then ring a 10-foot gong signaling good luck for the new year?
And also, do you want to make seven new friends from Texas and eight new friends from Japan? Do you want to experience first-hand a culture so different from that of the United States that challenges your pre-existing perspectives and allows you to push past your own biases? Do you want to try new foods and listen to new music and watch a world-renowned fireworks show?
Hopefully, you answered “yes” to at least one of these questions.
Regardless, if you want to apply for any of Fort Worth Sister Cities’ trips to Nagaoka, Japan; Reggio Emilia, Italy; Nimes, France; Guiyang, China; Mbabane, Eswatini; Trier, Germany; or Budapest, Hungary, you can consult the Fort Worth Sister Cities International website, talk to Chelsy Beninate, Director of International Studies at FWCD, Nara Acuña Guba ’25 or GiGi Helling ’26, or you can attend the FWSCI Youth Board’s event on Sunday, October 6 from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at the Carl Everett Administration Building in Fort Worth.
Members of the youth board, led by Acuna Guba as President, Helling as Vice President, and Sean Hong ’27 as Secretary, will set up booths and stations to showcase each of Fort Worth’s Sister Cities. You can attend the event for as long as you want and learn about many international cities and trips.
The deadline to apply for Sister Cities trips is on Friday, October 18, 2024, and all information can be found on the FW Sister Cities website. So don’t waste an opportunity to have a life-changing experience like this one, and obviously, to ring a gong or dance the Texas Hold ‘Em.
