Narita Diary: Parkside Delegation Reflects on Sister City Trip

Editor's Note: San Bruno and Narita, Japan, have had a sister city relationship since 1990. For years, the cities have been participating in a student exchange program. A group of students came here in March. Earlier this month, students from Parkside Intermediate and their chaperones took their trip to Narita. Bob Darling, a Parkside teacher, was one of the chaperones.

The group consisted of myself, representing Parkside, Greg Pierce, representing the city—he is on the Parks and Rec Commission and the sister city committee—and Salina Welsh, representing the PTA.

Salina's daughter was on this trip, and her eldest daughter went two years ago. She has also hosted students from Narita when they came to San Bruno in March.

The students were Juan Nunez, Greg Dellanini, Paul Diaz, Ellie Welsh, Claudia Severi and Izzy Bocanegra-Speed.

We arrived on Friday evening, June 29. The official program did not begin until Sunday afternoon, but we arrived early to get our group acclimated.

On Saturday we took the students by train to Tokyo to see a few sights. The students enjoyed riding the trains and subways and seeing a few things in a large city.

The official program began on Sunday, July 1. We all went to the Narita city hall, where the students were introduced to their host families.

That night, they began their home stays. All students except for Greg switched host families at least once. Many families wanted to host!

On Monday morning we all paid a courtesy visit to city hall. We met with the mayor, city council members and superintendent of schools. Each student gave an introductory speech in Japanese, which was well received by the city officials. The students had been practicing this speech for over a month with a Japanese tutor.

We then toured an agricultural high school and visited a fire station.

That evening a party was hosted for us by the Narita International Friendship Society. The students performed a dance routine that they had practiced to show some American culture.

Tuesday, the students spent the day at school with the students they were staying with. The students got to sit in on classes and in the English class to play an active role in the lesson. In the afternoon they participated in club activities.

Wednesday, we visited a farm with games for the kids and an automobile college, where the students got to take a lap in a few fast cars.

Thursday, we went to Tokyo by bus to see some other sites.

Friday, we visited the Naritasan shin shoji Buddhist temple.

Then, we participated in the Gion Festival. The festival has been going on for over a hundred years. It consists of 10 districts in Narita pulling their large floats, which are called Dashis. They all start at the temple where there is a ceremony to bless the Dashis before each goes out of the temple grounds and tours through their part of the city. The festival lasts for three days.

Each Dashi weighs a few thousand pounds and has people on top of it dancing, beating drums and playing flutes. The Dashi are pulled by two large ropes by many people. I think the students enjoyed the teamwork and effort it took to pull the Dashi.

That evening the group went to Dai-ji-on-ji buddhist temple. The head monk, who visited San Bruno in March, had a BBQ prepared for us all. That night they had some traditional Japanese dances and we all spent the night at the temple. The boys and girls from our group were joined by some of their Japanese friends. They each had separate rooms in the temple and slept in a traditional Japanese style on tatami mats.

We awoke early Saturday morning and did zen Buddhism meditation for 20 minutes. The students then had breakfast and learned how to pound mochi. That afternoon they returned to their host families and all went to Tokyo Disney.

Sunday was the last day. The students were with their host families during the day and then came to city hall for a farewell party. At the party each member of our group spoke about their experiences in Narita. The students all teared up as they spoke. They were definitely going to miss their host families.

We then loaded up onto the bus and had all of the people from the party wave goodbye to us as we drove to the airport.

Leaving was bittersweet for the students. While they had become very attached to their host families and friends, they also were very excited to return home to their families and friends in San Bruno.

I think they were also missing the comforts and foods of home. I was told by Mrs. Welsh that they were all excited to eat Mexican food at LAX.

I had the students write a few notes down before they left. Here are their words: 

"Japan is one of the best places I've been to. One of the best things to do is to have fun with your host families. The other amazing things to do are to go to many places like the fire station and NATS College, which is where they make and drive cars. Every day is busier than what you do in California. The last thing is the bad part because you have to say bye to your host families, and that's when the tears start to come out of your eyes."  

"In Japan I experienced lots of new things. I saw things like the sky tree and a famous temple called Asakusa. I am and was very honored to be a part of this Narita sister city program."

"I thought the Narita trip was great. All the activities were awesome! We did a lot of fun stuff and I would highly recommend the trip." 

"When I went to Japan I saw temples, museums and a fish market. I had a lot of fun going to Japan. The host families were really nice. And they wouldn't let me buy anything. I was really trying to give them money, but they wouldn't take it so I was mad." 

"This was the best experience of my life. I want to go back so badly!"