The Bloomington-Normal Asahikawa Sister Cities Committee has hosted junior ambassadors from Asahikawa, Japan, over the last week for the first time since 2019.
Haruka Ohashi, 13, and Soraki Naitou, 14, were among the four students who visited Bloomington-Normal with a full itinerary. They ate at Tony’s Tacos, visited the Mclean County Museum of History, met both the cities’ mayors and visited Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium on their last day.
“The mayors were very nice,” Ohashi said. “I was also able to make a really nice stuffed animal and eat many different foods, so it’s been a really nice experience.”
Ohashi has an older sister, Sana, who is a year-long exchange student attending Normal West high school.
“When my sister left for America, I was pretty sad. But after one year of living in America, she’ll be speaking English,” Ohashi said.
Jeffrey Kroesch, chairman of the sister cities committee, also works at Normal West. He said it has never been easier to learn in a new language.
“Many people in Blo-No are more than happy to help, are non-judgmental about the language barrier, and really just want to see the students succeed and be happy,” Kroesch said.
Exchange students participate in class and are held to the same grading standards as the rest of the student body. They also have the director of the exchange program to directly check in with, and Normal West assigns a guidance counselor to the exchange student. Normal West is currently hosting other exchange students from several countries.
While Ohashi has visited America and other countries before, it is Naitou’s first time leaving Japan.
“I was very nervous at first, but when I came everyone was so nice to me,” Naitou said. “I was relieved and able to enjoy myself.”
Naitou hopes to live abroad after school, visit other countries and learn new languages.
“It's very different than Japan. They have a very different lifestyle here and a very deep history,” Naitou said. “We felt a sense of community.”
Kroesch said Bloomington-Normal is an ideal community to bring in exchange students and the committee plans to revitalize the program post-pandemic. Exchange students typically stay with host families, just as Ohashi and Naitou are for their week in Bloomington-Normal. Post-pandemic, many families’ living and financial situations changed and the committee is currently working to rebuild its network of host families.
The committee tries to expose exchange students to different households and living styles in America.
“It’s all part of the American experience, to see that not every household is the same,” Kroesch said.
The committee is organizing a trip to Asahikawa in June and Kroesch will be staying with a host family that hosted the previous chairman during his college exchange program.
“This is actually the 62nd year of our cities’ relationship with Asahikawa,” Kroesch said. “Many members of the committee are multi-generational. This program has an amazing history of connecting our two communities, and I really want to see that continue.”
