TRURO, N.S. — Caelan Shaw’s first impression of Japan: A country with squeaky-clean streets and high-tech transport.
“It was different, because for once I wasn’t the only Asian in the room,” said Shaw, who is of Chinese descent.
Shaw was one of 20 Cobequid Educational Centre students who participated in the Yamate Gakuin Exchange Program. The summer holiday exchange ran from July 19 to Aug. 3.
Students stayed with local host families in and around the port city of Yokohama, itself part of the Greater Tokyo Area, whose population is nearly 40 million people.
Shaw stayed in a Yokohama suburb that was a small town by Japanese standards, but a huge culture shock for the Truro teen. The 'town’ was full of apartment buildings and Shaw saw vending machines nearly everywhere she turned.
“It’s weird, their version of a small town is like Halifax,” said Shaw, a Grade 11 student. “It’s busy but you can’t hear everything, because it’s quiet.”
Fellow student Ryan Glidden-McKay enjoyed going to baseball games with his host family, as well as checking out noisy video game arcades.
Away from the hustle and bustle of downtown Yokohama, Glidden-McKay also enjoyed the tranquility of museums and Buddhist temples.
For food, he sampled the local dish of shabu shabu, a sliced meat and vegetable broth served in a bowl.
The language barrier was a challenge, but Glidden-McKay received translation help from his host family’s American cousins.
“(I felt) a bit out of place, as they were all talking and I’m just sitting there listening to music, because I didn’t know any Japanese,” said Glidden McKay, who is in Grade 11.
Sadie Thompson, for her part, nearly saw Mt. Fuji, but it was covered in clouds.
Nonetheless, she enjoyed the everyday minutiae of Japanese culture. Her host family’s home was smaller than a Canadian house, but the open-concept interior offered more space.
Luckily for her, there was less of a language barrier as her host family spent a few months in Toronto and picked up some English. Google Translate also came in handy, while Thompson picked up a little ‘survival Japanese’.
The Grade 12 student still looked different from the locals, wearing a bright orange t-shirt emblazoned with her exchange program’s logo.
“You feel different,” said Thompson. “I think you get stared at sometimes. I’m tall for Japanese people, so that was also weird.”
However, she enjoyed the polite hospitality of her host family who even took her to the Tokyo DisneySea theme park.
“I wish I could go back,” said Thompson.
Truro previously hosted 40 students from Yokohama’s Yamate Gakuin school back in April.
