Toshishige Yamasaki, Career Advisor at Itoshima High School

Nishinippon Newspaper (Western Japan Newspaper) January 16. American Students Swear Friendship in Indian ink. Three high school students with two teachers of Murrieta Valley High School in California, USA, visited Itoshima High School (Principal Tokuhiro Haruta) in Shinohara, Maebaru City on January 15th. The two high schools have had an exchane program for the last five years. The students and teachers of Itoshima High School host the five Americans. On the morning of 15th, the stars and stripes were hoisted in front of the main building, and the whole students welcomed the visitors in the welcome ceremony. The president of the student body, Hiroshi Ogawa (17) greeted the visitors in English: "Good international understanding is the key to the peaceful world in the 21st century. Please enjoy some cultural lessons such as calligraphy, tea ceremony, and Judo practice." After the welcome ceremony, the girls from Murrieta Valley High School took part in a Calligraphy class. They prepared Indian ink and drew the words, "friendship" and "kindness" with an Indian brush. "It's quite interesting," they said as they enjoyed their first Calligraphy lesson. The American High School students are planning to stay here until the 19th. They will not only practice hiragana and tea ceremony at Itoshima but will visit Minakaze Elementary School and Maebaru City Hall.

Mainichi Shinbun (Daily Newspaper) January 19th in 2001 Three girls from Murrieta Valley High School in Murrieta City, California, USA, which has been on an exchange program with Fukuoka Prefectural Itoshima High School (Principal Tokuhior Haruta) in Shinohara, Maebaru City, paid a visit to Maebaru City Mayor Yoshihide Haruta. The two schools started the exchange program in 1996, each school having dispatched the students five times. Sarah von Sydow (16), Courtney Lipps (16), Jaclyn Rooney (16) are accompanied by Murrieta Valley High School Principal Mr. Mark Johnson. They have been staying at the homes of Itoshima High School students since January 12th. During the stay in Fukuoka, they attend Itoshima's regular lessons, take part in extra curricular activities such as tea ceremony and Judo. In addition, they visited an elementary school in Maebaru for English lesson. With unusual cold wave hitting Japan, the first word they picked up was "Samui" which means "Cold." The first thing they noticed about Maebaru was that the streets are quite narrow, and that cars are running on the other side of the street. They think the gardens here are well taken care of, and sunset and sunrise are beautiful. They surprised the mayor Haruta by saying that they commute to school by car, and they showed their driver's license to him.