On October 15th, 2024, students from Hosoda Gakuen visited NHISl. Hosoda Gakuen is a junior and senior high school located in Japan. The purpose of this event was to have NHIS students interact with students from another country to laugh, joke around, and find similarities within each other.

Around 9:00 am, the event began in the NHIS cafe. Different students from the Japanese 2, 3, and 4 classes were invited and chosen to be group leaders for the students visiting. There were nine different groups with 3 to 4 group leaders and seven visiting students within that group. 

The opening ceremony started with speeches from both schools, thanking each other for the wonderful opportunity to meet each other. Then NHIS presented different things about Hawaii for the visiting students ranging from sea urchins to our state fish. 

The ceremony ended with a gift exchange, with the principal of Hosoda Gakuen giving a gift to Kele Sensei, NHIS Japanese language teacher, and Kele Sensei doing the same for Hosoda’s principal.

After the opening ceremony, all groups set out on the campus tour. Each group went to almost all the buildings in the school. 

Afterward, the visiting students had lunch in C-building and got to know different students from NHIS. Then, half of the groups went to the mala, seeing the many different plants and animals there, and the other half did activities planned by each group of visiting students. Lastly, everyone headed out to the bleachers at the football field for one last photo before Hosoda Gakuen had to leave.

“For me, the highlight is always seeing students being able to kind of relax and connect with each other.” Kele Sensie said. “I think that it always starts off a little bit awkward. Our students are very shy, and getting them to warm up targeting students always takes a couple of minutes, but once they’re comfortable, they’re comfortable.”

The event ended around 1:00 pm, with Hosoda Gakuen boarding their buses. NHIS students waved their new friends goodbye as they set off to their next destination of their trip.

“I guess just knowing that they enjoyed their stay and they learned something and you know, overall, I hope they had, like, a good trip here,” said Promise Jellings-Faletogo, NHIS sophomore. “I hope they had a good tour, I hope they enjoyed the activities that we did.”

Overall, the entire event was a learning experience for both Nanakuli and Hosoda. Each student from both schools who had interacted with each other learned something about their school and culture.