MANITOWOC — This week the city of Manitowoc welcomes some very special visitors, students are on their way from the town's sister city, Kamogawa, Japan. The trip is part of an exchange program that is celebrating its 30th anniversary.
Koa Sonoda is one of the students visiting from Kamigawa, a coastal city just south of Tokyo on the Pacific Ocean.
"I've never been to America before, so I'm very excited", Sonoda said. "Lake Michigan has no waves but Kamogawa's sea has many big waves, so I was very, very surprised".
Tuesday, Koa and his fellow Japanese students went to the beach with Teak Prigge and the other Manitowoc students who visited Japan apart of the program a week ago.
"You kind of think of it like, 'Okay, it's across the world these people are probably nothing like me' and whatever, but you see their day-to-day lives and it's like really no different than yours, you know?", Prigge said. "They go to work or school and stop at a convenience store and maybe pick up a snack or something."
It's that knowledge of each city that the Chair of Student Exchange, Kelly Meyers finds so important.
"It's helped create an understanding and awareness of how each culture is, one, very similar in a lot of ways, but also very different", said Meyers. "And how we can complement each other through those differences and support each other through our similarities."
During their trips, both pairs of students were able to meet with their sister city's mayor. Manitowoc's Mayor, Justin Nickels, presented the students with some gifts.
"Some Beerstein's chocolates, some cheese, some trinkets from Heartland Homestead downtown with Manitowoc logos all of it", Nickels said of the presents. "Just some fun stuff they can take back."
In the program's 30th year, Koa Sonoda is very thankful for the opportunity.
"I think it's useful for my future and good experience", he said.
The exchange students will be all around town doing different activities and learning about the city until they return to Japan on August 8.
