Students had their eyes opened during the trip of a lifetime, thanks to the Barrhead Twinning Committee.
On Thursday, Nov. 6 the committee took off for Tokoro, Japan, a town Barrhead has been twinned with since 1991.
Since then, students have travelled between the two countries, staying with families that reside in the town, experiencing new cultures, and sightseeing.
“They try to match them up with a family, or a child here in town that kind of has the same age and same interests,” Deb Schembri said, who travelled with the twinning committee.
Schembri has welcomed students participating in the twinning program into her home over the years, and for the first time participated in the trip herself.
“Every time we home stay one, they always say, come to Japan,” Schembri said. “We decided that we would all go.”
According to Schembri, families don’t normally travel together with the committee, but this was a trip that couldn’t be missed.
“My husband and I stayed with one family, and then our son stayed with the same family as the boy that we had when he was here,” Schembri said.
The group spent two days in Tokyo, and during that time experienced a completely different culture, Schembri said.
The rest of the trip was spent in the town twinned with Barrhead, Tokoro.
“It was amazing,” Schembri said. “It would probably be number one on my list for hospitality, and beauty, and culture.”
Tokoro is a town on the coast of Japan, and has a population of nearly 5,000.
“Tokoro is actually for size on par with Barrhead,” Schembri said. “It is right on the coast… it is basically fishing and farming.”
Schembri said that home staying is a very different experience.
“When you home stay you really are immersed right in the culture,” Schembri said, adding the couple they stayed with spoke very little English.
“But we got lucky, one of their daughters had home stayed in Jasper,” Schembri said, adding that her English was much better.
“We managed to get by,” she said.
Although the families stayed with locals, they still were given the overall tour of the area, visiting curling rinks, Buddhist temples, and local factories.
“They kept us going from 8:30 in the morning to 5:30 every night,” Schembri said, adding they visited local schools.
“We went from the Junior High School right down to their preschool,” she said. “The kids were amazing.”
Schembri said that the students respect their teachers and their elders, and the culture is very different.
“I think it is a whole generational shift in our culture, that we have gotten so lax in so many of those things,” Schembri said. “It works so well over there, that I think we could learn a lot.”
Through their travels the group explored Kitami city.
“We got to meet with the mayor of both Kitami city and Tokoro,” Schembri said.
Schembri said the trip was a learning experience for both students and adults.
“My son, he has had his eyes opened to a whole new culture, a whole new way of seeing the world,” she said. “Our whole way of life, our whole culture and outlook on things is just so different, and Japan it is like stepping back in time… when it comes to respect.”
Schembri recommends the trip to anyone who has the opportunity to go.
“Until you have actually been there and experienced it, you can’t even understand the scope of that trip,” Schembri said. “It’s the trip of a lifetime.”
Schembri said that when the students from Japan visit Barrhead it is an opportunity for those living in the community to learn about their culture.
“They are some of the most amazing people I have ever met in my life, and I really think that we could learn so much from them,” she said. “People just need to take the opportunity and get to know them.”
