People to People Exchanges and Visits between ACC and Engei HS in 2019

by John McLaughlin

A sister school relationship and exchanges are based on in-person visits. Fortunately, in 2019, the first year of the Engei HS and ACC sister school relationship, we could have many visits among Arlington and Setagaya residents. In March 2019, for SJA’s debut Japan Day, we hosted an English teacher, alumni association chair and some students from Engei HS to Arlington. I was the host of the English teacher and enjoyed showing Sato-sensei around Arlington and DC. I knew I was headed to Japan in July 2019 for the Mansfield Fellowship Program and hoped to visit Engei HS that fall. SJA’s founding president, Mine Sasaguri, visited Setagaya City and Engei HS in summer 2019; her friend and Setagaya city council member Risa Kamio  was instrumental in getting the sister school agreement. I met “Risa-san” in September 2019 after struggling to write her an email in Japanese only to find her English was very fluent after living in the US for 10 years. I then visited Engei HS for its famous “bunkasai” or cultural festival the weekend of National Culture Day in November 2019. Later that month, an ACC student and his family visited Engei HS for Thanksgiving break and we toured the campus with students. I also visited with Sato-sensei and Principal Namikawa in December.

As a founding SJA board member, I really wanted to support the sister school relationship. Risa-san and Mine-san had the idea for Arlington and Setagaya to become sister cities. Founding SJA youth board member, Winnie Brent, a first-year Keio University student, Risa-san and I, had an initial meeting in January 2020 to create a sister city committee, Facebook group and LINE chat then. Little did we know that about two months later I’d have to return to the USA suddenly due to the pandemic.

We resumed our exchanges with an “online homestay” for 4 youth and their families in July 2020.  It quickly grew into a bilingual online youth exchange by September 2020, attended by many youth and adult volunteer chaperones.