Engei High School Principal Namikawa visits Arlington
by John McLaughlin
Engei HS was recently designated an “international exchange school” by the Tokyo Metropolitan board of education and Principal Namikawa was eager to visit the sister school here in Arlington, which he did from August 26-30, 2022. Despite his jetlag, Mr. Namikawa attended all the various visits and events organized by SETCOM and FOUA. After his first in-person visit to Arlington Career Center (Engei High School’s sister school), Mr. Namikawa attended a welcome dinner at my house.
Mr. Namikawa especially enjoyed seeing the Highland Urban Garden (HUG) in Virginia Highland Park organized by FOUA (Friends of Urban Agriculture in Arlington), not far from Pentagon City Station, where Japanese and Asian vegetables such as Bok choy and daikon or kabu radishes are grown. We met with Kirsten Conrad and heard about all of the urban agriculture and educational activities the Virginia Cooperative Extension is engaged in. Mr. Namikawa also met the coordinator for urban agriculture in the Arlington County Government, Kimberly Haun. These were interesting learning experiences for us too. I’ve gone back most months since then to learn from the HUG volunteers on Saturdays since I’m often passing by Pentagon City on Saturday mornings after my zazenkai.
Taking advantage of Principal Namikawa’s visit to Arlington, we organized the first FOUA-SJA joint event at Farlington Community Center on August 29. This was the first hybrid (in-person and online) live event with Arlington and Setagaya, at 7:30pm here and 8:30am the next day in Setagaya. We featured a video interview with an urban farmer in Setagaya City, Mr. Utsumi of Utsumi Orchard, with subtitles in English. Mr. Utsumi was also attending online among others who were interested in Urban Agriculture and answered questions from the audience, with interpretation by SETCOM co-chair Yoshimi Muto. Principal Namikawa here in person made a presentation in English about agricultural education in Japan.
We are planning a second online exchange in 2023 to feature urban agriculture in Arlington to an audience in Setagaya.