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Thank you for the warmth, hospitality
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Posted on Jul 28 2015
I am one of the staff responsible for overseas school trips at Hiroshima Johoku Gakuen, a boys junior and senior high school in Hiroshima, Japan.
Last November, I had the privilege of escorting 130 students and eight staff to your beautiful island on a four-night, five-day trip that included homestay with local families. After the trip, the feedback from our students was overwhelmingly positive. It is thanks to generosity and hard work of the Mayor’s Office, the staff and students of Southern High School, the families that hosted our students, and our Saipan-based agent, Mr. Yoshizawa, of Saipan Business & Language Institute, that this trip was a great success.
Many staff and students commented on the warmth and hospitality felt during the trip. An obvious example of this is that 130 students were welcomed into peoples’ homes and treated as one of the family. However, other less obvious examples include welcome announcements being made at the Garapan Street Market and residents stopping us to ask how our trip is going; students at Southern High School going out of their way to talk to us and ask about Japan; volunteers joining us when we went to Managaha to ensure our students’ safety when in the sea, and even drivers waiting patiently for 130 students and staff to cross the road.
In many ways, it is the accumulation of these small things that made us feel so welcome on your beautiful island, and on behalf of all the staff, students and families of Hiroshima Johoku, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to all the people of Saipan.
I am fortunate to be escorting another group to Saipan in October and am currently arranging a trip for a third group in 2016. I am sure that these trips will be equally as successful and I am looking forward to many more trips in the future.
Matt Branch
Hiroshima Johoku Gakuen
