MARLBORO — Twenty years of international friendship will be marked by 16 Marlboro students visiting Nanto City, Japan, during a special Japanese holiday as part of Marlboro’s sister city agreement with the Japanese city.
The sister city agreement between Marlboro and Nanto City (previously known as Johana) began 20 years ago with the efforts of Hide Pece and a former Marlboro resident.
Each summer, on an alternating basis, students from Marlboro visit Japan and students from Japan come to Marlboro to experience the everyday life and culture of a different nation.
Pece, who is from Tokyo, Japan, works with the Marlboro students prior to their trip to Nanto City to help teach them Japanese. She also serves as a chaperone for the trips that take the youths overseas.
On the exchange program’s 20th anniversary, officials from Nanto City invited Marlboro’s student ambassadors to visit in early August during Obon, a festival that celebrates ancestors.
Committee chair Paula Truppo explained that Obon is a time that brings relatives who may have moved away back home in celebration of their families.
The 16 teenagers, the largest group Marlboro has ever sent to the Far East, will head to Japan on Aug. 3 and return on Aug. 19. This year’s participants are Sam Ackerman, Allison Auyeung, Hersh Bendre, Eytan Biala, Joshua Chu, Michael Feldman, Brandon Klein, Scott Mitsching, Rohit Ramachandran, Akshay Reddy, Eric Sikora, Aditi Sinha, Ryan Smith, Sydney Spiewak, Brittany Swartz and Brooke Swartz.
In order to represent the township as a student ambassador, the teenagers have to be residents of Marlboro, their family had to have previously hosted students from Japan, they must write an essay and they must be active in fundraising activities.
During their trip to Japan the Marlboro students will visit Hiroshima, Himeji Castle, Kyoto, Tokyo and spend time with host families in Nanto City.
For their stop in Hiroshima — one of two Japanese cities on which the United States
dropped an atomic bomb during fold 1,000 paper cranes to keep the tradition at the Children’s Monument in Hiroshima’s Peace Park.
The students are excited about traveling to Japan and each young adult is looking forward to a particular stop on the itinerary.
Sam Ackerman, 16, is excited to see the differences between the two cultures.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how their traditional style varies from ours,” Sam said, adding that going to Japan during the Obon festival will provide a glimpse of Japanese culture.
Brandon Klein, 15, is looking forward to reconnecting with some of the Japanese students who have stayed with families in Marlboro in previous years.
Sisters Brittany and Brooke Swartz, both 14, are excited to be sharing this experience with one another because they said it will provide a memorable adventure they can always share.
“Later in life we can talk about it and share the bond,” Brittany said.
Brooke also added that she is looking forward to visiting the country that she lived in twice when she was younger. Brooke said she lived in Tokyo when she was 3 and 7, and is looking forward to seeing the country again with an older, more appreciative eye.
Eric Sikora, 15, said his brother went to Japan four years ago and spoke highly of the experience. Eric said he is looking forward to seeing everything his brother has vividly described.
Alumni Keith Sikora, 17, recalled the adventure as an amazing experience.
“It’s something that not a lot of people get to experience,” Keith said of the exchange program.
Fellow exchange alumni Mike Smith, 17, and Samantha Chu, 16, said they loved their time visiting Japan.
Mike noted that it was interesting to see city life in Japan and compare it with an American city like New York City. He described Japan’s cities as being twice as busy as an American city, yet somehow quieter.
Samantha loved seeing the interaction among a typical Japanese family during the home stay portion of her trip.
The American exchange students showed off their budding foreign language skills by introducing themselves to guests during a spring fundraising dinner on April 26 at the Bella Vista Country Club, Marlboro.
Pece is meeting with the students to provide them with key phrases that will help them to overcome the language barrier they may experience in Japan.
Akshay Reddy, 13, said memorizing the Japanese phrases is proving a little difficult, while his friend, Rohit Ramachandran, 13, described the lessons as focusing on simple compositional phrases.
As a part of the Marlboro-Nanto exchange, chaperones also visit Japan.
Rita Scalzo, a teacher in the Marlboro K-8 School District and a founding member of the exchange committee, said at least one teacher serves as a chaperone when Marlboro youngsters visit Japan.
Scalzo was a member of the first visit to Japan and said the teachers make the trip to learn about the differences in the educational systems of the two nations.
This year’s teacher chaperones include Virginia McDonald and Boriana Karadjova. Parent Ted Block and committee member Cynthia Sikora will also accompany the group to Japan.
Marlboro Mayor Jonathan Hornik was present at the April 26 dinner. He honored the 16 young ambassadors and presented them with certificates of recognition for their participation.
“Promise me one thing. You are going to learn as much as you can and bring the experience back to share with your friends and your family, because this is a once-in-alifetime experience,” Hornik requested of the teenagers.
Knowing that the group needs some extra funding for this year’s trip, Hornik said he would sit down with the committee members to see what he can do to help.
Hornik and Township Council Vice President Randi Marder said programs such as the Japanese exchange are what makes Marlboro great.
Marder asked people to continue to support programs such as the Marlboro-Nanto exchange to help keep these activities going.
Fundraising is a large portion of how the Marlboro-Nanto exchange program is able to operate. The spring dinner featured a gift auction to help raise money for the trip.
Upcoming events to raise money for the students’ trip will include selling water at Marlboro’s summer concerts and bagging groceries in local supermarkets.
The student ambassadors also will participate in a swim-a-thon July 2 at 7 p.m. at the Marlboro Swim Club. People may sponsor a student for the event.
More information about the Marlboro- Nanto exchange program can be found at www.marlboro-nanto.org.