PALMER -- While many high school kids worked summer jobs, played sports and enjoyed the Alaskan summer, five students from Palmer High School received three weeks of royal treatment as honored guests in Saroma, Japan.

The students were participating in the annual exchange program, in which Palmer students visit Japan for three weeks and then return the favor by hosting Japanese students on their trip to Palmer.

Earlier this month the Palmer students returned home and, on Wednesday evening, recounted their adventures with members of the Mat-Su Borough School Board.

Yasue Okuda, a teacher from Saroma, Japan, listens to students testify about their experience, along with his own exchange students. Photo by JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman.

The students told board members how friendly and helpful the Japanese were. They shared how their horizons have expanded after seeing a completely different part of the world.

"I wanted to get a different perspective," Palmer High School senior, Shasta Miller, said. "I didn't know a single word of Japanese when I went but now I can introduce myself, say my name and age and I know a lot of nouns."

While in Japan, Miller said she and her fellow visitors gave presentations at different schools about the Iditarod, the Alaska State Fair, Native cultures and other topics.

Paul Morley teaches in the extended learning program at Palmer High School and he led the team to Japan for a third straight year.

"It's a great bonding experience to go to a foreign country with a small group of kids," Morley said. "They are really accepted within the local community and they get to experience the life -- not as a tourist but as an honored member of the community, and that's an exciting experience for a young person."

Currently a small group of Japanese students are visiting Palmer and staying with local families. They have been in Alaska for a little over a week and, Wednesday night, were on hand to test their limited English speaking skills with school board members.

Yasue Okuda, faculty leader of the Japanese group, said he has enjoyed his experience in Alaska.

"We are enjoying Alaska very much," Okuda said. "We have watched nature and we climbed mountains and we ate moose burger. I would like to enjoy it very much. Thank you."

His students also struggled through one or two English lines in front of the school board, sharing their names, ages and one thing they each enjoyed about Alaska.

The student-exchange program between Saroma and Palmer was born out of a 25-year-long Sister City program that has brought together the culture, education, arts and economies of the two cities.

Sister Cities International represents more than 2,500 communities in 126 countries. The program began in 1956 after U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower called for people-to-people exchanges between foreign cities. The hope was to increase global cooperation at the grass-roots level by promoting mutual respect and understanding.

During their stay in Alaska, the Japanese students went around to different schools to talk about tea ceremonies, Japanese anime and life in Japan. This week, they toured Palmer, visiting city hall, the tsunami warning center and eating out at Peking Garden.

"Exchanging customs and languages is of global merit," Morley said. "I've had several students comment that, having been to Japan, now they are more attuned to people from other countries. They realize that there are many levels to communication beyond verbal. They are more open to differences and less likely to see those as barriers."

During the school day the Japanese students spend time at Palmer High School, getting to know fellow students while polishing their English skills.

"English is their number-one foreign language," Morley said. "It is mandatory in schools, and students are tested on it before they go to college."

The Japanese students head home Sept. 28 but not before they receive a royal send-off at several private farewell parties around the Valley.

Contact Joel Davidson at joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.