Delegation of students and teachers from Japan visiting Palmer

PALMER — Residents of Palmer and Saroma, Japan gathered inside the Palmer Museum to exchange gifts and cultures Friday night. The delegation of students and teachers from the city of Saroma gave a Koto to the Palmer Saroma Kai, and will spend two weeks in Alaska, learning about the people, the land and the culture.

A Koto is a 13-stringed instrument made out of kiri wood. Yuko played a song called sakura, which means cherry blossom, for the assembled exchange students, current and former. Carla Swick learned about the program after her junior year at Palmer High School in 1987. She went on an exchange with the mayor and his wife. She returned after college to become the first resident of Palmer to teach English as a second language in Saroma. Her former student, Brenna Kennicker, returned from her three-year stay as assistant language teacher.

There are many similarities between the two cities. Both are around 5,000 people, rely on agriculture, and are finding ways to deal with the effects of global climate change on the abundance of the sea. Where Alaskans are concerned with salmon returns, residents of Saroma deal with the same issues affecting their catch of shrimp. Students from Palmer traveled to Saroma in June, and are now reuniting with friends they made in Japan this summer.

“You bond with people when you go over there so every time they come here you know people,” Kristin Mayer said. “I think it’s a really good community aspect to it.”

Swick taught Japanese at Wasilla High School for 19 years, but restarted the Japanese program at Palmer High School in 2016.

“I think especially when that first experience is a positive one, for a lot of kids that I’ve seen over the years … they catch the travel bug and get more interested in the rest of the world and it opens up their awareness,” Swick said.

The program got started when two ham radio operators befriended one another from across an ocean. Ed Holmes of Palmer and Mutsihiro Ishiguro of Saroma began the exchange of cultures, and it has lasted 38 years. A shrine is part of an exhibit currently in the Palmer Museum commemorating the exchange program over the last three decades. A permanent Saroma exhibit draws inquisitive tourists to ask about Palmer’s sister city.

“This program was really weher ei got my connection to my city … Feeling like I was a citizen of Saroma and finding that as my second home, that really helped connect me to my own home,” said Swick. “If we want to make our world a better place they’ve got to feel connected, valued as a part of something. The more we can connect you to your home and other people, not just a high school or church, that’s definitely a big value of this program.”

Students from Saroma are taken with the natural beauty of Alaska. They will spend part of their time in Palmer helping to teach a Japanese elective with students at Sherrod and Swanson elementary schools. They are scheduled to go to the conservation center, Byron Glacier, Alyeska, Hatcher Pass, and the Butte. They will experience Palmer’s homecoming week, make pizza at Humdinger’s and take an art class at The Art Cafe. Mostly, they want to see moose.

Sherrod librarian Sean Williams has organized Skype sessions with students from both elementary schools for nine years, and finally got to go to Japan this year. Swick sees that as the next step for the Saroma Kai program to be able to teach elementary schoolers about Japanese culture.

The continued friendship between the two cities has lasted for decades. Yuko and Swick met in 1987 when Swick traveled to Saroma for the first time. Yuko visited Palmer the summer after that. Swick taught Kennicker in high school, and she jumped at the opportunity to teach in Japan.

“I dropped everything and said yes and I went over in January,” Kennicker said.

Kennicker sees not only the relationship between American and Japanese sister cities, but the intermingling of our cultures, especially with the rise in Japanese tourism to see the aurora borealis.

“There is this sort of push that we need to have these sort of community relationships and that relationship with Japan is really important,” Kennicker said.

The students have already had lunch with Mayor Edna DeVries and taken a tour of historical Palmer. Swick marvels at the success of the program after 30 years and the rising interest in Japanese culture in Palmer. She feels that even when she retires, the program will continue due to how invested the cities are.

“I think you’re going to get a more active citizen in the future because they have those connections,” Swick said.