Saroma swap

The four girls in front of the fifth-grade class at Pioneer Peak Elementary School Tuesday looked no different than the students sitting down. They were wearing Mickey Mouse shirts, carrying Winnie the Pooh bags and talking about eating pizza, playing Nintendo and playing basketball.

The only difference was the girls were from Saroma, Japan, and they were part of the 20th exchange as part of the Palmer-Saroma Sister City arrangement, which is now in its 21st year.

The five girls were here for three weeks (they returned to Saroma on Wednesday), and while Japan and America certainly are different, the students they met with seemed to speak a language that was understandable to both the Japanese and American students.

One Pioneer Peak fifth-grader said she liked to "talk on the computer" after school, and all five Japanese girls immediately raised their eyebrows in agreement, saying, "me, too."

There are some major differences between schools, however. In Japan, they have to wear uniforms, and there was another big difference the Japanese students noticed.

"In Japan, we have inside shoes," said Yuik Kitano. "Here, you wear same shoes."

Kitano's English teacher, Keiko Iyoda, explained that in Japan, students wear soft shoes -- almost like slippers -- while in school, and then change into their other shoes to go outside.

The girls also said a difference between Japan and America is the size of the food being served.

"In America, everything too big," explained Nana Fukuda. "In Japan, everything too small."

The five girls spent their three weeks talking to other students at Palmer High School, working with Japanese language students at Wasilla High School and enjoying Alaska. Iyoda, the advisor, had a bit of a hard time explaining to the Pioneer Peak students what her two favorite experiences were, but after a brief wrangling with the English translation, she finally came up with it -- "riding ATV and dog mushing."

Kitano said her favorite thing in Alaska was getting the chance to see the northern lights. She is retuning to Japan with a picture of them, she said.

The sister city arrangement began in 1982, when Edward Holmes, a Palmer man, made his first visit to Saroma after conversing with a Saroma resident via a HAM radio. The two men struck up an immediate friendship over the airways, and soon, Holmes was on his way to Japan. Since then, educators have gone back and forth, as well as Palmer city officials.

"It's a great program for everyone," said Paul Morley, an Extended Learning Program teacher at Palmer High. Morley is one of the exchange program coordinators. "In both directions, the students learn so much and get to experience things they never would get to experience without it."

The exchange usually averages about five students at a time, and the visits usually last for a few weeks. In June, students from Palmer High School will be going to Saroma as part of the program.

As time passes and technology such as the Internet and e-mail are turning the entire world one big neighborhood, there is more and more in common between the two cities, and especially the young people.

Even the great American game of baseball is now common to both cultures, thanks to an influx of Japanese players.

"Do you know Hideki Matsui [a much-heralded Japanese baseball player, who goes by the nickname of Godzilla, who signed with the Yankees]?" asked Megumi Nakatsugawa. When the boys in the Pioneer Peak classroom gave her blank stares back, she responded with another question. "Do you know Ichiro?" she asked, and immediately, the boys jumped to attention.

"That's my favorite player," one boy said. "He's from Japan?"