Crossing Paths With Kyoto

Faith Harvey, Journalist|October 22, 2019

Over the past weekend Ripon High got to enjoy seeing cultural differences from the foreign exchange students from Kyoto, Japan. 33 students from Kyoto High School visited Ripon High to experience a brand new culture.The students arrived on Oct. 10 and had a fun weekend filled with a tour around Ripon and a cultural buffet. Many students were excited about the Kyoto students coming and being able to see and befriend brand new people. 

Many students were excited about the price difference between Japan and America. In Japan around 100 yen is equal to $1, a coffee in Japan usually costs around 1,500 yen, 

which is equal to $15. 

 “ They had a lot of fun, especially shopping. They shopped for like 5 hours” Host Darius Rubaines said.

Many students enjoyed the friendly spirits here at Ripon High and enjoyed performing. Some students even stated that they enjoyed the different meal portions, Japan is known for being the home of tiny things. Tiny objects, tiny food, tiny everything, one student even said that they loved the pizza size.

Some even talked about the temperature difference, in Ripon the average temperature is 95 degrees and in Kyoto it’s around 73 degrees. The students weren’t used to the heat and enjoyed a nice change.

Host Ewan West said, “It was pretty fun, it was definitely a weird experience because we had two strangers living in our house but it was definitely fun.”

 He also stated that Google Translate helped a lot since many students knew little to no English.

“They were really excited to be in America and I think that just the whole new environment and the new culture of everything had them really excited to be here,” host Malery States said. States also said that they enjoyed going to a trampoline park and that was their favorite part of the trip. 

“They thought it was super interesting, they loved America and didn’t want to go home and they just had a ton of fun and liked all the food and the different things and the school environment,” Host Molly Ysit said. 

It seems the students’ initial reaction was excitement over the brand new environment and culture that they were able to experience. Overall the students had a fun time and enjoyed the cultural differences between America and Japan.