Barrhead plays host to Japanese delegates

A drumbeat filled the multipurpose room March 17 when host families and twinning committee members gathered to bid farewell to seven Japanese delegates from Tokoro.

The farewell dinner was held to cap off a busy week of cultural exchange between the delegates and residents of Barrhead. It was a busy week for the Barrhead Twinning Committee, and the seven Japanese delegates from Tokoro were kept on their toes attending a number of different events and touring the community. Committee chairperson Carol Lee said members very much enjoyed their week with the Japanese delegates. Although she wasn’t able to take in every event scheduled for the delegates, she said it was her understanding they had a lot of fun while they were here.

“It was quite busy,” she said. “They went on a horse-drawn sleigh ride, toured our funeral home, our day care, and they had a wonderful time at the museum. We are already putting together plans for their next visit, which could include a visit to our RCMP detachment.”

The delegates were also able to attend Barrhead Composite High School with their home stay families to see what life was like for high school students in Barrhead. Of course, the committee and the home stay families took the opportunity to showcase the West Edmonton Mall, Lee said.

“It was a great cultural exchange that allows the delegates to immerse themselves in our culture,” Lee said. Barr-head has a diverse cultural population.

“There was not a lot of down time for them,” she said. “The hectic schedule doesn’t afford a lot of leisure time. However, they did have a free day on March 18, so it was up to the delegates and their host families to determine what to do. Some went to the West Edmonton Mall, while others just stayed in Barr-head and continued with their visit. We really treasure our time together, and our thoughts and prayers are with everyone else in Japan.”

Megumi Inoue is an English teacher in Tokoro, and this was her second time in Barrhead as part of the Japanese delegation. She said some of the highlights for her stay in Canada included a shopping trip to the West Edmonton Mall, and they were all interested to check out the schools. The student delegates made presentations in front of high school and elementary school students, which included doing some origami.

There are many differences between the twin towns of Barrhead and Tokoro, she said. For instance, the size of houses is different. She said in Tokoro, houses are smaller than in Barrhead.

“In Japan, the smaller homes sometimes make it more difficult to prepare for visitors from other countries,” she said.

The weather is also different, she said, and it’s much colder in Barrhead than it is in Tokoro, where the coldest it would get is -17 degrees C. She said she was surprised to hear it gets to be as cold as -40 degrees C in Barrhead.

The school system is also very different, she added. In Japan, most of the subjects a student must take in high school are already chosen; whereas, here in Barrhead, she said students have more freedom in their choices.

“We all had a good week,” she said, and added some of the students caught a cold because of the difference in temperature, and the differences in the water.

Chris Schembri and his family were first-time home stays. They played host to Yuya. He said the week spent with Yuya was excellent, and the entire family had a great time with him. Schembri has two teenage sons. Yuya is 16, so they really got along quite well, he said.

“My boys both tremendously enjoyed their time with him, and perhaps we can go over there some day,” Schembri said. “We were worried we weren’t going to get him at all, but he arrived late Saturday night, and the first thing he wanted to do was take a shower,” Schembri said.

The family took him to the West Edmonton Mall on Sunday, where they shopped for souvenirs. They cooked him bacon and eggs one morning, and he really enjoyed the bacon, Schembri said.

“That night, we had chicken and rice, and we decided we were all going to eat the meal with chop sticks. That was an excellent evening. The entire experience was excellent, and we’d have him back in a heart beat.”

Being a home stay family was a way for the Schembris to try something new. Schembri said he comes from a town in British Columbia where 50 per cent of the population was Japanese, so he grew up with half of his classmates being Japanese.

“It kind of brought back some childhood memories for me,” he said.

Long after the delegates leave Canada, communication between them and their host families continues through emails and letters, Lee said.

“Everyone in the community was very welcoming,” Lee said. “(The delegates) made some good friends.”

Now that the delegates have come and gone, the twinning committee is continuing with its plans to attend the 20th anniversary celebrations between Barrhead and Tokoro. Although there is concern about Japan, what with radiation leaks resulting in the aftermath of the earthquake and the tsunami, plans are still going ahead for a contingent of about 16 people from Barrhead to travel to Tokoro.

“Some of the people who will be attending the celebration are voicing some concerns about the effect of the radiation, and rightly so,” Lee said. “We can’t postpone the celebration, and our twin town is in the safe zone – they weren’t affected by the earthquake and tsunami, and there is no radiation. We just have to get there, and that may mean we have to leave out the trip to Tokyo and spend the entire week in Tokoro.

“We have a very strong bond, and we don’t want anything to come between that, so we will make every effort to be there for the anniversary. If for some reason we aren’t able to make it there, we will still commemorate the occasion here in Barrhead.”

The relationship between Tokoro and Japan is one both towns take very seriously, she said. Tokoro sends a delegation every year, and they send to Barrhead official documents to let the community know how pleased they are with this project. In fact, when Tokoro amalgamated with Kitami City, they told officials how important it was to continue with the twinning, and everyone agreed, Lee said.