LIHU‘E n One of the longest-running student-exchange programs in the state got underway Monday afternoon on the eve of two of the three public high schools’ first days of school. Rui Yamamoto and Mariko Asano of Shiga, Japan, arrived to
LIHU‘E n One of the longest-running student-exchange programs in the state got underway Monday afternoon on the eve of two of the three public high schools’ first days of school.
Rui Yamamoto and Mariko Asano of Shiga, Japan, arrived to begin their nine-month experience here, as students under the auspices of the combined Rotary Clubs of Kaua‘i.
Yamamoto is being hosted by Jill and Lindsay Richards of Kekaha and is attending Waimea High School, while Asano is being hosted by the Marc Imamura family, and joined the rest of the Kaua‘i High School students who began their school year yesterday.
Imamura, himself an alumni of the Rotary Student Exchange Program, said, “I was there when she (Asano) was born back in 1986.”
Kaua‘i will be sending three students, two from Waimea and one from Kapa‘a, who began leaving the island yesterday. Imamura said that for some reason, he didn’t have any students from Kaua‘i High School this year.
Also on hand to greet the students at Lihu‘e Airport were Mark Hubbard and Nikki Matsumura, a student at Kaua‘i High School who spent last year in Japan under the Rotary program.
Imamura said that in the 22 years the program has been in existence, there have been 88 students that have come from and gone to Japan.
Both Yamamoto and Asano will be spending some time at the upcoming Kauai County Farm Bureau Fair, joining other Rotary Club members who will have a booth explaining more details about the exchange-student program. Imamura invites the public to come meet the girls.
Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@pulitzer.net.
