International educational travel to Okinawa, highlighted by Japanese-style school lunches and cleaning time, increases to 1,565 students for 2017

International educational travel to Okinawa, highlighted by Japanese-style school lunches and cleaning time, increases to 1,565 students for 2017

Students visiting from abroad experiencing Japanese-style school lunches at an elementary school in Okinawa (Photograph provided by OCVB)


 

July 1 2018 Ryukyu Shimpo

 

The Okinawa Convention & Visitors Bureau (OCVB), which promotes an initiative that invites students from abroad for educational travel, reported on June 30 that the number of students who came to Okinawa in 2017, as far as the OCVB know, grew to 44 groups totaling 1,565 students.

Many groups were interested in experiencing the cleaning time and school lunches that students in Japan do themselves, which is rare in other countries.

The OCVB is anticipating the numbers to continue increasing in 2018 with an expected 65 groups totaling 2,500 students.

 

The same initiative welcomed 638 international students from 25 groups in 2016.

The figures for 2017 are about 2.5 times that of the previous year.

Examples of activities include learning about the oceans and mountains in Okinawa, experiencing Okinawan culture through activities like Eisa dancing, and other activities such as taking care of small animals.

 

Kazuko Iha, the principal of Hisabe Elementary School in Nago who has been very active in taking in international visitors says, “I want to teach the students to interact with people from different countries from a young age, so that they can succeed globally in the future.The OCVB has been promoting the exchange program by pitching school tours and educational travel to foreign schools. OCVB executive director Morikazu Yugawa said, “It is also good for the children of Okinawa, and is a good learning experience.”

 

(English translation by T&CT and Sam Grieb)

 

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