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Show 12_— ST. GEORGE For the week of November 28, 2008 NEIGHBORHOODS Bringing The Spectrum — www.thespectrum.com Megan Williams, a student at Desert Hills Middle School, shares some photos from a picture book her host family in Japan gave her. David DeMille / St. George Neighborhoods BY DAVID DEMILLE ddemille@thespectrum.com : ST. GEORGE — Turning the pages this week of a picture book her host family in Japan made for her, Megan Williams, a student at Desert Hills Middle School, spoke fondly of her stay with the Nohara family earlier this month. “They want everyone to know they're just like us,’ she said. “Japan isn’t some distant, far-off island. They're closer than you think’ Williams was part of a delegation of St. George area students who headed to Japan the second week of November as part of an exchange program set up through the city. In addition to the picture book, some chopstick skills and a small vocabulary of | Japanese words, Williams said she came back home with a better sense of how 4 similar people are, even on the other side of the world. It’s a lesson she hopes she can relay to others, by explaining her experiences. é “You just remember you You just aren't the only ones; she said. “We're not the only remember you people on the planet’ Sheyden John, from aren't the only Snow Canyon Middle ones. We're not School, said the Japan trip was the first time he had the only people ever left the country, or been on an airplane. on the planet.” “At first I thought I was — Megan Williams Desert Hills Middle School : student; a as he oon going to start screaming when the plane took off e sai ice inthe cenit, John stayed with the Yamamoto family, ate some unusual new foods and marveled at the differences in lifestyle. The landscape was also completely different, John said, with more trees and vegetation than he’s ever seen before. “I remember the sites; he said. “It was so beautiful there” The exchange program is part of a unique relationship between St. George and Ibigawa, Japan. The two started Con Wood / For St. George Neighborhoods Students from St. George area schools meet with Japanese students during a trip to Ibigawa the second week of November. The students, including Megan Williams of Desert Hills Middle School, at left, were part of a delegation that went to Japan as part of a cultural exchange associated with Ibigawa’s marathon. calling each other sister cities after a trip Kent Perkins, St. _ and Christina Gingras each won the half-marathon in Japan George director of Leisure Services, took to Japan in 1989 at this year — along with a delegation of students, local runners the behest of SGI, a company involved in bringing tourism to and a city representative. Japan sends a similar delegation, St. George. Ibigawa had just started a marathon similar to the and over the years a series of remarkable relationships have one being staged in St. George, and the idea was to set up an developed, Perkins said. exchange of runners to help promote each marathon. Twenty “It's a warm and generous feeling, he said. “It’s a culture years later, the relationship has grown into an unusual that has so much to offer” exchange of culture, Perkins said. Ibigawa started sending students to live with American St. George sends the overall male and female winners from eSee EXCHANGE on pg. 13 its race to Japan as a prize — St. George winners Mark Currell |