Eight hundred and forty hours. That is how long Marina Saito and Miyu Kondo have been living over 7,800 miles away from their home in Japan. As part of an exchange program with our sister school, Tamagawa Academy in Japan, the two students have been living with host families and attending our school.

Katie Liang (12) and Lorraine Wong (10) hosted Marina and Miyu, respectively, during their month-long stay and have learned many things about each other.

In fact, Katie and Miyu discovered that they both enjoy the same kind of music, such as Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Maroon 5, and South Korean pop boy band Big Bang.

One of the things Katie has noticed most about Marina is that “[she] is very organized. I feel really messy when I stand next to her. She always has her hair and make-up nicely done, and she always gives off this really fresh vibe.”

For the most part, the language barrier is not an issue for the hosts and the exchange students. Katie, who has been studying Japanese for six years and is currently taking AP Japanese, and Marina have developed their own system for dealing with any misunderstandings. Marina has an electronic Japanese dictionary where she can input the word she cannot translate into English.

Although Katie says that they can understand each other well, Marina disagrees. Covering her face in embarrassment, Marina said, “nooo…my English is bad. I [have trouble] listening; I want [to improve my] listening skill. [And] speak is [also] bad.”

Miyu’s expectations and preconceptions of America stemmed mainly from movies she watched back home.

“[Miyu] is actually getting used to real American culture, rather than what she’s seen in popular media in Japan,” Lorraine said.

Marina and Miyu agree that their favorite part of their trip has been interacting with their host families. The school lunch is a close second. They both exuberantly repeated how the food is “very delicious, very, very delicious” and “very, very nice.”

The exchange students are involved in both Orchestra and Jazz Band. A major difference between American and Japanese music they noticed was the difference in the tuning of pitch: in Japan the level is at 442 hertz and in the USA it is 440 hertz. Specific measure of hertz is used to tune instruments during a group performance. They both dedicate a lot of their time to their music; at Tamagawa they have club activity practice daily.

Miyu said that participating in the Winter Concert less than a week after their arrival was “choto hard,” or a little hard.

Other than participating in a Jazz Band for the first time, they are also experiencing many new things while in America, such as visiting San Francisco and going to their first dance.

A few hours before the Winter Ball on January 22, Miyu was dropped off at Katie’s house so the girls could get ready for the first dance together. Tamagawa hosts no school dances, and the girls were excited to go to the first dance ever with dresses picked up fresh from Macy’s.

Marina exclaimed that she was excited to wear her dress, but was a little worried. She exclaimed, her hands flying to her face, “But I can’t dance!”

Both Katie and Lorraine have come to see the exchange students as part of their families, and are not looking forward to having to say goodbye in a few weeks.

Katie said, “I’m definitely going to be lonelier at home. I’ll miss them [and] I’ll definitely feel the emptiness in the house when they leave.”