Visiting students and teacher Atsushi Odashima wave goodbye to art students after visiting a Webb Elementary classroom in 2017. Students from Franklin’s sister city, Kuji, Japan had visited the school.
Daily Journal Archive Photo
News from around Johnson County as reported on Jan. 12 in the pages of the Daily Journal and the Franklin Evening Star from the last 111 years.
On this day in 2017, students from Kuji, Japan were featured in the main story on the Daily Journal’s front page.
Students from Kuji were visiting Franklin for a week, a result of a decades-long sister city relationship. The students stopped by Webb Elementary during the trip, and fourth-grade students were paying close attention to instructions from the Kuji students.
The purpose of the visits to Franklin is so students can learn everything from customs and traditions to what they do for fun.
Ten students and three chaperones arrived in Franklin two days earlier. They toured downtown Franklin with the Historic Artcraft Theatre being one their favorite sights. The students were staying with host families in Franklin.
It was also a learning experience for the Japanese students as well. One of the best parts of the trip was the opportunity to practice speaking English in public, chaperone Atsushi Odashima said.
“It’s a very exciting experience for them,” he said.
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Other memorable Johnson County stories from this day
1996
Change was in the air at Gateway Services as the nonprofit was all under one roof for the first time in years. The agency had recently moved into a 11,000-square-foot blue building on U.S. 31 in Franklin.
1972
Franklin City Court Judge Robert Schafstall was preparing to call the first session of the new city court “to order” the next day.
1938
A notorious “high school” robbery gang that had targeted high schools in southwestern and central Indiana, including Whiteland High School, was broken up following the capture of five heavily-armed youths in Indianapolis. Among the 50 schools robbed were prep schools in Trafalgar and Nineveh.
