Franklin students prepare for first trip to Kuji since 2015

A group of 11 students from Franklin schools are counting down the days until they make a 6,100-mile trip across the Pacific Ocean to Kuji, Japan.

The partnership between Franklin and Kuji started in 1915, when Franklin College graduate Thomasine Allen went to Japan as a missionary and founded the Kuji Christian Center. Kuji became Franklin’s official sister city in 1961 with an international agreement. Franklin Mayor Steve Barnett has helped lead a program that welcomed students from Kuji starting in 2008, when he was a city council member.

But while Japanese students made the annual trip a tradition, touring the city and school district every year until the COVID-19 pandemic shut down borders in 2020, students from Franklin schools have only made one trip to the Land of the Rising Sun, in 2015.

Administrators from Franklin schools originally planned to have a second trip in the fall of 2020, but that also got postponed because of the pandemic.

The students, who include high schoolers from all grade levels and eighth graders from Franklin Community Middle School, will embark on their journey Oct. 6. Just as students from Kuji visit major cities such as Chicago and New York to supplement their Franklin visits, when the Franklin students to Japan, they’ll take a bullet train to Kuji. Once in Kuji, the students will stay with host families for five nights and visit students at schools there before returning Oct. 15.

Marnie Moore, a Franklin Community High School sophomore, was raised by an American father and Japanese mother. Her father, Greg Moore, used to live in Japan with his wife, Tamayo Fukomoto, before they moved to Franklin, where they raised Marnie. The couple has been an instrumental part of the sister city relationship, helping organize trips of Japanese students visiting Franklin, including stays with host families.

Marnie Moore has made several trips to Japan, but the trip to Kuji next month will be the first she can remember. She was just one year old when her parents took her to the seaside city in 2009.

“I’m mostly excited to make a lasting relationship with other students and my host family. I’ve been part of this since birth and the first trip I went over with them. I always wanted to be a student part of the exchange program,” Marnie Moore said. “This will be a really different experience for me. I will be living like a Japanese school student versus staying with my grandma or mom as a security blanket for language. This time, I think I’ll be more immersed in Japanese culture.”

While junior Noah Woods hasn’t been to Asia before, this will not be his first overseas educational experience. Just last summer, he was part of a trip to Europe, touring Endress+Hauser facilities in France, Switzerland and Germany. While much of Western Europe shares cultural similarities with the U.S., he said he expects the trip to Japan to be much different. He also said he hopes it brings him greater cultural awareness.

“This is a big opportunity that most high school students won’t get to do or most people won’t do in their lifetime,” Woods said. “I think it will be fun to share what we learned with our peers.”

Students had until May 12 to apply for the trip and school officials interviewed applicants in June, selecting trip-goers later that month. Since then, Woods and other students on the trip have been preparing for their excursion, working on introducing themselves in Japanese and putting together cultural presentations, which they’ll go through in English when they meet the students in Kuji.

The students will arrive in Japan bearing gifts, from candy to shirts to a Los Angeles Angels baseball cap, which sophomore Rose Mahin said she’s bringing because of Shohei Ohtani, a Japanese baseball star who plays for the team.

Lincoln Rockey, a junior, is in his fourth year of taking Japanese classes at Franklin scho0ls. He said he originally got interested in learning the language because he likes to watch anime, but has since grown to love the language and culture. He’s never traveled overseas, he said.

“I just want to see everything in Japan. I’m looking forward to trying to speak (Japanese) and hopefully they understand it,” Rockey said. “I want to learn the history and more about the town itself.”

Mahin has never been on an international student trip, although she’s traveled to Europe with family members. Her interest grew in the Kuji trip after her family hosted students who visited Franklin from Japan.

“It was definitely interesting. They came with a lot of questions and were amazed with American life and that experience. I’m excited for them to do the same for me,” she said.

Woods said he’s wanted to go to Japan ever his cousin went on the inaugural trip to Kuji. With greater cultural understanding, there will be a greater possibility of peace between people from all walks of life, he said.

“If we have international friendships or relationships, it’s how we can understand each other and solve problems and have peace,” he said.