Nishiwaki's sister city is the town of Renton, Washington. As part of their sisterhood, the two cities partake in a student exchange of sorts. For a little bit more than a week, some jr high students from Nishiwaki visit Renton and live with a host family. This year, this happened in August, when the Nishiwaki students were on summer break. Then, in October, the Renton host students came to Nishiwaki and stayed with the student they had hosted. I don't know how the students are chosen, but a total of 15 students who represent the four jr high schools in Nishiwaki took part in this program.
In October, when it was Nishiwaki's turn to host, the city and board of education had a bunch of tours and activities planned for the visiting Rentonites (Rentoners? Rentonians?). Each of these tours and activites included an ALT to help with language barriers and to just be a representative of the Nishiwaki Board of Education. On the day that I hung out with the Rentons, we went to Himeji Castle.
Himeji Castle is the most popular castle in Japan and is located pretty close to Nishiwaki. To give you an idea of how popular this castle is, we went on a Tuesday afternoon in October and we had to wait in lines while moving through the castle. Not only were there students visiting the castle as part of a field trip, but we saw multiple foreign visitors: Austrialias, British, and I think I might have ran into some Germans.
This six-storey castle was built in 1333 and has been restored many times since then, but they make sure to keep all the details. Like the wodden frame and white plaster walls. It's because of these white walls that the castle has been given the nickname of White Heron Castle (Shirasagijō).If you think this castle looks familiar, chances are you've seen it before. The castle has been featured in many movies including James Bond: You Only Live Twice and The Last Samurai.
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