Moses Lake students continue 25 years of sister city relationship

Students leave next week for Yonezawa

MOSES LAKE — Every day cars drive on Yonezawa Boulevard.

People walk their dogs or ride their bikes along the street and are not aware the name represents the 25-year partnership Moses Lake has developed with its sister city Yonezawa, Japan.

"You hear (about) the street and you don't know anything about the street," said 17-year-old Donald McGraw.

McGraw is one of five students from Moses Lake leaving for a week-long trip next week to Yonezawa as part of a student exchange between the two cities.

Other student representatives from Moses Lake include Matthew Valdez, Kylene Otto, Cameron Frederick and Corbin Goodman.

All five students have been practicing basic Japanese language skills, social etiquette and taste-testing native foods in the weeks prior to the trip as preparation for what they will encounter.

Trying to pronounce names of prepared dishes like inari sushi, somen or niku jaga can be a challenge.

"It's nothing like your Safeway deli," Valdez said at a dinner held last week for students where they sampled Japanese cuisine.

Seventeen-year-old Otto does not eat a whole lot of fish and took Spanish her freshman year in high school, but that isn't deterring her from trying something new.

"Since I don't eat a lot of fish I'm curious about what I'm going to eat," Otto said.

On their visit to Japan students will tour government offices, mountain climb on Mt. Tengendai, visit several museums including a sake museum where a famous rice wine is made, make Japanese noodles and attend a fireworks show.

Likewise, when the Japanese students come to Moses Lake in August they will be given tours of government, historic and other sites throughout the Basin.

Chaperone Monica Montgomery and husband Beau are traveling on this year's trip.

Montgomery was one of the Moses Lake students who traveled to Yonezawa in 1987 and anticipates reconnecting with her host student, who is now married with children of her own.

"It inspired me to continue studying Japanese," Montgomery said of once being an exchange student.

After participating in the exchange Montgomery went back to Japan to live for a year teaching English to Japanese children.

"Being together as adults I can speak more Japanese now so it will be fun," she said.

This year marks the 25th year of the exchange program between Moses Lake and Yonezawa.

City manager Joe Gavinski was present when the official signing of the program took place.

"The best thing about this relationship is the fact that there is the involvement with the children and the youth which is the future of Moses Lake and of course Yonezawa city," Gavinski said.