Moses Lake students get tickets to Japan

MOSES LAKE — In less than a week, five students from Moses Lake are going to be on a plane heading to Japan.

The Moses Lake/Yonezawa sister city exchange students received their Japan Airlines tickets Wednesday for the July 25 flight, along with $120 each in spending money.

Dani Holle, David Hochstatter, Brandt Frederick, Jed Hunter and Reid Ackerman leave Moses Lake at 3 a.m., said chaperone Cathy Sly. They take a bus to Vancouver, British Columbia, where they catch a flight to Japan. They return Aug. 1.

Since 1979, Japan Airlines has bought tickets for students to travel to Japan, said chaperone Doug Sly.

Ackerman and Holle said they feel excited, rather than nervous about the trip.

"(I want to) take it all in, the sights, just experience the country," Ackerman said.

"I just want to get a really good experience of their culture and have a fun time," Holle said.

In addition to visiting Yonezawa's City Hall, fire station, police station and chamber of commerce, students climb Mt. Tengendai, make T-shirts, visit the sake museum, carve birds in the Sasano Wood Carving shop and watch fireworks.

Frederick said the one thing he wants to do most is see Tokyo, which is where the plane lands.

Following a parent's concern about an earthquake in Japan Monday, Japan Airlines Administration Director Mako Oshima said he heard of no impact to Yonezawa.

"I think the distance is maybe 200 kilometers or more," Oshima said.

In Yonezawa, the students are going to see no damage from the earthquake, he said.