Broomfield Sister Cities celebrates cultural exchange and travel after Japan trip

Corbett Stevenson, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.
·2 min read

Oct. 5—Triple-digit heat did not prove enough to take the thrill out of a recent trip to Japan for 11 students and a group of chaperones participating in Broomfield's Sister Cities program.

"The trip overall was just a crazy experience, just once in a lifetime," Alton Zimmerman, a junior at Legacy High School said of the excursion. Zimmerman explained that it started with a few days in Tokyo, before moving on to Ueda.

"It was really great to see and compare Tokyo, which is kind of a futuristic big city, versus Ueda, which is much older. And we could feel the rich cultural past," he said.

While in Ueda, Zimmerman and 10 other students spent two weeks living with host families, immersing themselves in the culture and learning as much as possible.

"The host families were great, they were really welcoming and helpful and super kind," he said.

As part of Sister Cities International, Broomfield has had a sister city since 2001. Originally sisters with Maruko, Japan, Broomfield became sisters with Ueda when Maruko and other smaller towns were absorbed into the larger city of Ueda in 2006. For the last 22 years, Broomfield has been hosting Japanese exchange students and sending Broomfield students to Japan.

"There were so many amazing things that happened on the trip, but it really begins and ends with the host families," Mike Usrey, one of the chaperones for the trip, said. "We weren't staying in hotels or getting any Americanized or Westernized versions of the experience. We were getting pure, unfiltered Japanese culture."

As part of their immersion into the culture, the group visited an onsen, or hot spring, as well as historic temples and castles, learning about the history of the samurai. OPIE, the equivalent of the Sister Cities program in Japan, provided an experience their visitors considered amazing, helping to craft a busy itinerary and managing COVID-19 tests and isolation when necessary.

"It was a very good group of students, with a lot of curiosity about the culture," Usrey said. "When we were in Tokyo, two of the days had a heat index of 115. We were sightseeing on foot in 115- degree-heat through crowds, and they handled that with great composure."

Although this year's trip has concluded, Broomfield Sister Cities continues their work year round, educating on the value of cultural exchange.