Irkutsk schoolchildren made an official visit to Kanazawa, Japan, where they saw the sights, met peers, stayed with Japanese families, and visited local schools.

From July 6 to 12, a friendly delegation of schoolchildren from Irkutsk was on an official visit to the Japanese sister city of Kanazawa.
As the head of the delegation, head of the Education Department of the Irkutsk city administration Valentina Peregudova, said, 13 schoolchildren and 3 adults went to Kanazawa. All the children are winners of sports competitions, creative contests, scientific and practical conferences, and Olympiads, and active participants in the City School Parliament. Two teachers traveled to Japan with the children: Elena Chernoyarova, an elementary school teacher at School No. 2 and winner of the “Recognition” teaching excellence competition, and Nikolai Dudka, an additional education teacher at the Municipal Palace of Children’s Creativity in Irkutsk.
“All the days of our stay in Kanazawa were very eventful,” Valentina Peregudova noted. “We saw not only the city’s sights, and that was not the main thing. Our main goal was live communication with peers and colleagues, exchange of experience, gaining new knowledge, and learning about the traditions and culture of another country. We visited two secondary schools in Kanazawa, and the children lived with Japanese families for two days. The mayor of Kanazawa gave our delegation a very warm welcome, and it should be noted that he spoke very highly of the Irkutsk children and expressed a desire for such school delegation exchanges to continue in the future. We also met with the head of the local education department. During the meeting, he expressed interest in teacher exchanges.”
The young people from Irkutsk talked a lot about the trip. Their brightest memories were connected with staying in families. The Irkutsk schoolchildren really liked the Japanese schools. They were especially impressed that Kanazawa has large schools with gymnasiums and outdoor swimming pools. Each school has many different clubs, and in addition, schoolchildren are required to do socially useful work. By the way, Japanese children clean the classrooms and the school themselves. In Japan, the Irkutsk students communicated in English, but during the trip they learned several Japanese phrases. After all, next year many of these children will be hosting Japanese children in their homes.
This year marks the 45th anniversary of the sister-city relationship between Irkutsk and Kanazawa. Within the framework of this cooperation, not only school delegation exchanges are held. In May 2012, an official delegation headed by the Mayor of Irkutsk Viktor Kondrashov visited the sister city. During the visit, an exhibition of Irkutsk artists, “My Siberia. The Irkutsk Land,” was opened. In August, a youth football team will go to Kanazawa, where it will play a friendly match with the Kanazawa city team at the new stadium. And in September, the well-known Irkutsk group “Doctor Jazz” will take part in a major jazz festival.
Based on materials from the press service of the Irkutsk city administration