A group of Mexican students gave speeches in Japanese at the Mexican Embassy last week to cap the month-long Japan-Mexico Student Exchange Program, which ran from July 12.
As part of the projects commemorating the 400th Anniversary of the visit to Mexico of a Japanese Mission headed by Tsunenaga Hasekura in 1614, the exchange program was organized by the Onjuku-machi International Association in collaboration with the Chiba Institute of Technology and the Kanda University of International Studies, with the cooperation of the embassy, the city of Onjuku and Chiba Prefecture. Five high school and five college students spent one month in Chiba's Onjuku, taking intensive Japanese language courses and participating in a number of cultural activities and experiences from lifesaving to ikebana, kimono dressing, calligraphy, Japanese food and historical tours, as well as visiting local schools and interacting with Japanese students and people.
Onjuku is the location of Japan's first contact with Mexican people in 1609, when local fishermen and "ama" (female divers) rescued 317 Mexican lives from a rough ocean.