22 June 2014
Mayor Steve Chadwick, councillors and Rotorua District Council staff welcomed 37 students from Rotorua's Japanese sister city, Beppu, at a reception in the Civic Centre Council Chamber on Thursday (19 June).
The 37 Hamurodai High School students arrived in Rotorua on Monday (16 June) and are staying with families of Western Heights High School students. They are attending classes at the school during their week in Rotorua and participating in extramural activities.
Mayor Chadwick said annual exchanges between young people of Rotorua and Beppu were a foundation of the sister city relationship.
Sharing our cultures and our customs with people from other countries opens our students' eyes to the global village we live in.
A sister school' agreement was signed in Rotorua in 2001 between Hamurodai High School and Western Heights High School, with annual student exchanges becoming a regular feature of the two schools' close links.
Hamurodai High School is one of Beppu's academic prefectural high schools. Beppu is in the Oita Prefecture on the southern island of Kyushu and, like Rotorua, is known worldwide for its hot springs and geothermal attractions.
Pictured: Mayor Steve Chadwick, councillors, RDC staff and visiting Hamurodai High School students at a mayoral reception in the Council Chamber