Japanese students visiting McMichael Middle School spent the morning on Monday at Brooks-Quinn-Jones Elementary demonstrating origami, the Japanese art of paper folding.
The students from Amami City Public Schools are wrapping up their visit to Nacogdoches this week just as a second group of students – from Ikueikan Junior High – are set to arrive. Amami City Public Schools is on an island located southwest of the Japanese mainland. Ikueikan Junior High is located in Kagoshima City on the larger island of Kyushu.
The association between Nacogdoches and the Japanese communities began in 1993 and at first included Stephen F. Austin State University.
In 2018, the international relationship between the communities marked its 25th anniversary. Students from Japan visited again in the fall of 2019 but the onset of COVID-19 early in the next year halted the program until October 2023 when both schools restarted their visits. Students from McMichael visited their Japanese counterparts in May of 2024.
