A new contingent of visiting students arrived from Tokyo’s Tamagawa Gakuen last month, again experiencing the rich life of Harker students firsthand.

The 25 visiting high school students were on a nationwide tour of colleges, and took time out of their hectic schedules to tour Harker’s lower and uppe rschool campuses. They observed classes, spent time at college counseling and joined the junior class on an Eagle Buddies outing.

“The college tour was the first trip of its kind made by Tamagawa. They were visiting Stanford so decided they needed to come see us as well,” said Jennifer Walrod, Harker’s director of global education.

The Tamagawa teens were warmly escorted throughout the day by volunteer Harker students, including freshmen, juniors and seniors. They arrived in the morning and split up into two groups, one going to visit college counseling, the other observing such varied classes as theater, economics, English and Japanese. Then they regrouped as a team to join Harker juniors on a visit with their Eagle Buddies at the lower school.

“This was especially fun for them to observe, especially since they got to see the kids all dressed up for St. Patrick’s Day. They enjoyed watching them play various games and asked lots of questions about what the younger students were doing,” recalled Walrod.

After enjoying an outdoor lunch there, they returned to the upper school to finish class observations and visiting college counseling. Both Tamagawa teachers and students alike voiced how impressed they were at how many Harker students and teachers spoke Japanese.