NEWPORT BEACH : Top Okazaki Students See Sister City

Standing fully dressed but barefoot in the sand of Upper Newport Bay, six high school students from Okazaki, Japan, took lessons Monday in Southern California living.

The students held kayak paddles at the Newport Aquatic Center as they listened to Sheila Conover, a two-time member of the U.S. Olympic kayak team, issue instructions. Then they erupted into giggles.

The students, participants in Newport Beach’s sister-city exchange program with Okazaki, arrived Saturday with a packed agenda that includes visits to City Hall, local high schools and Disneyland.

The trip was arranged as an exchange for a visit to Okazaki this past July by seven Newport Beach high school and junior high school students. The sister-city program is a joint project of the city, the Corona del Mar Kiwanis Club, the Newport Balboa Rotary Club and the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

The Japanese students, who represent six schools in Okazaki, applied to the program and were selected because they were top students in English-language skills.

After touring Newport Bay on a 40-foot cabin cruiser and catching a glimpse of John Wayne’s former home Monday, the students lunched at the Balboa Bay Club and then took off for kayak school. They arrived in jackets and ties and school skirts and blouses.

“We left our (swim) suits at home,” said Kaori Nakane, 17, looking down at her bare feet.

But school clothes didn’t seem to weigh the students down as they floated out into the bay.

“They’re doing great,” said Jirka Batlik, director of kayaking and canoeing at the aquatic center. “I’m real impressed.”

“We want to impress them with some of the (California) lifestyle--the outdoors, the athletic, healthy lifestyle,” said Paul Prioleau, director of the Newport Aquatic Center. “And we want to make sure they have a good time so they remember it.”

But some students said what impressed them most so far about California wasn’t the surf-and-sand lifestyle but such cultural icons as New Kids on the Block, the beach and hamburgers.

The students also said the sister-city program, intended to promote cultural understanding, has reached its goal.

“Some day I want to live here,” said Hitomi Kuroyanagi, 17. “In Newport Beach.”