FOUNTAIN VALLEY : Teens From Japan Get a Taste of O.C.

Yukiko Sakamoto giggled as Michael Arvesen, a member of the Fountain Valley High School varsity basketball team, put his arm around her as they posed for the camera.

“Arvesen scored 20 points!” a classmate yelled as others whooped.

Sakamoto, 18, a visiting student from Japan, blushed. After the picture was taken, she turned to Arvesen, 15, and said, “Thank you.”

The picture is sure to be one Sakamoto will treasure about her first visit to Orange County.

Sixteen students, ages 14 to 18, from Iwate, a rural area in the northern part of Japan, toured science and math classes, the gym, the swimming pool, the cafeteria, the library--even the restrooms--at Fountain Valley High. Their hosts were members of the school’s Japanese Club who speak fluent Japanese.

Meeting American boys on the varsity basketball team was especially exciting for Sakamoto and the other girls who visited the campus Monday afternoon.

Sakamoto, who speaks some English, said she was taken by the tall, good-looking and friendly American boys.

“They look strong and big,” Etsuko Yuzawa, 14, agreed.

To make things equal, the Japanese boys posed for a picture with the girls’ varsity basketball team. Wearing a red jacket emblazoned with Honda patches, Yuya Sakamoto, 14, gave a thumbs-up and a smile as the flash went off.

Yuya said afterward that American girls are “very tall and very pretty.”

Ellen Sadao, formerly of Huntington Beach and an English teacher with the Japanese Exchange Teaching Program in Japan, is escorting the group of foreign students during their nine-day stay in Orange County. They leave for home on Friday.

The students are staying with host families in Fountain Valley, Westminster and Garden Grove.

During their stay so far, the students have saturated themselves in American culture, including visits to Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm and South Coast Plaza, Sadao said.

Fountain Valley resident Cindy Hawkswell, whose family of six played host to Yukiko Sakamoto, said she made no special preparations for her guest, since the point of the visit was to see Americans as they really live. Sakamoto has eaten tacos, burritos and peanut butter sandwiches.

“She’s my Japanese daughter,” said Hawkswell, who coordinated the home stay program through the ASPECT Foundation, a nonprofit group for foreign students who come here to learn the American culture.

“You realize people are people” no matter where they are from, she said. “We’re not different, even though the cultures may be different.”

At Fountain Valley High, Principal Gary Ernst said the school was eager to show off the campus, especially since the school has a large Asian-American population.

“To me, it’s a reflection of pride in the school,” Ernst said. “We are a multicultural school. They come to our school from Japan and fit right in.”

However, the Japanese students noticed differences in high school life in America.

They said Fountain Valley High is much larger than the schools in Japan, and there is more freedom here and hands-on learning.

“They thought the American students were friendly,” said student Michael Takamura, a member of the school’s Japanese Club. “They felt very welcome to the school.”