The visitors and their hosts included (front, l-r): Junko Durante, Nancy King, Tsugumi Hori, Tugumi Yano, Suzuha Ueoka, Kayleigh Howald, Noriko Matsumoto; and (back, l-r): John Miller, Tony Durante, Rikuto Siota, Mihito Mizutani, Yosuke Takeshita, Reo Taga, Takahiro Yuri. Photos provided
By Faran Fagen
For Kiki Casale, trick-or-treating was the highlight of the five days she spent with Japanese exchange student Suzuha Ueoka.
For Ueoka, traveling from house to house, collecting candy and later gobbling down chocolate, was nothing like she ever experienced before.
“That was Suzuha’s first time trick-or-treating and she was mesmerized,” said Delray Beach City Commissioner Juli Casale, Kiki’s mom. “This was her first time to the United States and Delray Beach. She particularly enjoyed the beach, Sandoway Discovery Center and trick-or-treating on Halloween. Every moment was a highlight.”
From Oct. 28 through Nov. 1, seven high schoolers from Miyazu, Japan, took part in a student exchange in Delray Beach as part of the Sister Cities program. For an immersive cultural experience, they spent five days with host families.
For Juli Casale, it was exciting to see Delray Beach through the eyes of a visitor from a foreign country.
Kiki Casale with her mother, Delray Beach Commissioner Juli Casale.
“We are so fortunate in our city and sometimes, because it’s your day-to-day life, you forget how absolutely fabulous it is,” she said. “Suzuha reminded me that we need to appreciate what we have here in Delray because it is very special.”
The Sister Cities program is an international organization created in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to promote cultural understanding in hopes of decreasing the chance of world wars and conflicts.
Delray Beach established the official Sister Cities affiliation with Miyazu in 1977 to strengthen a bond of friendship with that city because it was the hometown of George Morikami. He donated more than 200 acres to Palm Beach County that became home to the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, which is named in his honor.
Since 1999, Delray Beach Sister Cities has been operating exchange programs where on alternating years high students from Delray Beach visit Miyazu, and then students from Miyazu visit Delray Beach.
Tony Durante is coordinator/teacher/mentor of the sessions each year and selected the host families. Durante, who speaks fluent Japanese, grew up in Delray Beach and spent more than two years living and teaching in Japan as a Christian missionary with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
The other chaperone/mentor is Delray Beach Sister Cities board member and city retiree Nancy King. Durante and King developed the schedule for the 2025 student exchange.
Some of the activities over the five days: tour City Hall and meet with Mayor Tom Carney; tour the Morikami; tour Atlantic High School; attend International Safari Dinner at Old School Square (vintage gym); and attend Bexley Park Halloween Party.
The Miyazu students and Delray Beach host students were Tsugumi Hori with Sofia and Isabella Giddings; Rikuto Siota with Pearce and Chloe Antoine-Boylan; Reo Taga and Yosuke Takeshita with Landen Nguyen; Ueoka with Kiki Casale; Tugumi Yano with Alyssia Zeno; and Mihito Mizutani with Shayna Katz.
For Katz, a senior at Spanish River High, the five-day experience with Mizutani taught her a new level of respect.
“They were very respectful and showed appreciation for everything,” Katz said. “I wish I had time to get to know him better.”
Katz plans to study early childhood education at Florida Gulf Coast University and cherishes the lessons she learned in patience and manners from the program. Her family has hosted exchange students seven times, and Mizutani was the first boy they welcomed to Delray Beach as part of the program. He also wasn’t fluent in English, so they relied on a phone translator to communicate.
After Halloween, Mizutani played animal charades with Katz and her friends. Mizutani didn’t know the English names of the animals but still acted them out.
“He was laughing with my friends and so full of energy,” Katz said. “I really got to know his personality in the five days.”
As for the Casale family, the connection with Japan will endure.
“My daughter has always wanted to visit Japan, so this experience was wonderful for her,” Juli Casale said. “One day we hope to visit Suzuha in her home country. We have been texting regularly since she left us.”
Kiki, a 10th grader, misses Suzuha’s energy and her smile.
“We’re still in touch, and we plan to have her visit us again someday,” she said. “It was a great experience I’ll never forget.”
On another front, Katz and her mom, Heather, are gearing up for a program that hosts high school students from Spain during the summer, called STEP.
Heather is looking for host families for the upcoming summer. For more information, email heatherannekatz@gmail.com or visit STEPUSA.org.
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