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Nagano students building international bridges As part of the One School, One Country Program to promote friendly associations with the 83 countries and regions that will participate in the Nagano Games, students attending 77 schools there have been carrying out various activities involving overseas students and athletes. The schools have each chosen one or two countries, and have been studying their history and customs to help themselves build friendships with visitors who represent those lands.
At Shinonoi Nishi Middle School in Nagano City, for instance, the students have established close ties with Olympic-related organizations and students from the United States and Australia over the past two years.
In October 1996, the students had the first opportunity to communicate with Australian high school students. Australian students sent e-mail messages to Shinonoi Nishi Middle School. The Japanese seventh graders then drew pictures showing how they felt after reading the messages and mailed them to the Australian students.
In April 1997, members of Olympic-related associations in both the United States and Australia visited Shinonoi Nishi to meet with the students and talk about the upcoming Olympics. The visitors included members of Paralympic organizations. In July this year, four U.S. middle school students visited Shinonoi Nishi, attended classes, ate school lunches, and enjoyed club activities with their Japanese counterparts. In September, the students sent a teddy bear packed in a trunk to schools in the United States as well as in Australia, along with their letters and gifts. The stuffed animal is nicknamed "Hello Bear." The dolls are being provided to participating schools by local post offices to encourage children in Nagano to correspond with their overseas friends. Nearly 100 Nagano schools are expected to send out bears before the start of the Olympics.
In the program, each school sends its toy bear to a school in its partner country. The school receiving the teddy bear then lets the Japanese students know with a postcard that the bear has arrived and sends it on to another school overseas. The toy is sent from one school to another, across national boundaries, until it returns to the original sender in Japan.
