Students from Shiga Prefectural Moriyama High School were back in the Lake District again this summer for a one week study programme as part of their Japanese Ministry of Education funded school project “To Realise a Sustainable Society”. We were delighted to be invited to their final presentation workshop and farewell party at the YHA Grasmere, where the students presented Ms Sarah Swindley, CEO of the Lake District Foundation with a generous donation of £100.
At the barbeque party which followed the presentations, students quizzed our CEO eagerly on topics ranging from the differences in environmental awareness in Japan and the UK, attitudes to volunteerism in the two nations, and why the Lake District could take a leaf out of Japan’s book, by installing road mirrors on corners to help cars and buses more safely navigate the Lake District’s many narrow and winding roads. Sarah Swindley pronounced herself “utterly charmed” by the Moriyama high school students, and we hope to see them again next year, as well, perhaps, as students from other Japanese high schools, in years to come. With better weather, hopefully, given the torrential rain that fell during the farewell barbeque!