The district’s official Welcome Center at 2100 Fleur Drive was the natural site for a brief ceremony welcoming a delegation from sister city Kofu, Japan for its reciprocal visit to Des Moines. In June, an entourage of DMPS middle schoolers traveled to Kofu.

This trans-Pacific ping-pong arrangement has been going on since 1983 and neither side seems to tire of it. Despite all that’s been learned from one another, there’s always more to be gained.

Indeed, “Given all of the tensions around the world right now,” said DMPS Superintendent Dr. Tom Ahart in his welcoming remarks, “we must never take this relationship for granted. It’s so enriching for both sides.”

Like Des Moines, Kofu is a capital city in the center of its country. The sibling cities share four-season climates and both provide extraordinary educational opportunities for their young people.

During their stay here, which runs through August 10, the Kofu kids will experience a sampler of Midwestern American culture ranging from a county fair to a ballgame. They’ll also visit a local school, drop in on Mayor Frank Cownie at City Hall, and tour the Iowa Statehouse.

In that spirit of cultural exchange, they performed a traditional Japanese fisherman’s folkdance for their hosts on Thursday morning, doing an admirable job of shoehorning a dance studio into a conference room.

There are 24 students in the Kofu traveling party, a nicely class-sized contingent for the latest in a symbiotic back-and-forth series of crash courses in the Japanese and American cultures. The real payoff, though, are discoveries of the universality of human nature.

Yokoso, Kofu!

Video of Kofu Student Performance