Sister City trip open to three more students

In their next meeting, they will be considering going to other towns around Dickinson County to recruit students if they cannot receive applications from three students of USD 435.

Students wanting to go to Japan will need to have everything in order to ensure they're prepared for the trip. One necessity for students is to make sure they have three COVID vaccinations before taking flight. 

Another item traveling students need to have is a passport. They can apply for one at the post office. According to Marshall, passports take six to 10 weeks to arrive. 

Marshall said Japan intends to change its standards for COVID. The country sued to require that, if a student became sick during their visit, they would have to be isolated. 

"May 8th, Japan is changing their standards. They are going to consider COVID like the seasonal flu, so we will not have to isolate, and that is a big relief there because we would have to pay for the hotel and everything," Marshall said.

There will be an insurance policy for students if they get sick or have to go home. Even with that, visitors have to pay the costs up-front and be reimbursed at a later date. The insurance to cover any sickness will be roughly $61 per person and $610 in total for the whole group Marshall says.

"The trip is in July, so we have to get on this quickly," Marshall said.

The trip will also have three scholarships to help students pay for their trip. One from the Sister City Foundation, which has, "several thousand dollars there,” said Marshall. There is also the Bob & Ellis Johnson Scholarship, which has a little over $1,200. The city scholarship has well over $13,000, but the committee will not use all the money. They plan to send one or two students on the city scholarship. 

"The city scholarship is strictly for kids that can't afford the cost of the trip, whereas the other two scholarships any student can apply for," Marshall said.

Part of the cost of the trip will be the airfare. There are two separate types, $1,953 round-trip, or $2,300 round-trip, said Marshall. The committee hasn't decided which flight they will be taking.

"Well, the cheaper flight requires a lot of hours on a plane. Your first stop is in Chicago, then you go from Chicago to Japan. Then on the way back, you have to come through Denver, then you land in Kansas City," Marshall said.

The trip to Omitama features days jam-packed full of activities. Bill Marshall said he remembers the early wake-up time for the tour bus to take you to different events and places.

"I mean, you're up by six in the morning and on the bus by eight o'clock, and then they'll take you to different things there. Like in the United States, we have NASA, over there they have the same thing but on a much smaller scale. They have an air-defense airport they take you to, as well as monuments and interesting downtown Tokyo. There's a dairy farm there where this all started, and they'll take you there as well," Marshall said.