Naruha Nishizaki

A 16-year-old Japanese high school student from Otawara Tochigi, Japan, is spending the next 12 months with Mike and Mary Swords and their son, Gideon, 13, of Lehigh Acres.

Naruha Nishizaki left Japan and flew alone to the U.S. landing in Dallas, Texas, where she had around a four-hour layover before boarding a plane to Fort Myers. She had to retrieve her own luggage from the Japanese flight and lug it to the plane bound for Florida.

But Naruha said in her broken English that she got through the airport and then found a seat and sat there and watched the people.

Mike and Mary Swords, Gideon, and a close friend of the Swords, Mary Hanson, were at Southwest Regional Airport on July 29 to meet the flight and joyful young Japanese girl who had spent almost 24 hours in the air traveling to her destiny. She will be 17 in about two weeks.

Her “American father” is president of the Rotary Club of Club of Lehigh Acres and it is through the club and its international Youth Exchange Program that Naruha is in America. He is also a partner with David Deetscreek in the firm of SDS Accounting in Lehigh.

Naruha Nishizaki, third from left, is shown with her U.S. family, her “American Dad,” Mike Swords, her “American brother,” Gideon Swords, and her “American mother” for the year, Mary Swords. Photo by Mel Toadvine

On Thursday of last week, Naruha was the guest of the Rotary Club and Swords and his wife were on hand to introduce her to the 30 or more members who attend the weekly meetings at the Microtel Inn & Suites.

“Hello, I’m Naruha Nishizaki. I am 16 years old. As a Youth Exchange student, I’m looking forward to learning many things and to making many friends in your country,” she read from a letter she had written as she faced the group.

She barely had started to eat her lunch when she was called upon to speak.

“You did fine,” whispered Mary Swords with a wide smile as the young Japanese girl continued reading to the members.

“First, I am going to tell you about my school life. I am a first grade student at Utsunomiya Giorls High School in Tochigi. We have six classes on Wednesdays and seven classes on the other days.

Mary Swords introduces Naruha Nishizaki to the Rotary Club of Lehigh Acres last week. Mary and her husband, Mike, who is the president of the Rotary Club, are the Japanese student’s American family through the Rotary’s Youth Exchange Student program. Photo by Mel Toadvine

“At school I learn various subjects modern Japanese, classic Japanese, math, English (reading and grammar), world history, social studies, chemistry, physical education, health education, and home economics,” she said.

Naruha also said she enjoys such elective subjects as art, music and shodo (Japanese calligraphy). She said she chose art and has loved art ever since she was a child in elementary school.

“Especially, I like pencil sketching,” she said smiling.

The Rotarians gave her a standing applause and she lowered her head to show her appreciation.

“She is a very nice young woman,” Mary Swords said at home before they went to the Rotary luncheon.

This is Naruha Nishizaki’s family in Japan. The image was shown to Rotarians on a screen during their meeting last week.

“We call her Nisi for short,” she said.

“We really think she did well to be in the air for 21 to 23 hours, the longest being from Japan to Denver,” Mary Swords said.

“I brought two suitcases,” Naruha said. Her American mother added that she had stuffed them with clothes, too.

While in the U.S. for the coming year, she will attend Lehigh Senior High School where she especially is excited about making friends, she said, and learning to speak “American English.”

Mike Swords said they are learning very quickly to communicate with Naruha and she fits well into their family.

“We intend to show her around the area,” he said. “We stopped at the Cracker Barrel restaurant on the way home from the airport and she really enjoyed herself there.”

Mike and Mary’s son, Gideon, is home schooled, but Naruha will be taken to public school in the morning by Mike and likely picked up in the afternoon by Mary or their friend, who lives with them.

In Japan, Naruha said she had to get up at precisely 5:50 a.m. and because her home is far from her school, she travels to school by car, train and bicycle.

“I leave home at 6:25 every morning. I am on the train for about 40 minutes from the station near my house to Utsunomiya station. I then ride a bike and I get to school at around 8,” she told the Rotarians.

Her father, Kazunari Nishizaki, sent a letter to the Swords family along with his daughter. In it, he said he was very pleased that she was selected as an exchange student in the Rotary Youth Long-Term Exchange Program.

He said there is a younger daughter, Ayae, who is six years old and said that “Naruha sometimes cooks dinner for us all.”

That made Naruha laugh when she was interviewed at the Swords home in Lehigh last week.

“My mother is a good cook, not me,” she laughed.

Naruha’s English is improving by the day. She noted in her sometimes broken English that the language isn’t like it is taught in Japan and that is one of the reasons she said she wanted to come to America, to learn to speak English. In communications between the Swords and her father, prior to her arrival, her dad told Mike Swords, that he had come to America for a few months after college.

In Japan he is a financial planner and runs a Japanese style hotel in Tochigi, something akin to an American bed and breakfasts inn.

Before leaving Japan, her family bought her a laptop computer that has keys with both English and Japanese letters on it. The laptop has a webcam camera built in to it and it can be used to Skye to communicate with others.

“Oh, she has already Skped with her family a couple of times since she has been here,” said Mary Swords. It’s great that we all can communicate through the computer and they see their daughter and our family and we can see them, and it was very clear.”

Mary Hanson, a dear and close friend to the Swords family said she is delighted with the arrival of Naruha.

“She calls me “Grand Mam,” she said and calls Mike, “Dad,” and his wife, “Mam.”

In Japan, Naruha said all students study English.

She listed to questions asked of her and often had to ask the meaning of a word such as a concert.

She was asked about her love for music and she said it was one of her favorite pastimes and when asked if she had attended musical concerts, she had to get help for the meaning of the word.

“Ahhh, concerts, yes,” she said smiling.

Her favorite pastime hobby is playing Kendo, something that is very popular in Japan and no doubt will become a part of the Swords’ life during the next 12 months

“Kendo is a Japanese traditional martial art. I started it when I was in junior high school. We practice in bare feet so it is very cold in winter, but I like it because it is very fun. I hope to continue to play Kendo. Also, I like listening to music. I like pop music. I can relax when I listen to music,” Naruha said.

Mike Swords said she was given spending money by her parents and also she is given a stipend by the Rotary to buy things she may want while in America.

But an American roof over her head and plenty of good American meals are taken care of by the Swords family. To them for the next year, she will be like their second child.

And from the friendships that are developing, it appears they may last for many years to come, long after she has returned to Japan, where she will resume her studies. While in America, she receives no scholastic credit for courses she may take.

That makes sense since most foreign exchange students must master the English language in order to understand what may be taking part in classs.

“But students who are selected to come to the U.S. must have a certain amount of English comprehension,” Mike Swords said. “And she is doing very well with English. No doubt that when she leaves, she will have learned the way we speak in America.”

And because of Gideon, and the students she will become friends with, we thinks we will see her expedite her fluency in English, Swords said.

The Rotary program takes care of her health benefits if she were to be hospitalized or require extensive medical treatment.

And in Lehigh, one of her sponsors, Dr. Frank Avey, who is a Rotarian, has agreed to be her personal physician if she gets the sniffles, the Swords said.

The family was busy last week getting school supplies and making sure Naruha had the proper shots to attend school. Mary Swords was on the phone talking often with Lee County health officials.

“We’re going to do okay and we are in love with Naruha already. She is just a delightful young woman and we hope her stay here is a happy one,” Mary Swords said.

And Naruha’s father wrote in his letter that he hopes that “this exchange program will leave both you (the Swords family) and Naruha with some wonderful memories of your time together.”