The two earthquakes that hit Japan’s southern most island of Kyushu have not endangered the  Camden-Rockport Middle School eighth graders, who left April 15 for Tokyo. The students visiting Japan are far north of the quake site, and are now in Tokyo, but are bound for Japan’s northern region.

The group of students arrived at school at 6 a.m. Friday morning, and left shortly thereafter on a bus to Portland to begin their trip to Japan. It’s an annual tradition that has happened since 1997. In the winter a group of Japanese students visited Camden and now it’s Camden’s turn to visit Japan.

The first leg of the journey for the 10 middle school students and two chaperones is a bus to Portland. This is chaperone Elphie Owen’s second trip. 

“From Portland we take another bus to Boston,” she said. “But then we board a flight and go straight to Japan. It’s a 13-hour flight.”

Owen gave a little insight into what the students can expect.

“A lot of picture taking, just like here,” she said. “Really friendly and welcoming people in Japan. We have that wonderful, ongoing 17-year connection. We will see cherry blossoms, which I’m so excited about.”

Owen said the group will spend three days in Tokyo before heading to Hirakawa in Aomori Prefecture in Japan where the students will live with host families.

“Getting to Tokyo is an incredible experience because it’s a little disorienting,” she said. “It’s just so different. The signage in Tokyo is very bilingual, which is great for us. From Tokyo we take a bullet train north to Aomori and meet the host families and have a big welcoming party.”

She said it’s beautiful because nobody speaks each other’s language and by the end they’re all talking and hugging and crying because they have to leave.

Students and Chaperones traveling are Elphie Owen and Cathy Straka, as well as students Nicholas Tausek, Sam Maltese, Mason Bloomquist, Alec O/Dwyer, Tanner Castellano, Annika Charland, Alison Linares, Annabelle Williams, Sophie Ernst and Sarah Fiske.