American Students from San Diego Visit Ofunato to Play Baseball and Learn About Tohoku and Japanese Culture

Eight baseball players from San Diego, California were selected to travel to Ofunato to participate in the TOMODACHI San Diego-Ofunato Youth Baseball Exchange Program from July 24 to August 1, 2016. In its fourth year, this program is a reciprocal baseball exchange program in which baseball players from San Diego, California and Ofunato, Iwate prefecture in Tohoku visit each other’s countries for a baseball exchange, cultural exchange and homestay experience. In 2015, eight Japanese players had visited San Diego.

During the program, the San Diego baseball players visited a local Japanese middle school to hear presentations about their 3.11 experiences, toured Rikuzentakata and Ofunato Bay, attended barbecue parties with the Japanese baseball players and their host families, and went cave exploring. These cultural activities enabled the American program participants to get a better understanding of Japan, the devastation that the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami had caused, as well as how it still affects the people in Tohoku today.

Through this program, participants from both countries were able to make new friends and to learn about each other’s customs and lifestyles while competing in baseball, a sport so popular and important to the traditions and histories of both the United States and Japan.

One of the participants, Kevin Covarrubias, shared, “The TOMODACHI baseball exchange program gave me a different perspective of life and I will remember this forever. The city of Ofunato is beautiful: it was so green, the ocean looked amazing, and I ate the best scallops in the world.”