Friday, Nov. 2, a meeting was held for people interested in going on the Japan trip.

The trip is held through Education First Tours. The meeting talked about ways for students to raise money to afford the trip. The students can sell chocolate to raise money if they would like.

“Being able to go on the trip would be exciting,” sophomore Ava Blecha said. “I am glad they offer ways to raise money though because then people get the chance to get more money to afford the trip.”

They also discussed the number of students they will take. The trip has a maximum of 24 students that can go. It is difficult to find host families, so they have put the limit of 24.

“Host families can be difficult to find in the city sometimes,” Academic Coordinator Travis Brady said. “There are so many kids that want to go, and a lot of kids we want to take, but we have to make sure everyone can easily find a host family so we have a limit of 24 students.”

Southwest has had a sister school relationship with Senshu-Matsudo since 2007. Every year they send students to Southwest. They send two students to Southwest during the school year. Then in the summer they send over about 200-300 students to Nebraska to experience the culture.

Southwest used to have students go over every three years, but took a break. Southwest got a new Japanese teacher and they are organizing a trip for this summer.

“I am glad that they are deciding to take kids on the trip again,” sophomore Camryn Beckman said. “It’s a really neat thing that they are doing. It gives us students the chance to experience a new culture.”