The Extracurricular Training for International Students 2017, designed not only as a training program, but also for exchanges between students, was held in Aki City on Saturday, November 11, 2017, participants included 57 international students of Kochi University and 52 students from Aki Sakuragaoka High School and Aki High School. 
  First on the itinerary was a visit to a sardine processing factory, where the participants took part in a study tour to see how they are processed and experience sun-drying young sardines themselves. After this, the international students were divided into 15 groups to participate in a tour guided by high school students, in which each group followed a route planned by each group of high school students to visit places like the Nora Dokei Clock, an old samurai residence, and a mom-and-pop candy store frequented by local high school students. Comments from the international students about this tour include: “I was moved to see those old streets, countryside landscapes and beautiful coastline,” and “It was a great experience for me to learn a lot of things about Aki City’s history from local high school students, who told me lots of detailed stories.” Then, the participants had a plate painting experience where they created unique plates, some with characters of different languages that the high school students learned from the international students. At the end of the day, they talked to each other about what they had seen and felt during the tour and each proposed one kanji character to express how they felt about the program, like “繋,” “情” and “和.”
  The feedback the university received from the students of the two high schools included “Sharing the cultures of each other countries has made me more interested in different overseas cultures,” “It was an invaluable experience for me to talk about many different things with international students in both English and Japanese,” and “The experience of introducing students from abroad to Aki City has given me a fresh respect for our home city.”
  This program has provided the international students with many worthwhile experiences, allowing them to have exchanges and build friendships with local students from the two high schools in Aki City, while at the same time interacting with fellow international students studying in different campuses of Kochi University, in addition to seeing the sun setting in the sea, rural scenic beauty and historic buildings in the city