Japanese high school students help sort potatoes while getting a tour of the Red Deer Food Bank on Thursday. (rdnewsNOW/ Ian Gustafson)

By Ian Gustafson

Educational trip

Japanese high school students travel to Red Deer for Canadian experience

Jul 24, 2025 | 4:58 PM

A group of high school students from Japan have landed in Red Deer to get a taste of what it’s like to be Canadian.

The group of 20 students from the Toshimagaoka Joshi Gakuen High School in Japan arrived in the Prairie’s on July 21 and will stay until the end of the month. Toshimagaoka Joshi Gakuen is a private all-girls school in Tokyo meant for exceptional students.

While they’re here, the group have all been assigned a host family to live with in Red Deer to experience life in our country.

Kelly Jacobson, program coordinator with MLI Homestay, an organization that provides learning experiences in Canada for international students, said the community is fortunate to get to host them.

The trip is meant to be an educational trip for all of the girls, who stepped foot in Canada for the very first time.

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“They consider it small town Canada. We know Red Deer isn’t really a small town but when there’s millions of people in Tokyo, Red Deer is a small town,” Jacobson said.

Among the activities the students will take part in includes an educational program at St. Francis of Assisi Middle School. They will also explore the area’s attractions and in the evenings and weekends, spend time with their host families to experience every day activities.

These included a community tour where they walked from Heritage Ranch to Bower Ponds to get to know the trail system. They also plan to go to the Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site to learn about history in the area.

“A lot of their learning is about how Red Deer became known but for the most part, their job is to intertwine into Canadian culture and learn about Canadian culture,” he said. “It’s only two weeks so they only get a little taste.”

Japanese high school students were given a tour of the Red Deer Food Bank on Thursday. (rdnewsNOW/ Ian Gustafson)

On Thursday afternoon, the students volunteered at the Red Deer Food Bank where they got a tour of the facility and helped put together food hampers.

They’ve also had plenty of fun such as shopping at the mall in stores they don’t have back home and tried different Canadian foods like Kraft Dinner, poutine, Nanaimo bars, and Cheezies.

So far, the consensus has been a lot of the food is too salty.

“I’ve been surprised by the food. There’s just so many foods I haven’t tried but it’s all been delicious. Sometimes it’s been so sweet or so salty,” said Tina adding she’s excited to try poutine.

“I think Canada is a very nice place and I love the nature. It’s very nice but it’s a little cold.”

Meantime, Ao said she’s lived in the city for most of her life so the nature and landscape in Red Deer and Canada has been eye-opening.

“This has been a great experience for me and it’s been cool outside. Tokyo is very hot,” she said.

“The houses and buildings are all really big in Canada… We live in small apartments so everything is big here.”

Ao added she also plans to cook a traditional Japanese dish for her host family.