Escaping an assailant. Blindfolded trust tests. Climbing nimbly across an unsteady bridge of PVC pipes. To the curious onlooker, the performance of such feats by a visiting group of Japanese students may have looked like a ninja initiation. To the group, their BYU ropes course was just another stop on their weeklong American tour.

Eager to have an American educational experience, 235 students from the all-male Nishiyamato Junior High School in Osaka, Japan, participated in "BYU Day" as part of the school's eighteenth annual trip to the U.S.

School Vice Principal Makoto Hashizume said the trip is an important way of learning about American culture.

"To Japan, America is the most important country in the world," Hashizume said. "It is not only about business, but the influence your culture has on these kids' way of life."

Utah Jazz fan and school English teacher Hidetake Kobayashi said he wants his students to see the independence of American students.

"In America, kids know how to express themselves and how to act," Kobayashi said. "That is what we want for our students."

Apart from the ropes course, students toured the campus and watched an "explosive" chemistry demonstration by professor Roger Harrison.

The highly diverse language capacities of BYU students facilitated the group coming to BYU, said Laurel Hornberger, assistant administrator of BYU conferences and workshops.

BYU Day culminated for the students in a closing social, where performers from SUU performed Native American folk dancing and the visiting students themselves performed Judo and Kendo forms.

Tomorrow, the group continues its American journey, traveling to Disneyland: from Happy Valley to the Happiest Place on Earth.

Copyright Brigham Young University 28 Oct 2008