BY HITOMI TANAKA

　　Three years have passed since Sapporo University (SU) and Ball State University (BSU) became sister universities. In May, Brad Nixon and Peter Hicks came to SU to study Japanese and Japanese culture from BSU, which is in Muncie, Indiana. Brad began to study Japanese seven years ago and Peter two years ago. There are 17,000 students and many interesting fields of study at BSU. Brad is majoring in Journalism and Peter in Pottery.

I asked Peter why he studies pottery. "When I make pottery, I feel very calm. Of course, I like making pots, and when I look at a finished pot. It's very satisfying, and I like watching people use my pottery," he said. He began to study pottery seven years ago in high school. At his high school, the class's students always got High Awards at the pottery contest every year. He also got silver keys, or medals, three times at the contest. He wants to go to Kyushu while he stays in Japan. Peter said he wants to go there because, "Pottery has a long history in Kyushu."

Brad's hobbies are collecting Japanese games and watching Japanese Animation. He has many Japanese animation music CDs. He went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for one and a half years before he went to BSU. There is an Animation club at the University of Illinois and he belonged to that club. He likes the Japanese animation "Dragon Ball Z," "Marmalade Boy," and many others. He also likes singing songs and playing musical instruments. He can play the saxophone, the piano, and the drums. Peter's hobby is Swing Dancing. He began to practice Swing Dancing last December. "There are no places that we can Swing Dance in Japan," he said.

The reason they began to study Japanese is, "Japanese is cool, unique, and beautiful," said Peter. Brad said, "When I was a Junior high school student, my uncle gave me a Nintendo Super Famicom and three games. The games use Japanese. That started my interest in Japanese."

I asked them what is the most interesting Japanese custom. Brad likes Green Tea, so he is interested in Tea Ceremony. Peter said, "When I shop around, some shop assistants call out 'Irasshaimase' to me. There is no custom in America, so for a while it kind of unnerved me." Peter experienced this happening in his everyday life. To my surprise, common customs like this are very interesting for students coming from America.

They gave me a chance to reconsider Japanese culture through this interview. Japan has been receiving various things such as fashion, music, and movies, from America which we still receive even today. On the other hand, Brad has been interested in Japanese animation and Peter has been interested in Japanese pottery even though they live in America. This show the current trend in cultural exchange between America and Japan.

I hope that they come in touch with more Japanese culture and customs. Japanese students can learn about foreign cultures only through media and books. However, speaking with exchange students is a good opportunity for us to touch foreign cultures directly and not only through the mass media and books. I hope everyone becomes more active in this "grass-roots" international exchange.