When Kirsten Fleming headed to Tokyo late last month, she didn’t have any inkling that she would have a reunion 30 years in the making.
The now Calgary resident took part in the Regina-Fujioka Student Exchange Program in 1996 when she was living in the Queen City and became fast friends with Japanese student Naemi Uchibayashi.
The program allows students each year from Regina and Fujioka to visit each city and learn each other’s cultures while staying with a host family.
It’s an experience that Fleming said has stuck with her to this day, so while in Japan this year, she decided to try to reach out via Instagram to see if she could locate Uchibayashi.
“I actually only had a few days, I was only in Tokyo for a week, and I only had one free day, which was Saturday. So, the clock was ticking, but it was like the internet rose to the challenge and really wanted to see us succeed,” Fleming said.
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“So, every time I went back to my room, I would check my phone, and it would be like another 400,000 views and so many comments. It turned out that someone in the exchange program went to her high school, and the principal of that high school was like, ‘Oh, I know where her mom lives, and went and knocked on her mother’s door and just said, ‘Your exchange student from 1996 is here and wants to see you.’”
Fleming got up early on Saturday morning and boarded a train for a one hour and 45-minute ride from Tokyo to Fujioka.
“It was very surreal and really overwhelming. I was just shaking. And I got there and there were so many people, and everybody had their phone out and they had people from City Hall in Fujioka were there, and people who had been through the program after me,” she said.
“And then Naemie was there with her mom and her brother and her brother’s wife and the little baby and her husband and kids. So, it was just this really special experience to all be together after all of these years.”
Gilbert Proulx, who currently works with the exchange program as its Board of Trustees co-chair, took part in the program as a student in 1999.
Now an elementary school teacher in Regina, Proulx said the program had a lasting effect on his life and led him to becoming an educator, even spending a year in Japan teaching English.
He said Fleming’s story is not only about the positive power of social media, but also the lasting connections that the exchange program creates.
“It’s obviously remarkable. I enjoy the whole concept of social media being a sounding board for that connection piece. And for someone to just be able to track down a friend that they had 30 years ago when social media didn’t even exist,” Proulx said.
“I thought it was an incredible story to share about what this program can do for people. And even for myself too, because I went years without any connection with my student. But now we’ve reconnected over Facebook, in the last decade.”
As for what’s next for the rekindled friendship between Fleming and Uchibayashi, the now Calgary resident says she is hopeful Uchibayashi and her family will soon make a trip to Alberta to hit the slopes.
“We’ve been communicating a lot and exchanging pictures and comments. And we’re hoping that they maybe come and visit us and come skiing one of these years because they really love to ski. And we live in a ski town.”
From three decades of no contact, to two peas in a pod once again, all thanks to the power of social media.
