Intrax, based in San Francisco, has been placing students from Japan with host families for more than a decade. This is the fourth year Intrax has sent students to St. Petersburg. Thisincluded air fare and sightseeing stopovers in New York City and San Francisco. While Azalea Baptist has been the location for Intrax classes for the past four years, the program is not religious or affiliated with a church. The Kanda Institute of Foreign Languages in Tokyo is a secondary school but not a college or university.
Students go there to learn other languages and how to function in a multicultural society.
For example, in a Japanese business setting, people do not pat each other on the back. So when they get back home and are having a conversation with an American, they have some knowledge. Gracie Peaslee, a kindergarten teacher at Azalea Elementary School, was host to Mami Fukaya, 19. Peaslee took her visitor to school with her early every morning, giving kindergarten children an introduction to Japanese culture. They are not real pushy.