It might be hard to say who—guests or hosts—benefited the most recently, when the town welcomed 28 Japanese high school students for five days of English immersion and cultural exchange.

Around Harvard, 14 families hosted the students, part of a larger group of more than 100 students visiting Massachusetts from the Happy Science Academy, a religiously affiliated boarding school in Tochigi prefecture in central Japan.

"Wonderful" and "great" were common descriptions host families gave when asked about the homestays. Everywhere, the students were complimented for their politeness, friendliness, and the ease with which they adjusted to their new environment.

Marie Itakura practices pronouncing “17” versus “70” when asked about the ages of children of her host family. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

From left, Daiki Hosoano, Hikari Fujita, Yuki Egashira, and Satoru Yamazaki react to a word game being played with their classmates.

Manami Abe draws a map to illustrate what part of Japan was affected by the recent tsunami.

A student purchases treats from Bonnie Sweeney at the General Store.

Despite a 24-hour trip from Japan the day before, the 16- and 17-year-old students were lively and attentive in their first day of conversational English classes at the Congregational Church. Smiles and laughter came easily to the group. Several of the boys played on the Common during their lunch break or visited the General Store with the girls. All seemed eager to take in their temporary new home.

A full curriculum, balanced between academics, culture, and fun, lay ahead. One of their three "teacher-guides," Heather Morton, offered the girls in her class some advice. "Please speak more slowly," she encouraged them to ask.

Two days of classes were complemented with a day visiting Harvard University, MIT, and the Museum of Fine Arts, and an afternoon at Fruitlands Museum. Friday, they shadowed students at Ayer High School in the morning through lunch and visited Hildreth Elementary School in the afternoon.

Staying with an American host family was a critical part of the experience. Beth O'Malley, a local teacher-guide contracted by PeopleLink of California, found the willing Harvard hosts by advertisements in the paper, signs at the transfer station, and e-mails that chained their way to interested families.

Host families were asked to provide each student three meals a day, a place to sleep, transportation to the daily gathering spot, and, most importantly, an opportunity to participate in regular family activities. Saturday was reserved for whatever the family had planned. Margaret Nestler took the two boys staying with her family to Cambridge to visit an American 17-year-old and play sports. The Quarles family planned to highlight local life with a trip to the post office and elsewhere around town.

Hosts were not expected to know any Japanese, but Yuki Masuzawa and Takafumi Harayama, who stayed with the Chapman-Ruse family, may have been surprised to find that John Chapman had lived in Japan for five years. Chapman, who intentionally stayed with English, was able to help navigate cultural differences.

Takafumi thanked his hosts and their guests with a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, a ritualized custom that requires extensive training and practice. Adapting the living room and its coffee table to a tea room, kimono-dressed Takafumi skillfully prepared individual bowls of matcha, finely powdered green tea, served with shaped-sugar sweets. Although American coffee table gatherings usually require conversation, the tea ceremony is meant to be a quiet, contemplative occurrence. "Japanese like silence," Takafumi explained.

Students and hosts alike acknowledged the challenges of a new language. Being immersed in a foreign language can at first be mentally exhausting, and being constantly on-the-go physically tiring, but the students held up well. They were as positive at their farewell dinner at the Congregational Church as at their first day of class.

A common thread ran through their impressions of American life. The houses were bigger, the meal portions larger, the bathrooms more numerous, and the apple juice sweeter.

While Americans have been riveted to news of the earthquake and tsunami that hit northern Japan March 11, the girls in Morton's class were not eager to talk about it. They offered a positive outlook. "The fishing will return in about two years," one of them thought.

Sunday, the exchange students reconnected with the rest of their classmates and headed home after a stop in New York City, taking with them all they had seen and learned. And leaving behind, for all who met them, impressions of a wider world.