While watching a tower billow smoke, a mock fire rescue, and water arch from firehoses, a dozen visiting Japanese students practiced their English skills during an afternoon at the Oak Harbor Fire Department.

Twelve students, between the ages of 12 and 16, are visiting Oak Harbor through the English Conversational Center International in Japan.

The Foundation for International Understanding is hosting the group during their visit.

Lynn Byers, the organizer for Oak Harbor’s branch of FIU, said that FIU has sponsored groups from Japan for more than 12 years. She said the foundation hopes to bridge the gap between cultures and minimize the differences.

“There aren’t that many differences. It is just another person from another country,” Byers said.

She said sometimes the visiting groups are composed of teachers who are looking for ways to expose their students to different cultures and languages. Other times, it is just a group of children from different towns who are all interested in improving their English conversation skills.

This year’s group is made up of children from different towns.

Kumiko Ishibashi, the group’s escort, said these students met for the first time in the airport right before they boarded to come to the United States.

“For most of them it’s their first time here,” Byers said. “And many of them are really into the American culture.”

Since their arrival on July 29, Ishibashi said she and the group have visited Leavenworth, Seattle and Coupeville, and attended Oak Harbor’s Boys and Girls Club and National Night Out.

During a visit at the Oak Harbor fire station, 16-year-old Youichi Noma volunteered to assist the firefighters in a fire rescue demonstration.

All the students filed out to watch as firefighters drove their engines to the smoking training tower. Firefighters burst through the first-floor and entered the structure.

From a ladder truck, Noma and another firefighter climbed the outstretched ladder to receive the body dummy handed out to them by one of the firefighter inside.

In a mixture of English and Japanese, the students exclaimed and bantered about the mock rescue taking place. Then in awe, they watched as the fire team demonstrated their “drown and surround” firefighting technique using powerful water arches from the hoses.

“We just wanted to show them the way that we fight fires here,” Lt. Craig Anderson said. “They are most impressed with the size of everything.”

Anderson said in the six years the fire department has participated with the Japanese student groups, he has found that many of the students are surprised by the weight of the equipment and gear, the size and power of the trucks, and the weight of the dummies used in training practices.

After the rescue, firefighters monitored the students as they climbed into the trucks, scaled the ladder, shot the hose and extinguished a contained fire with fire extinguishers.

Takashi Matsuyama, 14, and Yuta Sugimoto, 13, said they had a fun time watching and participating in the day’s activities. They ran from the ladder to the hose, and then to the extinguisher, making sure they got to take part in everything and shoving one another to do the same.

Byers said she always tries to plan a few of the group’s outings for Oak Harbor so students do not simply sightsee, but also take part in the community and see a little of what happens in everyday life and in everyday jobs.

“I am grateful,” Noma said, of the part given to him to play in the fire rescue.

Noma and all of his fellow students expressed their gratitude again to the firefighters, for their hospitality and time, when the group took its leave of the fire station.

Before they left, however, all of the students made sure they had photos of the firefighters, the trucks and each other.

“It’s good exposure for them to be with English speaking people,” Byers said. “Everybody had fun. Thank you. We’ll be back next year.”