In Takanezawa Town, Tochigi Prefecture, where the pre-camp for the Lesotho athletes participating in the Tokyo Olympics was canceled, local junior high school students interacted online with the Lesotho embassy.

Takanezawa Town was the host town of Lesotho in Africa at the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, and was planning to accept advance training camps such as athletics.

However, because the training facility became a venue for mass inoculation of the new coronavirus vaccine, acceptance of pre-camps was stopped, and it became impossible to interact with athletes.



Under these circumstances, even if the training camp was canceled at the local Akutsu Junior High School, we called on the Lesotho Embassy in Tokyo to deepen our understanding of each other's cultures and conducted online exchange activities.

At the beginning, the students raised a flag with the motif of the flag of Lesotho made for the athletes and expressed their feelings of support.



In addition, I introduced the local festivals and school life in English while showing photos so that I could get to know Takanezawa Town.

In response, the embassy staff introduced the local industry and food, and Counselor Paris Masenkane said, "Since the cultures of each other are similar, we would like to cooperate more and deepen the relationship." ..



The girl student who participated said, "There is a place where culture can be understood, and I thought it was very interesting even though it was a different country. I was very happy to have international exchange."