An Auburn foreign exchange student to Japan is returning over 50 years later — and with a uniquely Auburn gift
Scott Britain stands in a league of his own.
Five decades ago, he was selected to represent Auburn half a world away. Though he’d already graduated high school, he was the sole applicant in a fledgling foreign exchange program that would swap himself with a student in Tamba, Japan in the Hyōgo Prefecture — a rural, mountainous basin between the Seto Inland Sea and the Sea of Japan, about a 6-hour train ride from Tokyo. Since 1968, Tamba has been a sister city to Auburn.
In August, 1972, Scott packed his bags to spend a year in a completely foreign country. His counterpart, a student named Masahiro Andachi, did the same in Auburn. 51 years later, Scott is returning once again — and this time, with a present.
Somewhere nestled in his checked bag or carry-on will be a photograph of Auburn, Mt. Rainier, a moon and a deer. It’s taken from atop Mountain View Cemetery, just as the moon passed over the glacier. The two are framed between the antlers. It’s fittingly called Buck Moon Rising.
For his return trip, Scott wanted to bring a piece of home. For Robert Chism, the photographer, it’s a dream come true — especially because the photo almost never happened. It was luck that the clouds finally broke, just as he was about to leave for the night.
“This is just amazing,” Robert said. “I’m honored to be a part of it all.”
And after hearing Scott talk about this travels in Japan, who wouldn’t be honored? You could sit and listen to him talk all day about his year-long excursion and your jaw would never leave the floor.
Like how when he arrived, he intended to study pottery under one of Tamba’s legendary pottery craftsmen. He was already busy with an apprentice but his cousin wasn’t, so study he did. Only, there wasn’t room at the shop — no matter, his master built him an apartment to live in so he could stay and study.
Or how he befriended a martial arts master named Nakao Shingo who’d take him on motorcycle trips around town, hauling noodles in one arm as he clung for dear life with the other. He’d also shepherd him along on skiing trips in the Japanese Alps and to various restaurants, including one that served fish so fresh it was killed and sliced at the table.
“It was the freshest, most delicious sashimi I have ever eaten,” Scott said.
Or how all of the students in his class at Kaibara High School wanted to sit next to him in class. Because he’d already graduated, he already knew the answers to most of the questions. Despite having arrived not knowing a lick of Japanese.
“I didn’t get to pick my lab partner for a while,” Scott said. “But that was OK.”
Then there’s the time when his new friend gave him a motorcycle to drive around. No matter he’d never ridden one before — his host family was OK with it, as long as he got a proper Japanese license. It’s a difficult process, with a driving test that would make even the most hardened Americans squirm — you have to name the parts of the car and be ready to fix the test vehicle when they mock a breakdown.
But like the rest of his trip, luck stepped in. Or maybe it was fate? Could have been both.
“The DMV guy looked at my Washington driver’s license and said, ‘Oh Washington? Very high standards there,’” Scott said. “And so he gave me a license. No test.”
It’s the sort of story that only seems to happen in movies, and yet it really did occur. You can see it in the photos — each one depicting the red-cheeked Auburn native soaking in and absorbing a culture 5,000 miles away.
He hopes when he returns later this month with his wife Cheryl that he can show her the same places he lived and worked. It’ll look much different, sure, but the stories won’t age.
He also hopes to explore Tokyo a bit. He’s meeting Masahiro, too.
“I never got to see it much when I was there,” Scott said. “Only the airport.”
