MARIETTA - When Sam Doak was 11 years old, she spent a month with an English family in Japan, riding the bullet train and visiting shrines there.
Now that she has four children of her own - Linn, 21, Liza, 17, Liam, 15, and Emma, 12 - Sam Doak thinks it's important that they, too, are exposed to a different culture.
So for the past 10 years or so, Sam and her husband, Bill, of Marietta, have been playing host to Japanese youth through the Ohio 4-H/Labo International Exchange Program.
"Labo is the Japanese 4-H equivalent," Sam Doak said.
The Labo Foundation aims to teach Japanese youth about the English language and American culture. Through the organization, almost 600 Japanese youth and their adult leaders travel to America for a one-month home stay each summer. Ohio 4-H hosts many of these visitors.
Since July 23rd, the Doaks' have welcomed 14-year-old Taiga Sakamoto, who has been spending a lot of time with Liam.
"Ideally with these young teens, you have a child who is (a) similar age, so I have a child who is the same sex and similar age," Sam Doak said. "They relate really well."
Liam said he enjoys doing things like fishing and making rice cakes with Taiga.
"He's like having a friend over all the time," he said. "He helps out a lot ... I teach him to unicycle."
Taiga's first week in the area was spent in Jackson County at the Ohio Senior Shooting Education Camp, where Sam Doak worked as a nurse. She said the boy didn't do any shooting, but he still participated in fun activities.
"One of the requirements for hosting is your child isn't supposed to be exposed to firearms of any sort," she said. "So he and Emma, instead of doing shooting, they did frontier times, which is a living history discipline."
Sam Doak said through this program, Taiga learned how to cook over an open fire and make arrow quivers out of tree bark, among other things.
Taiga also went on a family trip with the Doaks to Cincinnati, where he was able to visit a few museums, but other than that, he just does regular kid stuff, Sam Doak said.
"He likes to play (the video game) 'Rock Band' - he's a really good drummer," she said.
One major difference between her children and Taiga is that he almost never stops studying, reading or writing, she said.
"Their culture is really education-driven - their whole summer is a month long and their exchange lasts for the entirety of their summer vacation," she said. "Once they hit 15 years old, they are indoctrinated into school and they can't take any time out."
She added that Taiga's English is actually quite good as compared to that of other Japanese youth the family has hosted, and he seems to like American food quite well.
"It's just a real growth opportunity for our kids who live in a predominantly white area of Appalachia," she said. "He's a good brother for us," Sam?Doak said.
