What is an international exchange with Rotary like?

Japan Student Exchange conflicts?

• Hello my name is Jonathan and for the last year and a half I have been revamping my high school plan by being able to graduate in three years and go to Japan for student exchange on what would be my senior year. Don't take that the wrong way, last semester I had a 4.71, so don't think that I'm not taking challenging classes because of the missing year. Anyways back to subject, after proceeding with the plan, when I actually got to the point where it was time to do paper work for the actual organization that's doing the Youth exchange my parents are pointing out their issues with the idea. The first issue they have is that the program is one year. My thoughts on this are since I would be done with all the classes for graduation and entrance to four year colleges that why would that matter. If it were only a semester then I would be just coming home and sitting and doing nothing for another semester. So maybe its just me but I don't think its the academic part that would do any harm but I can see why they might miss me. Secondly everyone probably knows about the Fukushima nuclear reactor that had a meltdown in addition with the tsunami and earthquake. The organization I'm going through (Rotary) only puts you in safe regions of the Country but they are convinced that the radiation is everywhere including the food and just about everything else. I understand that it could very well be in the food but that same food is most likely being shipped to the US also. ( I have briefly looked up Fukushima effects but came up with nothing besides a year old articles) Lastly they say that they also would like to take a year vacation but "that's not how life works". Since I know some people are going to say why don't you just go in college...In my opinion I want to be focusing in college and doing the best quality of work possible. This is not possible with my experience in Japanese to be able to go to a college in Japan and study. Secondly in college you most likely would be staying with other International students. In Rotary you stay with a host family which I would prefer much more than staying in a dorm. Let me know if I missed anything and thanks for your time.

• Answer:

  - The organization I'm going through (Rotary) only puts you in safe regions of the Country but they are convinced that the radiation is everywhere including the food and just about everything else. That is basically FUD. Unless you plan to camp out in the Fukushima Daiichi parking lot, there is no danger. The media as hyped up the situation to improve their ratings by making it sound bad. In fact, it's under control and there is no danger. If anything, the situation shows how safe nuclear power is. Consider that forty year old plants were hit with an earthquake five times the strength they were designed for and yet they still shut down safely. The generators came on like they were supposed to when grid power was cut. Then the tsunami hit and the generators were wiped out. However, the battery backup still worked for the designed eight hours. The problem happened when no new generators could be put in. Even so the problems have been minimal--media scare mongering for ratings not withstanding. Here is an informative article describing the situation: http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/13/fukushima-simple-explanation/ And here is where you find factual status information: http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/2011/fukushimafull.html And a slide presentation that describes the effects: http://www.slideshare.net/iaea/radiological-monitoring-and-consequences-of-fukushima-nuclear-accident-2-june-2011 And here is a chart that helps make sense of the numbers: http://www.xkcd.com/radiation/ About radiation: http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/07/21/radiation-hormesis/#more-4837