Many families are forced into having a long-distance relationship with siblings, but the City of Ames is taking it to extremes.

Residents have the opportunity to make the 6,100-mile trip to Ames’ sister city, Koshu, Japan, in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Koshu, a city in the Chubu region near Mount Fuji, is considered by the Ames International Partner City Association to be Ames’ partner city. The organization was formed after a typhoon hit Japan in 1959 and Ames sends a group of residents to spend time learning about another culture each year.

“The typhoon caused a lot of Japanese farmers to lose all of their hogs,” said Dianne Brotherson, president of the organization. “Iowa farmers donated hogs and corn to the farmers in Japan.”

For nearly 25 years, Ames has sent groups of people to Japan and vice versa to stay with host families and get a feel for the culture that is half a world away.

“President Eisenhower helped set up the partner city program,” said Bob Kindred, assistant city manager. “It wasn’t meant to pay off economically, but so the countries could learn about each other.”

The groups are made up of either youth or adults and the age groups alternate each year.

An adult group will be going this year. The Ames residents will leave in June, but the Koshu residents will not come to Ames until September.

Upon arrival in Japan, the Ames residents will meet their host families, who will take care of them for the week they are there. The host families provide shelter, food and pay for expenses while in Koshu.

Ames residents do pay for their flight, hotel stay in Tokyo and other expenses they have when not with their host family, costing around $2,000.

Japan is a mountainous country about the size of California, but holds nearly 125 million people.

“Everything is tiny. The houses are tiny and the yards are tiny,” Brotherson said. “They have to be because everything has to be compressed.”

The Koshu residents also spend a week in Ames living with host families. When they arrive, their host families pick them up and take them to City Hall. Community members take them to spend a day in Des Moines, as well as take them ice skating and to visit places around Ames.

“They have a very gracious culture,” Brotherson said. “They are quiet and polite, and they work very hard.”

Koshu and Ames celebrated their 20-year anniversary of participating in the sister city program in 2013. To celebrate, they planted two trees at the Ames Middle School, one oak and one cherry. They also planted one of each tree on their trip to Japan.

The sister city trip is available through Ames International Partner City Association to all Ames residents, which includes ISU students.

To find more information about the organization or how to go on the trip, check out the City of Ames website.