Wartburg professor Kunihiko Terasawa hosted 13 Wartburg alumni, current students and friends of the college at the fifth annual Tokyo Outfly July 1.

Attendees included Sayumi Abe (2006), Shigeru Ōta (2007), Hiroyuki Yokota (2007), Ayako Shimizu (2008), Aiko Miyazawa (2007), SiRena Webb (2012), Kyōsuke Sumida (2016), Tatsuto Shibuya (2018), Minori Aikawa (2020) and Katsuya Okonogi (2020).

Terasawa, an assistant professor of religion, said the celebration honored the recent graduation of Naoya Kawaida and Fumiya Kitahara, who also were in attendance.

The group also reminisced about their years at Wartburg through shared photographs and videos. Alumni currently living in Japan offered insight about job-hunting in Japan and the United States to the recent graduates and reminded current students about the importance of studying hard and participating in extra-curricular activities.

Attendees also celebrated the extension of Webb’s Japanese Exchange Teaching (JET) Program contract, which will allow her to continue teaching English at a Japanese public school for one more year. A typical JET contract is only four years, and extensions are rarely offered.