It was a series of tears and hugs at the city's airport yesterday as the handful of Japanese exchange students who've been visiting Whitehorse prepared to return to their hometown of Ushiku.

The teenagers had been in Whitehorse for nearly two weeks as part of a sister-city exchange program and had been staying in the homes of Whitehorse residents.

Ushiku is a city in Japan's Ibaraki prefecture (province) located just outside Tokyo.

The sister-city program is designed to facilitate cultural understanding between two nations and Whitehorse has been Ushiku's sister-city since an agreement was signed between the two cities in 1985.

Watching some of her friends wipe away tears, Satoe Hidano said she had a great time in Whitehorse and was sad to be leaving.

'The scenery and the wilderness were amazing, I was really surprised,' she said.

'My favourite part of the trip was staying with my homestay family; they were very kind to me.'

Fellow visitor Chizuru Yasu said her favourite part of the trip was getting the chance to practice her English.

'Whitehorse is a very fun place to visit. I like all the camping and canoeing we did,' said Masashi Okubo. 'The way Canadians spend their time is way different than what we do in Japan.'

Yuki Hatano said his favourite part of the trip was using a rope swing to launch himself into some of the local lakes.

'It was pretty cool, I'd never really done something like that before,' Hatano said.

Rinta Minami said his favourite part of the trip was the fact that he was staying in a city that was 'completely surrounded' by wilderness.

'It was amazing; the forests, beautiful lakes and rivers and all the animals, I really loved it,' Minami said.

One of the students' two chaperones, Kazuhiko Toshima, said he felt the experience would be a valuable one for the students but admitted that he too did some learning while in the Yukon's capital city.

'Everybody here seems to have a love and a respect for the nature that surrounds them.

'When I was out walking with my host family, they would explain the various plants and trees to me but were very careful not to pick or disturb the things they were explaining.

'They were even careful to whisper and tiptoe around any wildlife we came across; it was really impressive,' Toshima said.

But it wasn't only those returning to Japan who had the long faces. The groups of host families who had turned out to bid farewell to their Japanese 'family members' were also displaying some regrets.

Host parents Stan and Ruth Dueck said this was their first time participating in the exchange and described it as a 'learning experience and a challenge.

'The language barrier was a bit of a challenge. Sometimes we'd ask the same question three times and get three different answers,' said Stan. 'We only found out that the child we were hosting had a sister in town on Saturday.'

'We found that the use of an English-Japanese, Japanese-English dictionary came in handy,' added Ruth.

Sister-city program co-ordinator Shea Newnham said that overall, he felt that both the Canadian and Japanese students enjoyed the experience and everything went pretty smoothly.

'I think they learned a lot, but in many ways, kids are kids, and they just wanted to have fun,' he said.