THE first group of students allowed out of earthquake-stricken Japan arrived in West Devon this week as part of Tavistock College's exchange programme writes Sam Hughes.

The 13 students and their teacher, from Kanto Daiichi High School in Edogawa City, Tokyo, arrived in the UK in the early hours of Sunday — delayed due to extensive radiation checks.

The students have been staying with host families, and have a packed itinerary, including horse riding, visits to Exeter Cathedral, the Eden Project and to London.

Seventeen year old Japanese student Shun Shimada was excited to be in England. He said: 'Dartmoor is so big and spacious. My host family is so kind and the Japanese classes are very interesting.'

Shun said his family were safe — but the disaster had been upsetting: 'I cried but the Japanese are strong and united as a country.'

Head of Japanese at the college Crispin Chambers said although Tokyo was not directly affected by the earthquake and tsunami, some of the students had family members who had been: 'It took them completely by surprise — they were expecting an earthquake but not a tsunami. They are used to earthquakes but nothing like this.'

At Tavistock College, the exchange students spent time in Japanese lessons and were visited by David Glover from ShelterBox.

David said: 'We have deployed 850 boxes so far to north of Sendai and we have another 5,000 ready to send. We are working with rotary clubs over there to distribute boxes and get people into the tents to take pressure off the community halls.'

The boxes each contain a tent, thermal blankets, tools, pots and pans and a water purification device which purifies up to 18,000 litres of water, among other things.

'Giving them the chance to survive is the most important thing,' said David.

Year 1 pupils from Whitchurch School presented the Japanese students with a card they had made. Teacher Mrs Earley said: 'They made origami butterflies and wrote messages of love and thoughts on them, then we took photos of the butterflies and stuck them on a giant butterfly cards.'

The Japanese students were also presented with a cheque for £150 from 30 boys from Tavistock College, after bag-packing at Morrisons to raise funds for the earthquake appeal.