[MMM]

I took a group of high school students to Japan a few years ago for a 2 week exchange. On the final day we had a going-away party with our host families (at school) and then we were going to say goodbye to the whole school in typical ceremonial style the next morning. At the going away party there were many tears and much hugging. The next morning the school principal pulled me into his office and told me Japanese don't hug, and what he witnessed essentially looked like an orgy to him (not his words, but basically). He said if we ever wanted to do an exchange with them again, that there would be no further physical contact between our respective students. He was livid and I was in shock.

We never did an exchange with them again, not because of this incident, but because of declining numbers the school shut down (it was combined with another school that had another exchange program in progress), but it was one of the strangest experiences I ever had.