How does one go about creating lasting memories for someone who visits the beautiful Pacific Northwest for the first time?

We welcomed our second Japanese exchange student for the summer this past Friday. She is from Tokyo and a very sweet person.

I had the opportunity to move with my family to Kobe, Japan in the early ’90s, where I taught the business of fashion to college students. We were completely immersed in the Japanese culture, and continue to enjoy being a host family to high school and college-age students.

We met Yuri Ishihashi for the first time at Bellevue College, where she will be attending daily English-speaking classes. We wanted to quickly immerse her into using English and share with her why Bellevue and Seattle are great places to visit.

After she unpacked, we took her to ViaVita, a delightful European inspired restaurant in downtown Bellevue, to celebrate restaurant owner Jan Lawrence’s birthday. Throughout the evening, many of Jan’s friends stopped by to extend birthday wishes.

On Saturday, Yuri wanted to go shopping, which is a favorite pastime in Japan. Our first stop was The Shops and The Bravern, where she enjoyed visiting Hermes, Tory Burch and Neiman Marcus. We then drove to The Bellevue Collection, where she wanted to shop at Victoria’s Secret, Burberry and Michael Kors. She also enjoyed the variety of designer clothing and shoes carried at Nordstrom (her favorite American designer is Marc Jacobs).

Our shopping adventure was followed with happy hour at Palomino and an art tour at the Bellevue Arts Museum. Yuri enjoyed all of the exhibits, especially Seattle artist Cathy McClure’s exhibit “Midway,” a whimsical collection of metal circus animals.

On Sunday, Yuri watched Japan’s baseball hero Ichiro Suzuki and the Seattle Mariners unfortunately loose to the Chicago White Socks. Upon returning home, we had our friend Hau’oli Jamora, defensive end for the UW Huskies, and two of his team friends over for dinner. Yuri was impressed, and the players were gentlemen. We wanted to create a Northwest themed dinner, so many of the recipes used were from my new favorite cookbook by Eastsider, Renee Benke, titled “Memorable Recipes.”

We have two more weeks to continue creating lasting memories for her, which will be easy to do. We live in such a great place!

Rose Dennis writes about events in Bellevue and the Greater Seattle area. She lives in Bellevue.