FISH and chips is one Lancashire delicacy that Kaoru Okazaki is glad is not on sale in Japan.

Kaoru has left behind city life in Japan to spend a year at Westholme High School in Blackburn as part of an international travel scheme.

She arrived in Blackburn last year -- on her first trip to Britain -- to raise awareness of Japanese culture and language.

While she has been here she's experienced a culture and diet that is totally different to her own. Kaoru is going home with a love of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, but she won't miss Lancashire cheese or fish and chips because she hates them.

During her time at the school, she has introduced Westholme pupils to the traditional oriental tea ceremony, sushi, origami and calligraphy as well as Japanese haiku poems.

Kaoru, of Fukuoka City on the south west coast of the island of Kyushu, taught senior school pupils about economy and trade and spent time with sixth form students speaking Japanese.

She has also joined in school trips to Hadrian's Wall and the Millennium Dome. Kaoru, 24, said :"I've really enjoyed the lovely country scenery around the school. The girls and staff are brilliant and have been very supportive on every occasion when I needed help. All the teachers work very hard here and this has impressed me very much."

Bobby Georghiou, who has organised the exchange scheme at Westholme for the past three years, said: "Kaoru is our third visitor from Japan and she has contributed a great deal to the school.

"Thanks to her, many of our sixth formers are going to university with a knowledge of the Japanese language and way of life and of the many opportunities to be found in the Far East.

"For the younger girls, there have been chances to learn skills that no one else could have taught them. Kaoru has always fitted into the staffroom and joined in all of the school's events. We shall miss her when she returns to Japan, but hope that she will take home many happy memories of Blackburn and of the school."

Kaoru graduated from Ritsumeikan University with a degree in law and has visited six other European countries.