For the past two decades, I’ve visited the cultural festival at Kokugakuin Tochigi University High School every year to see performances by Ms. Saigusa’s musical club. There, whenever I saw the display for the homestay program—organized almost every summer by Mr. Devin Kelso, an English teacher at the school, in which students from the school visit his hometown in Iowa—I’d dream of going there myself someday.

That dream came true this year. During the week of Silver Week in September—which is packed with national holidays—I visited Mount Vernon and Lisbon in Iowa, Mr. Kelso’s hometown, as well as the filming location of the movie Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, the world’s steepest funicular train in Dubuque, Iowa, and the Mark Twain and Tom Sawyer museums in Hannibal, Missouri—destinations frequently visited by students on the homestay program. By driving a rental car on American roads, staying at motels, and eating at diners, I experienced America’s good old-fashioned culture.