"I thought that I wanted to go to Europe, and since Estonia's Song and Dance Festival is wonderful, it caught my interest — I definitely wanted to take part in it," Musubi Miyashita said on ETV's "Terevisioon" on Thursday morning, speaking in Estonian.

"And Tallinn's Old Town is also very beautiful," she added.

"When I saw a video of Estonia's Song and Dance Festival, I got very emotional, and I thought that I definitely want to go to that festival," explained Jiu Miura.

Both Miyashita and Miura's Song Festival dreams are coming true, as they'll be singing in the choir onstage next month. While Miyashita had also hoped to learn some Estonian folk dance, this time, the girls will watch the Dance Festival from the stands.

Miyashita attended 10th grade at Loo School, east of Tallinn, and Miura 11th grade at Kohila High School in Rapla County.

Miyashita also had private lessons with an Estonian language tutor twice a week. "But I spoke in Estonian every day with my host mom, host dad and host sister," she added.

Miura also tried learning biology and physics in Estonian, but admitted that still proved very difficult.

For Miyashita, Estonian grammar has proven a bit tricky to learn. Miura, meanwhile, found that writing in Estonian is hard, and pointed out that Estonian pronunciation is completely different from Japanese.

"For me, the most difficult thing was Estonians' typical nature," Miyashita acknowledged. "Estonians are reserved; they want to be alone, and talk less. In Japan, we're always in groups and constantly talking. But my host family helped me."

"Estonians are a very kind people," Miura concluded. "I don't even want to go back to Japan."

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