The Kobe News ran a story about our Renton delegation visit to Nishiwaki in yesterday’s edition. The story describes our sister-city relationship, and explains that sixteen of us are visiting as part of our ongoing relationship. It summarizes the speeches that Mayor Kishi and I each gave, and says that we both appreciate the warm friendship between our cities. Then it describes the student exchange program between the cities. Lastly, the story summarizes the itinerary for our visit.

Today was our first full day in Nishiwaki. Our delegation convened this morning at city hall for an official meeting with the mayor and council of Nishiwaki, along with introduction of other special guests and city leaders.

We exchanged greetings, letters, and gifts. Mayor Kishi presented the city with a Kakejiku, which means “hanging picture” in English. It’s a beautiful, colorful banner (about five feet high) with a sun, bamboo, crane, pine… all happy images in Japan. The Crane also symbolizes long life.

After touring city hall, the city of Nishiwaki hosted us on a tour of a city history museum, an art museum, and their natural history museum (which includes a planetarium and an observatory with a 32″ telescope).

They also showed us some of their great parks, and other city facilities.

At lunch, I was deeply touched when Mayor Kishi himself brought out a birthday cake for my daughter Susie, who is celebrating her tenth birthday today. The whole delegation, and our Japanese hosts, sang happy birthday to Susie, and Susie characterized it as her best birthday ever. They also gave her some really cute gifts.

Evening was really fun. We joined another family to dine on Kobe beef and sukiyaki. The hosts are generous and gracious entertainers, and we had a wonderful time. They also made a cake for Susie, gave her a gift, and helped her and Cathy try on kimonos.

The most amazing site from yesterday travels was the immense impact of the Cherry blossoms everywhere. People were picnicking under the blossoms throughout Ueno Park, and the cherry trees were in full bloom lining many of the city’s streets.

We really enjoyed the Tokyo zoo, where the Giant Panda is a main attraction, and there were other animals we had never seen before. We also rode on a suspended monorail at the zoo.

The Tokyo history museum was very interesting and entertaining, as it had many models and interactive exhibits. We finished the day with Tokyo friends, with a traditional Japanese dinner (sitting on the floor in traditional room). We had the wonderful marbled beef that they have only in Japan, boiled right at our table and dipped in a variety of sauces. Also, vegetables, sea urchin, shrimp tempura, straw mushrooms, rice noodles, bean sprouts, and edible wild plants.

Cathy and Susie and I are now taking in the beautiful sights of Tokyo. I’ll blog more when I get a moment. Meanwhile, here are some images!

click each one to enlarge