the 3rd Sister City established in the USA
SJOSC will be participating in Nikkei Matsuri with a community craft booth this year!
We will have a raffle also For a donation of $1-one ticket, $5 for 6 tickets, you’ll have a chance to win!
~1st Prize: a new SJOSC Happi (coat)! Designed with SJOSC and Kilamek, Co. in Japan
~2nd Prize: a koi plushie + Koyokun (our mascot) keychain
~3rd Prize: a koi plushie
Photos by John Pivetti, Gardener (Japanese Friendship Garden, PRNS, City of San Jose, CA)
Photos by John Pivetti (PRNS Gardener)
Our friends, the Koyamada Foundation, has been responding to disaster relief crises around the world since 2011 and the Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami. We have collaborated with the Koyamada Foundation in the San Jose-Okayama Sister Cities relationship and the Young Professionals Forums across 6 sister city (USA/Japan) which were presented in a report through CULCON Japan and CULCON USA to the President’s Office of the USA and the Prime Minister’s Office in Japan.
In the last few days, the situation in the Ukraine merited attention. With friends and citizens to unite and donate to the effort, KIF is working with those on the ground to get immediate aid to refugees.
https://kifglobal.org/what/issue/disaster/
Held on August 6, 2021 PDT our team of seven students and two volunteer SJOSC staff members were pleased to participate with Okayama City hosting our second virtual exchange of the year!
We shared the food we like and thanks to Alice on our student team – It was all student video and student edited!
We also shared a great ‘Intro to San Jose’ video which we will try to post next!
Two ways to share ‘hanami’ (blossom viewing)
Tonight 4/3/21 at 6pm PDT with Tokuzenji in Shimane Prefecture, Japan, with Okinawan music and Shamisen performance by Kyle Abbott on sjbetsuin.videos on the Betsuin YouTube Channel (You can find a link here too: http://sjbetsuin.com)
And – Go in person to a local park! The Consulate of Japan in San Francisco created and published this video just this week! https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=4041979872536631Grab some snacks and your favorite drink and join in!
at Kelley Park in San Jose, CA – The garden is a symbol of the friendship between Okayama and San Jose. Groundbreaking was in May 1960.
“Two years later- detailed plans for the garden, patterned after Okayama’s world famous Kōraku-en Park (後楽園) were approved by the city council of San Jose. Authenticity of design was a foremost consideration; and in the planning and construction special attention was paid to the traditional and symbolic meaning attached to the placement of rock, bridges and other features. Construction funds were budgeted by the city council, and these were generously supplemented by donations from various sources of money, materials and services.
The park was dedicated October-31, 1965, at a memorable program which marked also the eighth anniversary of the “sister city” affiliation. Among those present at the dedicatory ceremonies were Mayor and Mrs. Hirao Akazaki of Okayama.” (- these paragraphs are quoted here from city history of the sister city relationship)
Photos updated March 14, 2022
Walking Map Brochure – created by “Friends of the Japanese Friendship Garden” led by Aderyn Clark for her Girl Scout Gold Award Project 2020-2021
Volunteers gathered at the Japanese Friendship Garden on January 16, 2021 for the first Volunteer Day in the garden in 2021!
Twenty-seven volunteers who had signed up beforehand through the Eventbrite link), wearing facemarks and able to distance while working, cleared about 15-20 years of green waste and 1500 feet of fence line before tacking weeks and grass along the smoke tree hill, removing redwood chip to spread it outside the fence and worked on the stay weeds and thistles popping up in the garden.
We all thank you for doing so much work and the Friends of the JFG to make the Garden a good place to go!
Hosted by KIF Japan and JCI Japan with Subnational Collaboration from San Jose-Okayama Sister Cities. A set of six forums between USA cities and six cities in Japan will round out the first Young Professionals Forums. A report generated from discussion in these forums will be submitted to the Office of the Prime Minister of Japan through CULCON Japan and to the Office of the President of the United States of America through CULCON USA.
