Photos by John Pivetti Jr, Gardener PRNS



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!
on August 5th, San Jose-Okayama Sister Cities joins 50 (fifty) cities throughout the USA and thirteen prefectures in Japan in commemoration of 75 years of peace following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. The nuclear weapon was dropped on Hiroshima at 8:15am on August 6th. Japan, being 16 hours ahead of us here on the West Coast, USA, we will be ringing simultaneously here (Aug 5th, 4:15pm PDT) and in Japan (Aug 6th, 8:15am).
Tokuzenji in Oda City, Shimane Prefecture, Japan will be ringing their temple bell simultaneously with San Jose (on Zoom) and others in San Jose will be joining us.
The event will be on the SJBetsuin Video YouTube channel (access here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNzzDwOSv9YWh7nNfh1IjGw
In this time of the COVID19 world pandemic, it is good to remember that we are still working with our friends everywhere around the world through sister cities to become a peaceful collaboration of culture and community.