LIHU‘E — A 30-year celebration of the sister-city relationship between Kaua‘i and Moriyama City, Japan, was briefly interrupted, Wednesday morning on Hardy Street fronting the Kaua‘i War Memorial Convention Hall. Members of a group of keiki from a nearby preschool
LIHU‘E — A 30-year celebration of the sister-city relationship between Kaua‘i and Moriyama City, Japan, was briefly interrupted, Wednesday morning on Hardy Street fronting the Kaua‘i War Memorial Convention Hall.
Members of a group of keiki from a nearby preschool were taking a field trip to the Lihu‘e Public Library, taking advantage of the warm, clear morning weather, and as they passed the ceremony, Moriyama City Mayor Nobuhiro Yamada broke away from the group to meet the keiki.
“He likes children,” one of the Japanese entourage members said, taking the mayor’s lead to get acquainted with the passing group of children.
A dual tree-planting Wednesday celebrated not only the sister-city relationship, but also the Rotary Exchange Student program that was formed following the establishment of the sister-city program.
Lani Nagao-Tadaki, the first exchange student from Kaua‘i to travel to Japan for a year’s schooling under this program between the Rotary Club of Moriyama and the Rotary Club of Kaua‘i, flew in from O‘ahu especially for the occasion, and served as the event’s mistress of ceremony, demonstrating her ability to translate between English and Japanese for the dignitaries present.
Representatives from the Rotary Club of Kauai joined Kaua‘i Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste and former Mayor Maryanne Kusaka at the celebration.
Marc Imamura, another of the Kaua‘i Rotary exchange students, said that Tsugio Kawashima is the person connected with the Rotary Club who helped start the program on the Japan end. Various members current and past of the Rotary Club of Kauai, and state Department of Education leaders on Kaua‘i, helped get the program started on the Kaua‘i end.
Also on hand for the day’s celebration were representatives of the Kauai Japanese Cultural Society, as well as some of the Kaua‘i Rotary exchange students who just returned from Moriyama and will address members and guests of the Rotary Club of Kaua‘i at The Terrace Restaurant at the Kauai Lagoons resort in Lihu‘e today at noon.
The two trees planted on the grounds of the convention hall included a pua kenikeni tree, celebrating the exchange-student program, and a relative of the gardenia tree, commemorating the sister-city relationship.
- Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, 245-3681 (ext. 253).
