Opinion: Springfield celebrates 20 years of Isesaki sisterhood

Everyone on the Springfield Sister Cities Association trip to Isesaki, Japan, on Oct. 3–12 had the people first on their memory list. The host families, the courtesy of strangers, the Isesaki City employees and friends from past exchanges all made it a trip full of great people and real connections.

It began with a 14-hour plane ride from Springfield, through Dallas, to Tokyo’s Narita Airport. There was a total of 24 hours traveled, and we passed the time in a variety of ways: sleep, Sudoku games, in-flight movies and wondering about the days ahead.

We would be representing Springfield to our sister city of Isesaki, Japan, with a delegation named in honor of the 20th anniversary of our sister city relationship: 20 for 20.

From Tokyo, it was a three-hour van trip to Isesaki, with the first of many ceremonies at City Hall upon our arrival. There was a large exhibit of Springfield items and photos set up in the lobby, honoring us with recollections of past exchanges.

In many ways, it was a group that brought the Sister Cities experience full circle.

SSCA board member Carolyn Gerdes was a member of City Council in 1986, when council first approved the sister city relationship with Isesaki. Rob Baird and Wally Munden were early presidents of SSCA. The trip was full of reminders of the growth of the relationship and all it has brought to Springfield in the way of culture, park development and tourism.

Trip favorites

Making a list of favorite events was not so easy. Plans for the future, food, amazing sites and beautiful shrines, conquering language barriers (often with laughter), shopping and culture all made the list of “bests.”

Second on the list may have been the food. From the traditional tea ceremonies to the Japanese breakfasts, complete with salad, rice, miso soup and salmon, we were treated to new tastes and flavors.

Or perhaps it was the shopping. We certainly did our bit for the Japanese economy, filling suitcases and shipping even more back. It’s only fair; when their delegations come here, they leave behind multiple shoeboxes in order to cram more tennis shoes, fishing equipment and souvenirs into their suitcases, just as we crammed in kimonos, tea sets, chopsticks and traditional kokeshi dolls.

And of course, there were the sights and sounds of Japan.

Miyajima Island has fantastic orange gates leading to the Shinto shrine. Hiroshima’s A-Dome and Peace Park were seen from an even more sobering perspective given the nuclear testing in North Korea during our visit. Kyoto and the Golden Pavilion shimmered in the afternoon sun. The masses of uniformed school children, the beautiful waterfalls, and shrine after shrine after shrine are committed to memory. Other memories were made by the drums of Noh Theatre and the sound of trains outside our rice paper windows.

Still, we kept coming back to the people. There was the young woman who stopped shopping and walked 15 minutes out of her way to get us safely to the best restaurant in order to sample okonomiyaki. There was the Isesaki city employee who gave us his Saturday to take us to Nikko. There were our host families, who showered us with gifts and special food and parties with their family and friends so that we could get to know their culture and traditions.

Business lessons

We had a series of meetings, as well.

SSCA President Mike Williamson capably led the meetings, where we learned about the All-Japan Festival planned for 2008 in which they plan to build the city of Springfield’s logo in flowers as a feature of a Japanese park site.

We talked about future sports, music, art and culinary exchanges. We began to see the benefits of the long-term investment we have made in each other, as it paid off in an open sharing of information and experiences, including a tour of an aquatic center and observation of the biking and trail system.

It’s the people that made us use the trip to make plans for the future.

We came away with ideas for our parks, our festivals, signage, art exhibitions and future tours.

Past SSCA president Cindy Jobe, our tour leader, who used her personal experience from more than a dozen previous trips, receives all the credit

for a successful tour that means SSCA will do it again, making the opportunity available to more citizens in the future.

The program has been building for 20 years, and this trip proved it will continue to build. As we learned in one of the Zen gardens where 15 rocks are laid out in a pattern so that you cannot see all 15 at one time, we should not be greedy to see and do everything at once – but to plan, take it a step at a time and let the whole picture unfold over time.

Because after all, it’s about the people, and people take time to understand and know.

Read about the history of Springfield Sister Cities Association and the people who have made it happen in an After 5 Travel Edition: Full circle

Kay Logsdon is Food Channel director for Noble & Associates. She can be reached at kay.logsdon@noble.net.