Welcome Mizuho Town! That’s the message Morgan Hill wants to
give representatives of its latest international
”
sister city,
”
Mizuho-machi, a Japanese community of about 35,000 people
northwest of Tokyo. (
”
Machi
”
means
”
town
”
in Japanese.)
Morgan Hill – Welcome Mizuho Town!
That’s the message Morgan Hill wants to give representatives of its latest international “sister city,” Mizuho-machi, a Japanese community of about 35,000 people northwest of Tokyo. (“Machi” means “town” in Japanese.)
“We’ve been looking for a sister city in Japan for quite some time. Our sister city committee sent out some feelers and that’s how we met,” said Morgan Hill Mayor Dennis Kennedy. “Establishing a sister city is kind of like dating. First you make an initial contact, then you meet each other, than you see if it’s going to work out or not.”
In November, delegates from Mizuho Town came to Morgan Hill to check out the South Valley community and see if it was a good match, he said. Because of economic and social similarities between the two communities, the towns pursued sister city status.
Morgan Hill resident Brian Shiroyama spearheaded the sister city bond with Mizuho Town to develop greater cultural perspective for residents of both cities. As a United States Air Force colonel, he lived in the American Yokota Air Force Base next to the community, he said.
“It’s very much like Morgan Hill with the population about the same, 36,000,” he said.
Last March, he traveled to the Japanese community to meet with the city council and discuss the official sister city relationship. He felt surprised how the town had changed since he last saw it. “It’s grown quite a bit since I was there,” he said.
The South Valley has a large Japanese American population which will nurture the relationship with Mizuho Town, he said.
“The reason why Mizuho Town pursued this relationship (is because) we matched up very well culturally,” he said. “But independent of all this, the mayor of Mizuho Town wanted to find better ways to take care of the foreigners who live in his town.”
n Four representatives from the Japanese city are scheduled to arrive in California on July 1. They will stay with local families to get a sense of what American life is like, Shiroyama said.
They face a busy time sight-seeing in the South Valley and attending the various Independence Day weekend events in Morgan Hill, starting with an informal reception at Grange Hall on July 2.
n On July 3, a special reception will be held for them at the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center in which Kennedy and Mayor Kouemon Ishizuka, of Mizuho Town, will officially sign documents creating the sister city status. At 6 p.m. that day, the Japanese guests will attend the annual patriotic singing performance at Britton Middle School.
n On July 4, the delegates will ride in a special place of honor in the annual downtown Independence Day parade. Around noon, at the community center, they will attend a reception with former mayors of Morgan Hill. That night, they’ll also attend the evening firework show.
n On July 5 at 12:30 p.m., the South Valley Japanese American community will give the Japanese delegates a special potluck meal at the Buddhist Cultural Center. “There’s no pot-lucking in Japan,” Shiroyama said. “The November delegation that came really enjoyed the potluck because there were so many choices of food.”
n On July 6, the Morgan Hill Sister City Committee will host a brunch for the guests at Guglielmo Winery. Following that, the delegates will leave the South Valley to catch their flight back to Japan.
Morgan Hill’s new civic sibling is proud of its forest culture and wildlife and its Web site describes the surrounding terrain as “an outdoor paradise.” Like in the South Valley, Mizuho Town residents enjoy camping and fishing in the surrounding rural region. In the fall, people from the region come to the forest to pick the matsutake wild mushrooms and chestnuts. The mushrooms give it a similarity to Morgan Hill, Shiroyama said.
The town is also famous for growing the decorative cyclamen flowers, another parallel with Morgan Hill where the flowers are commercially grown. Tea is another prominent agricultural product in Mizuho Town.
The community is also famous for its limestone cave which is 52 meters deep and a famous Japanese tourist attraction. And just like Morgan Hill holds various family-focused festivals throughout the year, so does Mizuho Town. Its major community event is its annual summer music and food festival in the downtown region.
Mizuho Town was chartered on Nov. 10, 1940 by the merger of four villages. Additional land was acquired in 1958 to make the area of the community about 17 square kilometers.
Morgan Hill representatives plan to pay a visit to Mizuho Town. “We are formulating the plans right now,” Shiroyama said. “We really haven’t progressed that far, but I’m sure there will be an official invitation by the (Mizuho Town) mayor for us to come.”
Mizuho Town is the fourth sister city for Morgan Hill. The others are Headford, Ireland, San Martin de Hidalgo in Jalisco, Mexico, and San Casciano in Val di Pesa Italy near Florence.
