First Annual Japan-U.S. Goodwill Cherry Blossom Festival
12:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. –  Sunday, April 7, 2013
1401 Shelter Island Drive, San Diego, CA 92016

Attendees are encouraged to park for free at the Shelter Island Shoreline Park parking lot,across from Humphreys Half Moon Inn & Suites. A free shuttle will be provided from 11:30 a.m.to 3:30 p.m., to take attendees to and from the event site.

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For more information please contact :
Kaneko Bishop, President (619-583-8979) 
San Diego Yokohama Sister City Society

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Dear Member and Friends

Our weather has been very unpredictable, but certainly spring has arrived with all the flowers blooming.

One hundred years ago last year, 3,000 cherry trees were sent from Japan to Washington, D.C. as a symbol of eternal friendship between these two great nations.

To commemorate this centennial year, approximately 2,000 cherry trees were distributed to 36 cities in the U.S., San Diego was chosen to receive 31 trees. Fifteen were planted along the promenade by the U.S. Midway Museum and 16 were planted around the Friendship Bell on Shelter Island.

The San Diego-Yokohama Sister City Society and the Unified Port of San Diego would like to honor this beautiful symbol of friendship by holding the First Annual Japan-U.S. Goodwill Cherry Blossom Festival on Sunday, April 7, 2013, from 12:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Friendship Bell.

For this special event, we are inviting high school students to participate in a Japanese speech contest.

I am enclosing a flyer describing the event and would like to invite you to come and enjoy a beautiful spring afternoon with family and friends at the Friendship Bell.

As a non-profit organization with no funding from the City, I also would like to thank you for your generous support, which has made all of our projects possible.

I am looking forward to see you on April 7.

Sincerely,

Kaneko O Bishop
President

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Presented by

Performance by San Diego Taiko

High School Japanese Speech Contest

Japanese Cultural Table

• Origami Activities
• Calligraphy Workshops
• Paper Cutting Demonstrations

Bake Sale (proceeds go to the Tohoku Disaster Relief Fund)

JAPAN TO HONOR WOMAN FOR PROMOTING U.S. TIES
By Peter Rowe –

SAN DIEGO — Del Cerro resident Kaneko Bishop’s efforts to introduce Americans to Japanese culture have made her a well-known figure in San Diego.

And in Tokyo.

During ceremonies in the Japanese capital this month, Bishop will receive one of the government of Japan’s most prestigious decorations: The Order of the Rising Sun, with Gold and Silver Rays. She was cited for contributing “to the promotion of regional relationship between Japan and the United States.”

Kaneko Oshima Bishop, 83, was born in Nagoya, Japan. Since moving to San Diego in 1972 with her husband, H. Kenneth Bishop, she has been prominent in the Japanese-American community. A master of the Japanese tea ceremony and ikebana, the art of flower arranging, she is president of the San Diego-Yokohama Sister City Society. Co-founder of Balboa Park’s Japanese Friendship Garden, she has served on the San Diego Human Relations Commission, the San Diego International Affairs Board and the Mingei International Museum’s board of trustees.

While she’s demure and soft-spoken, Bishop is known for her ability to get things done. After an earthquake and tsunami devastated northeast Japan, she led a fundraising campaign that netted $10,000 for relief efforts.

But citizen diplomacy, as Bishop practices it, is a two-way street. When San Diego County was ravaged by wildfires in 2003, residents of Yokohama sent a $17,000 donation.

“The citizens there know San Diego,” Bishop said in a 2006 interview, “and take a special pride in San Diego being a sister city.”

Established in 1875, the Order of the Rising Sun is the Japanese government’s oldest decoration. Bishop’s conferment ceremony will take place May 15.

Peter Rowe • U-T Original article Below
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/may/03/tp-japan-to-honor-woman-for-promoting-us-ties/