March 12th 2023 O.A.
Torrance/Kashiwa Golden Jubilee
Torrance celebrated its 50th anniversary with its sister city, Kashiwa in Chiba prefecture, Japan.
As a commemoration, delegates from Kashiwa visited Torrance from February 16th to the 20th.
A welcoming barbecue party was held on Saturday the 18th at Wilson Park.
The delegates first visited the farmers’ market held at Wilson Park.
Past participants of the cultural exchange program attended the barbecue party and socialized as friends reunited with each other after a very long time.
The mayor of Kashiwa City also came from Japan and participated in the event.
orrance became a sister city with Kashiwa in 1973.
Since then, the 2 cities have been strongly connected to each other through delegates and exchange student programs which are looked after by the Torrance Sister City Association.
Delegates visited different public facilities and participated in a festival celebrating the 50th anniversary of friendship during their stay, and safely flew home to Japan.
JRA New Year’s Reception
February 27th was the New Year’s gathering of the Japanese Restaurant Association of America (JRA) at Miyako Hybrid Hotel in Torrance.
JRA is a nonprofit organization with its members being restaurant-related individuals and businesses.
They focus on spreading Japanese restaurants in the US and educating its members on the advancement of culinary techniques.
This is the first in-person New Year’s gathering that was held in 3 years due to the impact of COVID-19.
About 80 members and guests gathered together and were happy to see each other.
Consul General, Kenko Sone was appointed as the honorary president and stated his greetings.
He spoke about the measures the Japanese government is taking for exporting Japanese ingredients overseas.
Followed by stating his high hopes for Japanese food to spread in the state of Arizona, which is the jurisdiction of the Consulate General of Japan in LA with the support of JRA.
Next was the sake barrel breaking ceremony with a guest.
Participants then socialized and caught up with each other.
A certificate of appreciation was sent to Yoshimitsu Kikuchi of the Senfuku Restaurant, Minoru Motoyama of Restaurant Komasa, Toshiaki Toyoshima of Sushi Gen for their years of contribution towards spreading Japanese food, and Kota Kimura of JETRO for continuously sharing restaurant-related information during the pandemic.
JRA will continue to support Japanese restaurants that are impacted by COVID-19, and work hard on spreading Japanese food in the US with the Japanese government.