Open house highlights Sequim, Shiso City connection on Saturday
Published 11:30 am Tuesday, March 31, 2026
Simultaneously highlighting the beauty of the Friendship Garden and a recently rebooted Japanese-American exchange program, the Sequim-Shiso Sister City Association hosts a family-friendly open house event in Carrie Blake Community Park on Saturday.
The free event goes from noon-3 p.m. April 4 at 202 N. Blake Ave. in Sequim, with tours, a kite-building workshop, paper crafts, free portraits in the garden, and more.
A ribbon cutting with the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce will be held at 11:45 a.m.
Volunteers at the Friendship Garden said it’s possibly the first event of its kind for the garden since its formation 30-plus years ago.
“It’ll be nice to have something fun that people can have to focus on happy times,” said Jennie Petit, a volunteer and translator for the Sister City Association.
One of the event’s highlights includes a storytelling mobile application by Sequim artist Janine Miller where visitors can scan QR codes with their phones to see animated myth-based stories at eight locations around the garden, including bridges, the zen garden, and across from the lantern.
“Each story corresponds to specific features of the garden, encouraging visitors to engage with both the landscape and the cultural narratives tied to Sequim’s sister-city relationship with Shiso, Japan,” organizers said.
QR code signs will only be up on Saturday, Petit said, but they’re looking into more permanent options.
Sequim photographer Tom Bouchard will also offer limited amounts of portraits for free through his Cedar & Shore Studio on a first-come, first-served basis. Visitors can sign up in person from noon-2 p.m. with slots available from 2-3 p.m. Photos will be made available online afterward.
From noon-1 p.m. children’s kites will be available to color and fly, and from 1-1:30 p.m. and 2-2:30 p.m. docents will lead guided tours.
From 1-2 p.m. Miller will offer demonstrations of the cell phone application, and paper crafts will be available throughout the event. Local photographers, artists and floral designers will be on site throughout the event, including fine art photographer Marina Shipova.
Petit said 120 paper lanterns made by Sequim School District students will be on display in the garden, too.
The Sequim-Shiso Sister City Association will be available in the garden’s pavilion with information about the garden and its exchange program.
Partnership, exchange
Along with offering fun opportunities, Petit said organizers hope to highlight the Friendship Garden’s connection to Japan.
Sequim signed on for a Sister City agreement on June 5, 1993 with the City of Yamasaki, Japan, and on April 1, 2005, they reaffirmed the partnership after Yamasaki merged with three other towns to become Shiso City.
Then-mayor of Yamasaki Junzo Yasui offered to establish a Sequim garden in November 1994, and to help fund it for 10 years. It became the Sequim-Shiso Friendship Garden in Carrie Blake Community Park and features a stone lantern that was delivered from Japan in October 1997.
Sequim sent 120-plus students from 1994-2019 to Japan through the Sequim-Shiso Sister City Association to represent Sequim while learning about Japan’s culture, education, family life, and more. It went on hold in 2020 due to COVID-19.
Last October Sequim and Shiso City agreed to a new exchange schedule first with an online exchange on Jan. 24 in Sequim and Jan. 25 in Shiso City.
Representatives sent sweets and games to each other and spoke via a video conference call. Sequim students and chaperones will tentatively visit Shiso City in 2027, and Shiso City students and representatives will visit late summer 2028.
Details are still being worked out, organizers said.
More about the garden
The Friendship Garden is upkept by 10 volunteers who work weekly from 9 a.m.-noon Tuesdays through October. City of Sequim parks staff provide ongoing maintenance. Volunteers first met on Tuesday, March 24 to begin spring cleanup.
Of the volunteers, George Kennedy started in 2003, volunteer coordinator Jan Danford in 2013, and many others in more recent years.
Angie Terry said she’s volunteered for five years and that being there is like meditation. Fellow volunteers agreed saying it’s their therapy.
Organizers said the Friendship Garden is not specifically Japanese, but many of its plants and arrangements have been based on a Japanese garden. Large rocks are common in these gardens and known to symbolize permanence, stability and resilience, they said.
The Sequim-Shiso City Sister City Association meets at 1:30 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month in the Sequim Civic Center’s Burkett Community Room, 152 W. Cedar St.
For more information about the Sequim program and volunteering, call Jim Stoffer at 360-775-9356, or email to sequimsistercityassn@gmail.com.
