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Open house event fetes revived friendship with Japan

Published 4:30 am Wednesday, April 8, 2026

By Sequim Gazette staff

Sequim Gazette photos by Monica Berkseth Representatives of the Sequim-Shiso Sister City Association, from left, Janine Miller, Jennie Petit, Jim Stoffer and Annette Hanson were on hand at Saturday’s open house event at the Friendship Garden at Carrie Blake Community Park to provide information about the student exchange program.
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Sequim Gazette photos by Monica Berkseth

Representatives of the Sequim-Shiso Sister City Association, from left, Janine Miller, Jennie Petit, Jim Stoffer and Annette Hanson were on hand at Saturday’s open house event at the Friendship Garden at Carrie Blake Community Park to provide information about the student exchange program.

Sequim Gazette photos by Monica Berkseth Representatives of the Sequim-Shiso Sister City Association, from left, Janine Miller, Jennie Petit, Jim Stoffer and Annette Hanson were on hand at Saturday’s open house event at the Friendship Garden at Carrie Blake Community Park to provide information about the student exchange program.
Sequim artist Janine Miller created a storytelling mobile application that allowed visitors to scan QR codes with their phones to see animated myth-based stories at eight locations around the Friendship Garden. The QR codes were only up on Saturday, but organizers are looking into more permanent options.
Visitors to Saturday’s event take in the view of the Friendship Garden’s pond and the stone lantern that was delivered from Japan in autumn 1997.
Sequim Gazette photos by Monica Berkseth From left, Guppy McCaffrey, 9, of Port Angeles, Sadie Miller, 17, also of Port Angeles, and Jasmine Bailey of Sequim were happy to pose as garden fairies for fine art photographer Marina Shipova.
Sequim students in every grade made 120 lanterns to hang from trees at the Friendship Garden. The number represents the students who traveled from Sequim to Japan between 1994-2019 as part of the Sequim-Shiso City exchange program, which was recently restarted after it was halted by COVID-19.
Claire Packer, 6, of Sequim, flies the kite she made at the Friendship Garden open house event at Carrie Blake Community Park.
Craft-making was part of the fun at the Friendship Garden open house event at Carrie Blake Community Park.

The Sequim-Shiso Sister City Association hosted a free open house event Saturday at Carrie Blake Community Park to celebrate the Friendship Garden there and the recent restart of the longstanding Japanese-American exchange program that was put on hold in 2020 due to COVID-19.

Between noon and 3 p.m., members of the community had an opportunity to tour the garden and participate in photo ops, craft making and a kite-building workshop. A ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce was also part of the day’s festivities. Members of the Sequim-Shiso Sister City Association were available in the garden’s pavilion to provide information about the garden and the exchange program.

“This has been a pleasure to invite our community to enjoy our friendship garden to get to know more about us and to learn about our connection to various parts of the community, including the Sequim schools, the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce, the city of Sequim, and community and how it’s maintaining our cultural relationship with Shiso City across the water,” said Jennie Petit, vice president of the sister city association and a translator for the group.

Hanging from tree branches in the spring sunshine were 120 lanterns made by local students in every grade, representing the number of students who were sent from Sequim to Japan from 1994-2019 as part of the exchange program. The lamps were made from patterns that chief organizer Janine Miller distributed to the schools.

With the exchange program now underway again, tentative plans call for Sequim students and their chaperones to visit Japan in 2027. Shiso City will likely send students and representatives to visit Sequim the following year, in 2028. The purpose of the exchange program is to promote friendship while learning about each other’s culture.

Ten volunteers provide upkeep for the Friendship Garden, working from 9 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays through October. City parks staff provide ongoing maintenance. For more information, or to volunteer, call Jim Stoffer at 360-775-9356 or email to sequimsistercityassn@gmail.com.

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