September 4, 2016

September 4, 2016

Just 3 sleeps left till I leave for my 9th trip to Japan!  Wow!  When I type that I'm amazed at how fortunate I've been to be able to visit such a special and interesting country and culture so many times!!  Each visit has been unique and this one will be no different.  There are 21 of us going in our delegation and I am confident our friends in Toyokoro (Summerland's Sister City) will be getting as excited about our upcoming arrival as we are about our rapidly approaching departure.

Toyokoro and Summerland are celebrating their 20th anniversary as Sister Cities and so our visit will mark that milestone and the festivities in Toyokoro will reflect the significance of this special relationship.  Each year our hosts treat us to an amazing itinerary but this one will be extra special for me as I've stepped back from my 20 year role on the executive of Sister City to make room for others to step forward.  I'm not the only one who has stepped back on the committee.....Darlene, who has been chair of the committee for more than 25 years, has also stepped back and so for the two of us it will be a nostalgic trip as we say hello and eventually good bye to our Toyokoro family from this new, slightly more distant, vantage.

Darlene and I will depart Summerland en route to Vancouver a couple of days ahead of the rest of the pack and plan to make the most of our free time in the city.  Neither of us have spent much time there in the past several years and so we're planning to paint the town red...well....at least a light shade of pink. :)

For those of you who've followed my blogs before you might be surprised to know that this will be the first time I've ever blogged from Japan!  Not sure how it happened that way but this time will be different and I've promised myself I won't let the opportunity pass me by.  I want to hold on to the memories that are captured when I blog so I'll do my best to write as often as I can during our 12 days in Japan.  I love revisiting the experience, sometimes years later, as this blog will live on somewhere out in the Ethernet forever.  I also love that I'm able to share the experience with all of you so until the next time....sayonara.

Lorrie