We hosted 24 Sakai Goodwill members and 8 Sakai Bridge Artists in Berkeley from September 12 - 16, 2014. On Friday, we welcomed our Sakai visitors with a Welcome BBQ Party at the Claremont Club. Saturday we had a bus tour of Berkeley, with stops at Lawrence Hall of Science, the UC Bear at the Cal Football stadium, the Downtown Farmer's Market and Berkeley Artist Irene Ifeld's Photo Gallery and adjacent art galleries on 25th Street in Oakland. We then had lunch at Brennan's on 4th Street and ended the tour at Takara Sake. At Takara Sake, we had a taiko drum performance by Tatsumaki Taiko.
Saturday evening was the Artists' Reception at ACCI Gallery for the joint exhibit. Sunday was a beautiful sunny "host family" day.
Monday we had a visit with Berkeley Vice Mayor Linda Maio, who greeted Sakai guest graciously and answered many questions about life in Berkeley. We then visited the Japanese Lantern, located in the center of the rhododendron grove adjacent to Old City Hall and toured the Ronald Tsukamoto Public Safety Building. Officer Tsukamoto was the first Japanese-American police officer hired by Berkeley and was killed in the line of duty. His relatives are from Sakai.
Our Farewell Dinner, Monday night, was held at the Bancroft Hotel, in it's very Arts and Crafts style banquet room. The Goodwill delegation continued on to Yosemite and the artists continued their stay in Berkeley for several more days.
