BEREA—City officials and members of the Madison County International Committee hosted a ceremonial dinner last Friday evening to welcome this year's delegation from Hokuto City, Japan.

Every other year the host city, which alternates between Berea/Richmond/Madison County and Hokuto City, welcomes a delegation and plans activities for them to enjoy.

Hokuto City Mayor Kunihiko Oshiba told the audience it was his first time in Berea since he took office in November 2024. He presented Berea Mayor Bruce Fraley with 20 drawings by Japanese elementary school students, part of an art exchange that had stopped during covid, but which has been resumed.

Fraley gave him and the other delegates custom-made jackets with the International Committee's logo on the breast, which was designed in 2012 by EKU professor Herb Goodman, and the logo of Hokuto City on the shoulder. Gold pins with the Committee's logo were also presented to the Japanese delegates during the dinner as a gift to commemorate 39 years of the cultural exchange program.

The logo captures elements that both communities share such as mountains and flowering trees, Committee President Rev. Kent Gilbert said during the ceremony. The circle represents the “never-ending” exchange of friendship and the embracement of the relationship between the two regions. At the same time, the colors evoke the balance between yin and yang, symbolizing harmony, according to Gilbert.

Members from the Japanese delegation each introduced themselves to those present, thanked the Committee for hosting them, and spoke about their hometown. Some showed photos, paintings, and other items they'd brought to help them describe their homes to their Kentucky counterparts.

Representing Hokuto were artists, the deputy chief of a local volunteer fire department, a retired elementary school teacher, a Japanese language middle school teacher, a homemaker, a secretary for the City of Hokuto, businessmen, a bed and breakfast operator, and rice and vegetable farmers.

“Lanugage is not the most important thing, but we feel the same thing with our heart,” Delegate Shihoko Ozawa said, according to the Japanese translator. “[I am] glad to be here today. When [I go] back to Japan, I really want to tell my family and the children how important and special today was." 

Former Berea Councilmember Vi Farmer, who was a founding mother of the Hokuto City Sister City program in 1987, has made 15 trips to Japan since the program started. 

“Most of the founding fathers and mothers of this [Sister City] organization in Kentucky are not here anymore, but the relationship lives on and I’ll challenge each of you to keep it going because we truly are connecting the separated,” Farmer told those assembled for the dinner. “You change the world, one community, one country, one person at a time.”

Al and Alice White and Ruth McLain Smith performed for the audience. Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken catered the event which was held at the Berea Gallery.