Japanese sister city delegation to VW

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

It’s been four years since the last delegation from Van Wert’s sister city, Sumoto, Japan, visited, but that will change this coming week with a youth delegation that will visit the city for three days.

The delegation, a youth cultural exchange group, includes eight young people ages 16 and 17 and six adult chaperones from Sumoto City, a Lima-sized city located on Awaji Island. Van Wert’s original sister city was Goshiki, but that city merged with Sumoto in 2006. The area is famous for Naruto oranges and Kobe beef. The city of Kobe itself, Japan’s fifth-largest city, is nearby on the main Japanese island of Honshu, while Japan’s third largest city, Osaka, is also not far from Sumoto.

The sister city delegation will fly into Fort Wayne, Ind., on Thursday, July 26, and is expected to arrive in Van Wert between 2:30 and 3 that afternoon, and will be welcomed by city officials and host families for the teenagers.

The delegation will then be given a tour of the Niswonger Performing Arts Center of Northwest Ohio by NPAC Executive Director Paul Hoverman and then also tour the high school and middle schools.

The Japanese students will then accompany their host families to their homes, while the adults in the delegation will have dinner with city officials and Sister City Committee members at Willow Bend Country Club.

On Friday, the delegation will tour a number of local sites, including Central Insurance Company, the Van Wert Fire Department, the Courthouse, and Brumback Library.

In the afternoon, group members will have lunch provided by Pizza Hut at the YMCA’s Camp Clay and then spent the afternoon swimming at the water park on Lake Rotary.

That evening, the group will meet at the Black Swamp Bistro for dinner, and then go to Fountain Park, where delegation members will be introduced prior to the Summer Music Series concert that evening. They will then have free ice cream at Main Street Ice Cream before the teens return to their host homes.

On Saturday, the delegation will receive airplane rides at Van Wert County Regional Airport and then visit the Children’s Garden in Smiley Park.

The group will later tour First United Methodist Church in Van Wert, with a going-away party held that evening at Peter and Anita VandenBerg’s home.

The delegation will then leave Van Wert at approximately 8 a.m. Sunday.