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A sampler of Japan's culture and food entices visitors to Sunken Gardens, where a fundraiser will help send a boys team to Takamatsu.
By LENNIE BENNETT
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 4, 2001
ST. PETERSBURG -- Like most 40-year-old sisters, these two have settled into a comfortable, back-and-forth relationship with reciprocal visits and joint celebrations.
St. Petersburg and Takamatsu, Japan, commemorate four decades as sister cities this year, and both cities plan functions to recognize the milestone.
In August a group of 46 local residents will travel to Japan. They include a youth baseball team invited to play a doubleheader "friendship game" with a Takamatsu team.
A fundraiser for the local team will be held Saturday night, along with two other events at Sunken Gardens: East Meets West Weekend and the annual Tropical Fruits Festival.
"We've joined the Tropical Fruits Festival with the Japanese theme to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the sister relationship between St. Petersburg and Takamatsu," said Mary Campbell, director of Sunken Gardens.
Scheduled throughout the weekend are demonstrations in ikebana, the Japanese art of floral design; Japanese calligraphy; bonsai, the art of dwarfing and shaping plants; origami, the art of paper folding; raku pottery; and Japanese gardening; children's arts and crafts; entertainment; samplings of tropical fruits including tamarinds, longans, lychees, sugar apples and several varieties of mangos, and Japanese foods from local restaurants. (Please see "If you go" box below for details.)
Campbell also said a small new garden area has opened. She described it as "a Japan-esque garden-ette," because "it's very small and incorporates Japanese themes."
The fundraiser for the baseball team, the St. Pete Rays of Fossil Park, begins at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
The team of boys ages 13 to 15 selected from several teams and divisions at Fossil Park will make a one-time visit to Takamatsu from Aug. 8 to 15.
"They are not an all-star team," said Tina Boeving, a Fossil Park board member. "They are all good players, but they didn't have to be the best. They were selected to be the city's ambassadors."
Coaches selected the boys.
They have been outfitted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, with extra jerseys that the boys will give to the Japanese team. The two teams will meet for a doubleheader. The St. Pete Rays will also participate in parades and other events of the Takamatsu Summer Festival, which is comparable to St. Petersburg's Festival of States.
Accompanying them will be five coaches and a number of family members. The $38,000 being raised for the trip pays air fare for the team and coaches and some accommodations, although they will stay with host families for most of their visit. Family members pay their own way, said Virginia Rowell, the city's manager of social service programs, who is organizing the trip.
Rowell said in addition to 41 people associated with the baseball team, a delegation of five adults representing St. Petersburg will go. In that group are City Council members Bill Foster and Earnest Williams, Crescent Lake Neighborhood Association president Clifford Holensworth, civic leader Mary Wyatt Allen and Rowell. Foster and Williams are using money from their travel budgets for their expenses. Holensworth and Allen will pay their own expenses. Rowell's trip and a small reception for Takamatsu officials will be funded by the city's International Committee budget. She estimated her expenses and the reception would not exceed $3,000.
The team has raised about $30,000, and Boeving said she hoped the Saturday night fundraiser at Sunken Gardens would net the additional $8,000 needed.
Sunken Gardens, 1825 Fourth St. N, is open Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for East Meets West Weekend and the Tropical Fruits Festival. Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and $2 for children ages 3 to 11. Children 2 and younger are free. Admission includes demonstrations and children's crafts. Japanese food and tropical fruit sample plates will be for sale. Local nurseries will have tropical fruit trees for sale and gardeners on hand for advice on cultivating them. For information, call 551-3100.
The fundraiser for the St. Pete Rays of Fossil Park is 7:30 to 10 p.m. Saturday. It includes refreshments and entertainment. Adults, $20; children 11 and younger, $11. For information call 528-4628.