Marquette Sister City Trip

Marquette has called Higashiomi, Japan a sister city for more than 30 years.

And this year’s Sister City Committee delegation returned last week from its 10–day trip to Japan.

Higashiomi wasn’t affected by this year’s tsunami and earthquake as much as other areas of Japan.

But the Marquette County Community Foundation collected $6,500 for tsunami relief.

The Sister City group brought the donations to Higashiomi’s equivalent of a mayor.

Andrew Bek says it was an honor to serve as the courier who brought them, looked into the Higashiomi mayor’s eyes and told him it was their sister city in Michigan bringing the financial support.

The Sister City delegation brought along a guest artist, Lanni Lantto.

She got to teach art workshops and had a chance to exhibit her work, which is upcycled out of old T–shirts.

She says it was a bit unusual to stage a show in a different language but the entire trip was a great experience.

Lanni sells her work, including the pieces she exhibited in Japan, at the Zero Degrees Gallery in Marquette.

If you want to know more about her work or upcoming shows she’ll have, you can find that information here.