Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan's Second Wave's On the Ground Kalamazoo series.

KALAMAZOO, MI — A petite, 94-year-old, Japanese woman recently spent nine days in Kalamazoo, meeting old friends and acquaintances, talking with students, and working through a nonstop itinerary. Her name is Tsugi Ogane and she’s a resident of Numazu, Japan, Kalamazoo’s official sister city. She is uncertain about the number of past visits here but says it’s around two dozen. Usually, she’s part of a small delegation but this time she came alone, responding to an urge to visit Kalamazoo at least once more in this stage of her life.

Even though Tsugi (pronounced Soogy) made a presentation to the city commission and had a very busy daily schedule, she says her stay here was low-key compared with sister-city events when the program started.

Sisters for over 60 years

In 1963, Kalamazoo Mayor Paul E. Morrison and his wife were the first representatives of this city to visit Numazu. Their welcome included riding in a parade that attracted a crowd size estimated as high as 30,000. More about that visit later in this story.

Mike WenningerTsugi Ogane and host Lois HoekstraTsugi stayed at the Texas Township home of Tom and Lois Hoekstra from Sept. 9 to the 18. The Hoekstras have been guests in Tsugi’s home in Numazu. Her last visit here was in 2018. She is a retired English teacher who first came here with a delegation in 1976 and stayed then with Helen Wise, an elementary school principal.

Mike WenningerThis doll (one of two) was made by Tsugi Ogane and presented to the City at its Sept. 16 City Commission meeting.Tsugi is an acclaimed maker of Japanese dolls and she presented two of them to the City of Kalamazoo at the Sept. 16 meeting of the city commission.  Mayor David Anderson said, “Numazu, Japan has been one of the largest gifts that our community has been involved with over the years. One of the individuals who has been integral to building relationships and providing cultural exchange, somebody who has been a champion for this relationship, is Tsugi.”

How is Numazu different from Kalamazoo?

Numazu is 80 miles west of Tokyo on Japan’s Pacific Ocean coast. Its population is over 180,000, compared with Kalamazoo’s 76,000. However, the metropolitan area here has 261,000 residents. Tsugi says the best things about Kalamazoo are the people and nature. “Everywhere we go there’re so many trees, bushes, and animals and birds. I like to see the birds singing and the squirrels,” she says. Numazu has few birds and crows are the most numerous.

Mike WenningerTsugi Ogane holds a painting of a koi by Kalamazoo artist Gay Walker.given to her by the City of Kalamazoo. At center is Kalamazoo Mayor David Anderson and at right is former city commissioner Eric Cunningham who has visited Namuzu.Tsugi has always been amazed by how much space surrounds many houses here. In her area, most houses are only a few feet apart. One of the effects of this is that you can’t buy an auto unless you document that there’s a place to park it at night.  “Many people have to rent spaces,” Tsugi says.

Other differences between Numazu and Kalamazoo include:

There are no basements there; the water table is too high.

People remove their shoes before entering a home.

Because Numazu is on the coast and has a major river in it, residents eat a lot of fish.

Numazu, like all of Japan, is affected by an aging population. “It’s a very quiet place, especially after 6 o’clock or so,” Tsugi says. “Very few people are walking on the streets because of the older population.  Especially after COVID, we are asked not to go outside.”

Numazu has many hot springs with bathing facilities. Nude bathing generally is required at the public facilities, with separate places for men and women, and this has resulted in memorable episodes for a few visitors from Kalamazoo.

What Tsugi likes best about Numazu is that it is near Mount Fuji, which can be seen almost every day. Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan, is a natural blessing, but her city also has natural problems. 

Tsugi Ogane displays traditional attire for picking tea leaves.“Today the weather conditions are getting worse year by year, and the temperature goes up every year. Before I came here the temperature was around 100 degrees. It lasted for more than two months,” Tsugi says. “Japan is an earthquake country.  And Mount Fuji is also a volcano and it will erupt in the near future.  Very scary.  We often have exercises about how to keep ourselves safe.”  

The Digital Age is changing all nations so Kalamazoo and Numazu both deal with slowly vanishing handwriting — cursive here and correctly drawn Japanese characters there. Tsugi comments, “Today all the elementary school kids have their own tablet so they don’t have a chance to write calligraphy so they don’t know how to write Japanese characters needed for writing. They don’t know how to write even their own names. They write their names as they like. But how to write is very important.”

The U.S. sister cities program began in 1956 at the urging of President Dwight Eisenhower, who believed “citizen diplomacy” would help make a peaceful world. A Kalamazoo businessman who occasionally visited Numazu suggested it would be a good match with his hometown. In 1963 Kalamazoo Mayor Paul Morrison, founder of Morrison Jewelers, and his wife, Leona, flew to Numazu — having no idea they would be treated like rock stars.

The Morrisons in a Numazu parade

Paul Morrison’s grandson, Kalamazoo resident Mike Morrison, describes what happened when the couple arrived in Numazu and were welcomed by that city’s mayor and other officials: “They had a motorcade; this was totally unexpected. What they didn’t realize with this motorcade was that it was actually a parade along with military personnel marching. It was huge. They had marching bands.

Crowds lined the streets of Namuzu when Paul and Leona Morrison visited there in 1963.“My grandfather was being directed to one car and my grandmother was being directed to another car. My grandfather said where are they taking her? They said she’ll be riding in the car up front (with other women); you’re riding in the last car, the most important car, with the mayor.  And he said, ‘Oh no, she came on this trip with me, she sits with me.’”

Leona Morrison waves to spectators during the parade.The hosts explained it was customary for the sexes to be separated. Mike Morrison continues, “And he (Paul) said, ‘No, my wife will ride in the vehicle I ride in, and if the mayor and I sit next to each other (in the back seat) that’s fine, but she can sit up front with me in the car, too.’  Wow, that was really very different for them. They said that’s not how it’s done.  He says, ‘Well, if it’s not done, then we’re not going anywhere.’”

There was a quick reversal and Leona joined Paul and the mayor in their car. The motorcade started and instantly became a spectacle, with estimates of the number of spectators as high as 30,000. Mike Morrison continues the story:

Kalamazoo Mayor Paul Morrison is surrounded by parade spectators during his visit in 1963.“Grandma, in particular, was getting a ton of attention and people were running from the edges of the street, getting up to the car just to touch her because this was just so unusual. And so my grandmother had as much, if not more, stardom than my grandfather. 

“She got bruises on her arms; it was just the quantity of people touching her.  It wasn’t necessarily a thump on the arm; it was just so many people wanting to see her.”

Mike Morrison says, “The hospitality that they received was beyond compare. They were treated so gracefully, so warmly.”  He notes that his grandfather said he never expected to know what being a “royal” would feel like but that’s exactly what he experienced. This story illustrates that:

Before the banquet started, people were having appetizers and drinks. It was a sweltering day. Paul Morrison told a waiter he’d like to have a very dry martini with three onion-stuffed olives in it. Then Paul waited and waited, and waited. Finally, the martini came and Morrison noticed the waiter was practically dripping wet. It turned out there were no onion-stuffed olives on the premises or nearby so the waiter ran a very long distance to get some.

Mike Morrison poses with his hosts for his visit to Namuzu in 2013.Mike Morrison is the lead jewelry designer and diamond buyer for Morrison Jewelers, which remains a family business located on the Mall in downtown Kalamazoo. That’s where Paul Morrison founded the business in a very small store 90 years ago. Mike himself visited Numazu in 2013, the 50th anniversary of this particular sister-cities program. He comments, “It was humbling in the grace they have. You are their focus. Whatever you want, some way they’ll make it happen.”

Morrison cites an example of Numazu’s exceptional care of guests from its sister city. July 1, 2013, was the 90th anniversary of Numazu becoming an official city; it started as a settlement 400 years earlier. The city of more than 180,000 residents postponed its spectacular anniversary celebration for about two weeks until a handful of Kalamazoo visitors arrived and could enjoy the festivities.