Lanterns add to Japanese garden

Gifts from Japanese sister city are placed in city park

MOSES LAKE — A few final touches were put into place at the Japanese Peace Garden last week, gifts from longtime supporters of Moses Lake's sister-city relationship with Yonezawa, Japan.

Yukio and Tomoyoshi Seino have been the roots of the sister-city delegations from Yonezawa from the beginning, and each recently gave the gift of Japanese-style lanterns to the garden. Those lanterns arrived in Moses Lake earlier this month, via a Japan Airlines flight from Tokyo.

"They're very impressive," Mayor Ron Covey said of the lanterns. He added that the city was very thankful to the Seinos for their generosity to the garden.

Representatives from the City of Moses Lake, Japan Airlines, the Japanese Garden Committee and the Sister City Committee were on hand Friday to officially unveil the lanterns. Moses Lake Park Superintendent Roland Gonzales said the Seinos suggested locations within the garden during its dedication in August, and his department constructed and installed them into those spots last week. Gonzalez and Moses Lake Mayor Ron Covey said the lanterns were a nice final touch to the garden.

"It completes it to this point," Covey said. "This is the initial phase, there may be some additions over the next few years."

Covey said as the city learns more about Japanese traditions, officials will continue to make changes and rearrangements to the garden to comply with those traditions.

The lanterns were sent by truck from Yonezawa to Tokyo, where they were flown on the Japan Airlines flight to Moses Lake. Before they were installed, the two traditional lanterns came in three pieces totaling 862 pounds.

Japan Airlines Captain Kazuo Noda comes to the Moses Lake garden a few times a month, and said Friday that Japan Airlines trainees in Moses Lake sometimes come out to the garden for its peaceful relaxation.

Noda said that while Moses Lake is a much drier place than Japan, the garden has become one very similar to one that could be found in Japan and he praised Gonzales for his work on the garden.

"Roland Gonzales did a very good job," Noda said.