Veronica Reyes, a 29-year-old contract manager, and Daniel Dobbs, a 37-year-old Culver City firefighter, went to Japan earlier this month as visiting dignitaries. The trip was part of the annual Marathon Runner Exchange program between the Culver City Sister City Committee and its sister city, Kaizuka, Japan.
Although Reyes and Dobbs both hit personal records at the Tokyo Marathon, they were more interested in discussing the generous hospitality of their Japanese hosts.
“I felt like a rock star,” Dobbs said. “The sake kept getting refilled no matter how much I said no.”
Reyes, who had previously studied abroad in Singapore, said that when she asked for a glass of water, three cups would appear immediately. She said that she never fully grasped the importance of cultural understanding until she visited another family’s home as a CCSCC member. “It’s all about people-to-people interaction,” she said. “It’s not just about going somewhere and seeing the place, but connecting with the people there.”
The connections, according to Reyes and Dobbs, were made by experiencing the daily lifestyle of their host families. Together they dipped fish cakes into a simmering steamboat at the middle of the family table, watched soap operas every morning as the children left for school, and cycled to the fish market to purchase a flapping Ahi fresh out of the fishing boats.
“They do the same things in completely different ways, but they’re still a regular family, just like any other family,” Dobbs said of his hosts.
The CCSCC is part of the Sister Cities International, a nonprofit organization created after World War II to network U.S. and international cities. Its mission to achieve world peace may be a grand vision, but Barbara Honig, CCSCC president, said that these seemingly trivial interactions between CCSCC and Kaizuka ripple out to affect international diplomacy in a way that no president can.
“All the people of the world want peace,” Honig said. “And through the Sister City Committee’s international exchanges, we can get that – one person at a time.”
The exchanges are small-scale, such as the Saturday breakfast hosted at the home of former CCSCC President Sonia Kourram. The meal was an informal welcome for Kaizuka resident Nana Terai, 39, a part-time fitness trainer, who arrived March 17 to run the 26th Los Angeles Marathon.
Several other CCSCC members gathered over a spread of baked eggs, corn pudding, bagels and tamales, including another marathon runner from sister city Uruapan, Mexico, and a former Culver City mayor.
“It’s wonderful to see such friendliness between countries,” Kourram said while serving coffee to her guests. “And it’s a lot of fun!”
While waiting for others to eat first, Terai said that she was enjoying her stay in Los Angeles. She had visited Culver City’s ornate city hall and seen the University of Southern California, and was impressed by how everything in America was so big and grand.
The Japanese runner was hosted by Reyes, who said her most significant impression of her guest was Terai’s demonstration of yamato-damashii, a term defining the Japanese spirit of collectiveness. “Even just closing a door, she makes sure to close it softly so that it doesn’t disturb others,” Reyes said, adding, “Her subtle consideration for others is such a different culture from our culture of individualism.”
Sitting in the middle of strangers, Terai was quiet and polite, but Kaizuka chair, Kathleen McCann, who had hosted numerous guests before, said they always warm up in the end. “They are a little shy at first, but easy to love,” McCann said. “By the time they leave we’re all chummy. It’s wonderful to see this camaraderie unfold.”
Terai speaks little English, but she and Reyes effectively communicated via word enunciations, hand gestures and Terai’s digital translator. Terai told her host that she wished to see a Dodger game for her son, who loves baseball. On the agenda as well were a visit to Hollywood’s famed Hard Rock Café and shopping at Third Street Promenade.
Reyes said she enjoyed playing up to the stereotype of American grandeur, but ultimately wanted to show Terai that they are still basically the same as human beings. “In the end, we are all individuals,” Reyes said. “A simple smile, a simple gesture, tears – those are all universal language that we can all relate to.”
Culver City’s sister city of Uruapan, Mexico was represented by Jesus Urbina. Also planning to run the L.A. Marathon was firefighter, Daiki Nitta of Kaizuka, who remained in Japan to help with the relief efforts in the wake of the disasters that recently struck Japan.