Glens Falls Hosts Group Of Japanese Tourists As Part Of 35-Year ‘Sister City’ Relationship

BY PAUL POST

Bamboo plants take years to get established, but shoots that finally emerge can grow 35 inches per day until soaring to almost 50 feet high within two months’ time. Queensbury Hotel partners Zach Moore and Tyler Herrick do business the same way, by planting seeds of success whose results might take several years to fully realize.

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“It’s kind of like that analogy,” Moore said. “You bring people here, they experience America from our town, then they go back. It creates little seeds that grow.”

Their hotel recently hosted a delegation of government, business and civic leaders from Saga City, Japan, as part of a 35-year “Sister City” relationship with the City of Glens Falls.

It began in 1988, two years after local hot air balloonists traveled to Japan for the Saga International Balloon Fiesta.

“An idea was proposed, a vision was seen, a relationship developed and a commitment was made to people, programs and ideas,” Glens Falls Mayor Bill Collins said. “Our cities have many things in common. Both cities have similar industries, like paper mills, and our economies have experienced growth. Both cities have an appreciation for history as well as education. Both cities host high school sports tournaments, and of course, both cities are involved with balloon festivals.”

Connections between the two cities have produced long-lasting friendships, cultural awareness and educational opportunities. Such associations quite often lay the foundation for trade and creative new business ventures, also.

“You never can tell,” said Tim Drawbridge, city communications director. “You know how economic development goes. You see something in a different part of the U.S. and that idea comes home with you. Maybe it’s a new kind of shopping mall design or different ideas with food; transcending ideas back and forth.”

The same type of thing may result internationally.

During the Japanese group’s visit, Saga City Mayor Hidetaka Sakai was presented with an Adirondack chair. “Maybe somebody sees that, gets an idea and puts our spin on this over in Japan,” Drawbridge said.

A bus carrying the 19-person delegation pulled up to The Queensbury Hotel on a spring afternoon after traveling from New York where the group arrived at JFK International Airport. More than 100 people attended a dinner reception that evening to honor the Japanese guests, welcomed by Sister Cities Committee Chair Karen Pratt.

During their three-day stay, visitors met with city officials, toured Warren County Municipal Center and attended a county Board of Supervisors meeting.

Saga City is 23 miles from the ancient city of Fukuoka on the southern island of Kyushu. For parts of five decades, delegations from both cities have visited each other, although this was the first trip since 2019 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The vision you all created 35 years ago, your teamwork and due diligence has made it possible to reconvene and share this wonderful exchange of culture and community,” Collins said.

Saga balloonists have taken part in the Adirondack Balloon Festival numerous times and are expected to participate in this year’s large 50th anniversary event. Some years, up to four separate trips have been made for student exchange programs involving local high schools and SUNY Adirondack.

“Students embrace one another,” Drawbridge said. “Students from Saga City come over and get to experience things like luge up in Lake Placid, or they’re out playing street hockey and basketball, anything you’d think a typical teenager would be doing in the city of Glens Falls.”

Young Japanese visitor Kotaro Nogami said he’d like to attend college in the U.S. for business management and astrophysics. “I’d like to study in those areas and invest in startup companies,” he said. “I love the origin of our relationships, coming from balloons. It’s a very interesting story.”

Ward 5 county Supervisor Ben Driscoll, of Glens Falls, said his family got involved with Saga City about 20 years ago when they sponsored an 11-year-old Japanese boy who came over for a week’s stay. The next year, Driscoll’s son, Sean, who now works for the Adirondack Thunder, stayed with a Japanese host family.

“A lot of local people have taken trips and vacations to that area. Other places in the U.S. have Sister City relationships with cities in Japan, too. I think it’s been the impetus for people to consider Japan and for the Japanese to consider us (for business opportunities), too,”he said.

Exchange coordinator Milly Koh served as translator throughout the delegation’s visit.

“This is really a miracle because there are no politics involved, it’s just people to people from other sides of the world, getting to know each other and each other’s cultures,” she said. “It’s so stimulating. Whatever they experience, they never forget.”

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