photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Karen Allen, right, and Mieko Sasaki, second from right, meet in the lobby of the Lawrence Public Library on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.

When the visitors from Hiratsuka, Japan, stopped by the Lawrence Public Library on Tuesday, there was someone special whom Karen Allen wanted to meet.

Allen, who works in administration at the library, asked which one of them was Daisuke’s mom. It was Mieko Sasaki, who came up to her and, teary-eyed, shared a hug with her.

“Thank you,” Allen said, “for taking care of my son.”

Allen’s son is 19 and in college now, but a couple of years ago he went on an exchange to Hiratsuka, Lawrence’s sister city, and stayed with Sasaki and her family. Now, Daisuke, who himself had been on an exchange to Lawrence before, is back in town as a freshman at the University of Kansas. He stayed with Allen’s family for a few days before school started, and they helped him move into his dorm room.

“I knew his mom was coming today, and it’s just really special to meet her,” Allen said.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Karen Allen, right, and Mieko Sasaki share a hug in the lobby of the Lawrence Public Library on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.

Allen wasn’t the only person the visitors met who knew about Lawrence’s special bond with Hiratsuka. Ben Ahlvers, the Lawrence Arts Center’s executive director, told them his son had been on an exchange, too. And, walking past the patio at Milton’s, the guests stopped and talked with a woman whose daughter was a youth delegate to Hiratsuka, and Katsuhiro Ochiai, Hiratsuka’s mayor, shook her hand.

Hiratsuka and Lawrence have been partners since 1990, and they’ve been having a 35th-anniversary celebration that spans two years. Last year, Mayor Brad Finkeldei and a group of other Lawrence residents went to Hiratsuka, and this week, the Japanese city is returning the gesture, sending a delegation of adult visitors in addition to the students who visited earlier this year.

Their busy schedule on Tuesday took them to the Arts Center, where they met artist in residence Reece Henderson and complimented him on his cartoon-inspired sculptures; to City Hall, where gifts of artwork from Lawrence’s sister cities are on display on the top floor; then to Lawrence High School, the glassware and apparel manufacturer Grandstand, and then back downtown for an official recognition at the City Commission’s meeting and a barbecue dinner at Q39.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Hiratsuka City Council Chair Takako Sato, left, and Friends of Lawrence Vice Chairman Nobuo Hasegawa, right, visit with Reece Henderson, the Lawrence Arts Center’s ceramics artist in residence, on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Visitors from Hiratsuka, Japan, look at KU basketball artifacts at the Watkins Museum of History on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Visitors from Hiratsuka, Japan, pass by the wren statue at the Watkins Museum of History on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Visitors from Hiratsuka, Japan, look at the 1920s electric car at the Watkins Museum of History on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.

Before all of this, though, they got a quick lesson on Lawrence history at the Watkins Museum, learning about the Bleeding Kansas days, the city’s civil rights struggles and, of course, its basketball fame.

Ochiai, who used to play basketball in junior high and high school, has been to Lawrence four times now. Through his interpreter, Ikuyo Hosoda, he said that he wasn’t very tall, so he played guard. The first time he visited Lawrence, he was excited to see firsthand the city where James Naismith, basketball’s inventor, had coached, and he was “so impressed.”

The guests were also impressed by the Watkins’ Milburn car from the 1920s; “Sugoi,” a couple of them said – “incredible” – when they heard it was one of the earliest electric car models ever made. Some were curious about the wren statue that once stood outside the WREN Building in downtown before it was destroyed in a fire. And Ochiai and Hiratsuka City Council Chair Takako Sato even crouched down to go inside the Victorian-era playhouse on the museum’s top floor.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Katsuhiro Ochiai, left, mayor of Hiratsuka, Japan, and Takako Sato, chair of the Hiratsuka City Council, look around inside a Victorian-era playhouse at the Watkins Museum of History on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Katsuhiro Ochiai, mayor of Hiratsuka, Japan, comes out of a Victorian-era playhouse at the Watkins Museum of History on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.

Sato said it was important to really get to know the city. “I like to walk here,” she said. “I like to feel the atmosphere.” And, in addition to the tours of local landmarks, she said she’d like to visit an American supermarket.

As the delegates made their way through downtown Lawrence on Tuesday morning, Hosoda said she was impressed by how clean and safe the city was. “A lot of news comes out about the safety of the U.S.,” Hosoda said. “However, I feel safe in this town.”

On their way down Massachusetts Street, they stopped in front of Amyx Barbershop, where Hiratsuka’s mayor and city council leader posed for a picture in front of the place where a former mayor and city commissioner of Lawrence had made a career of cutting hair. (They’ll meet Mike Amyx, now a member of the Kansas Legislature, on their visit to Topeka on Thursday.)

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Delegates from Hiratsuka, Japan, stop outside of Amyx Barbershop on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Hiratsuka City Council Chair Takako Sato, left, and Hiratsuka Mayor Katsuhiro Ochiai pose for a photo outside of Amyx Barbershop on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Visitors from Hiratsuka, Japan, and Lawrence Mayor Brad Finkeldei look at the stone tower in the Japanese Friendship Garden on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. From left: Hiratsuka City Council Chair Takako Sato, Hiratsuka Mayor Katsuhiro Ochiai, Finkeldei, and Ikuyo Hosoda.

And they also visited the Japanese Friendship Garden, which was commissioned in 2000 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Lawrence-Hiratsuka relationship. Finkeldei told them the garden was “in large part because of you and the gifts you gave us.”

Before everyone took a group photo in front of the stone tower that Hiratsuka had given Lawrence for the garden, Ochiai said a few words.

“Every time I visit Lawrence, I am so impressed by your hospitality and the beautiful town and the abundant culture and art aspects in this city,” he said through his interpreter. “It is a great pleasure to visit this park. This park is a symbol of the friendship and trust between our two cities, so it is a great pleasure for me.”

“We hope that this relationship will continue,” he concluded, “for a long time to come.”

The visits from the adult delegation happen every five years, according to Sister Cities Lawrence’s website, but the youth exchanges happen annually. For students in grades 7 to 12 in Douglas County schools who want to apply for the 2027 trip, there’s still time; the application deadline is this Friday, Oct. 16. You can find the application at sistercitieslawrence.org.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

The delegation from Hiratsuka, Japan, poses for a photo at the Japanese Friendship Garden on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

The delegation from Hiratsuka, Japan, tours the Watkins Museum of History on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Mayor Brad Finkeldei, left, helps visitors from Hiratsuka, Japan, use a camera translation app at the Watkins Museum of History on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Mayor Brad Finkeldei points out the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center to visitors from Hiratsuka on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Hiratsuka Mayor Katsuhiro Ochiai, second from left, looks at a painting at the Lawrence Arts Center along with other guests from Hiratsuka on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Lawrence Arts Center Executive Director Ben Ahlvers gives the guests from Hiratsuka a tour of the ceramics workshop on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Visitors from Hiratsuka pass by rows of flags hanging in the lobby of the Lawrence Arts Center on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Delegates from Hiratsuka, Japan, look at a shelf of foreign-language books at the Lawrence Public Library on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.