Buchanan Mall renamed Osaka Way in ceremony.

On Saturday September 8th San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom was joined by Osaka mayor Junichi Seki for a ceremony that was held right outside of Paper Tree. This event marked the 50 year anniversary of San Francisco-Osaka Sister City relationship, and Mayor Newsom declared that the center passageway on Buchanan Mall will now be called Osaka Way on Buchanan Mall.

Vicky and Linda of our store created three very large cranes from waterproof paper (Rite in the Rain brand provided by J.L. Darling Corp), and hung them under the Torii gate near Sutter Street where the stage was placed. They also hung 300 white cranes, folded by the merchants of the Mall, in all the trees on Osaka Way to mark the way for the procession of dignitaries and local residents as they made their way to the Peace Pagoda in the Japan Center for the second part of the ceremony.

The Peace Pagoda was a gift from the city of Osaka over 40 years ago when the Japan Center was built. Volunteers coordinated by Cafe Hana's Carol Murata folded an astonishing 17,000 red and white cranes that were hung from the pagoda. The finishing touch was the raising of two strands of gold cranes by both mayors.

Of note, the naming of Osaka Way is strictly ceremonial, and our store address will remain Buchanan Mall.

Linda Mihara at Tansu Origami Festival in Houston.

Over the 4th of July weekend, the Tansu Gallery hosted the 2007 Origami Festival at Tansu and Linda was one of the featured origami artists to teach and exhibit. Check out their website for details and photos of this great event.

http://www.tansustyle.com/

Vicky's guest appearance on MARTHA in 2006.

We're very excited that Vicky was invited to demonstrate Japanese-style gift wrapping on Martha Stewart's daytime talk show MARTHA.



Vicky zipped to New York to tape the show, live in front of a studio audience and got to teach Martha how to wrap "on an angle" with three layers of paper.

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