The Yokohama Friendship Bell on Shelter Island is now a little friendlier. In February, the Port of San Diego restored the gift from San Diego’s Japanese sister city as part of its major maintenance program. “It had deteriorated and it was deemed time to repair it,” said Allan Tait, the port’s public art project manager. “It was put on a list of major maintenance projects that needed to be done and we were able to fund it this fiscal year.” The six-month, $29,000 restoration project included new redwood rafters, sheathing, light fixtures,synthetic shingles and a new coat of paint for the bell house. Foundations and channel cubs surrounding the bell were also repaired to go along with the installation of a thyme ground cover in the surrounding landscape. “We took out landscaping and we replaced it with landscaping we consulted with the Sister City Society on,” Tait said. “We wanted to make sure any changes we made to it were something that a Japanese eye would appreciate.” The Friendship Bell was the first gift presented to San Diego from Yokohama in 1958 after the two signed a sister-city agreement in 1957. Of San Diego’s 15 sister cities, it has had the longest relationship with the Japanese port city. “The bell is a symbol of our eternal friendship,” said San Diego-Yokohama Sister City Society president Koneko Bishop. “We’ve had very meaningful exchanges over the 50 years.” In 1959, San Diego bestowed Yokohama with a replica of the El Camino Real Mission bell and added another nine bells for the cities’ 25th anniversary in 1983. Other gifts over the years have included a black marble sculpture, a replica of the “Guardian of the Water” statue, a dogwood tree and exchanges of exotic animals from one city’s zoo to another. San Diego and Yokohama also started a youth exchange program in 2003. The program sends young professionals between cities in alternating fashion. “It’s an exchange program for the young professional who has worked for a nonprofit organization or the people who have worked in the social service or volunteer field,” Bishop said. “We have sent people to Yokohama and the following year they send people to us.” With Yokohama’s oldest gift to San Diegans restored, a new gift is on the way. “The Girl in Red Shoes,” 40-inch-tall bronze sculpture depicting a beloved Japanese children’s story will be installed near the Friendship Bell in a public dedication on June 27. “It’s a take-off on a popular Japanese story,” Tait said. For more information about San Diego’s relationship with Yokohama and the 14 other sister cities, visit http://tinyurl.com/sdsistercities.