\u201cThe Cherry Blossom Festival is a popular celebration of the Japanese Friendship Garden,\u201d said Marisa Espinosa, operations assistant for the Japanese Friendship Society of San Diego. \u201cThe festival is best described as a street fair within our gardens that highlights Japanese culture. Today more than 6,000 people visit 150 cherry trees that cover a four-acre span within the garden, their beauty glorified by their once-a-year, two-week blooming.\u201d<\/p>\n America\u2019s National Cherry Blossom Festival commemorates Tokyo\u2019s 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees to Washington, D.C. The United States reciprocated in 1915 with flowering dogwood trees, and in 1981, America gave Japanese horticulturists cuttings from Washington\u2019s cherry trees to replace those in Japan destroyed by a flood.<\/p>\n The 2001 advent of San Diego\u2019 collection of cherry trees was not, however, without complications. The arrival of more than 200 trees from Orange County was stalled by funding required for transport, and tree survival in San Diego\u2019s coastal climate was questioned. Undeterred, Nuccio\u2019s Nursery of Orange County developed a double-hybrid cherry tree graft that would reliably blossom in the shore line environment and supporters poured in donations, most notably from the Asakwa family, caretakers of San Diego\u2019s original Tea House.<\/p>\n The Japanese Friendship Garden was originally a Tea House Exhibit during the Panama-California Exposition of 1915 and 1916. Japan built and dismantled the Tea House (for shipping), which was reassembled in San Diego. The Asakwa family agreed to serve as the Tea House\u2019s custodians, so long as they could live in it. The family owned and operated a local nursery while they maintained the Tea House and sold snacks and tea. The Tea House closed in 1945 when the Asakwa family was sent to Japanese internment camps, and it was ultimately demolished in 1954. The site was rebuilt in 1990 as the first phase of the birth of the Japanese Friendship Garden as a valued asset to Balboa Park. The garden\u2019s winding paths include a Zen garden, a koi pond, bonsai trees and a Fujidana \u2014 a wisteria arbor. Classes are offered in the art of making sushi, bonsai trees, Japanese calligraphy and conversational Japanese. Now, more than 100,000 people visit the Friendship Garden each year.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Japanese Friendship Garden is an expression of friendship between San Diego and its sister city of Yokohama,\u201d explained Luann Kanzawa, the garden\u2019s executive director. \u201cThe garden binds two cultures together in friendship while providing educational resources to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n Japanese Friendship Garden Members and children six and younger will receive free admittance to the 10th Annual Cherry Blossom Festival. Cost for non-members is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors, students and military personnel. Presale tickets are $5 across the board. Tickets for food, beer, the sake garden and the children\u2019s area are all sold separately. The festival may be cancelled in the event of inclement weather. Hours of operation are Saturday, 10 a.m. \u2013 4 p.m. and Sunday, 11 a.m. \u2013 3 p.m.<\/p>\n![\"At](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/photo-2webtop.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"The](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/DSC_2646-cropped-1024x634.jpg\")
<\/a>
(Courtesy of the Japanese Friendship Garden Society of San Diego)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n