Did you know there is a popular restaurant in Japan named after Penticton?
Chelsea Ishizuka is a born and raised Pentictonite living in Tokyo. When she found out there was a restaurant in Japan named after her home town, she had to check it out.
“Me and my husband decided to pay a visit to Japan’s ‘Penticton,'” Ishizuka posted to a Penticton Facebook. page. “We sat down to a delicious ‘yaki curry,’ the signature dish of Penticton and asked our server, “do you know why this restaurant is called Penticton?”
It turned out their server was the owner of the restaurant, she wrote.
“He rarely serves customers, so the fact that he happened to come to our table was amazing,” said Ishizuka on Facebook.
“He told us he visited Penticton and he loved it there. Because he really liked the meaning of Penticton, he decided to name his restaurant after it: “A place to stay forever.”
The restaurant is located in a small ski village in Liyaman, in Nagano prefecture, about three hours from Tokyo by train.
Later that evening, the couple dropped in at the local bar and who happened to be there? The owner of ‘Penticton’ restaurant, said Ishizuka. She asked to take a picture with him and the rest is history!
Penticton has another connection to Japan.
Ikeda, Japan is Penticton’s sister city and that town and its government helped create the beautiful Japanese Gardens located beside the Penticton Art Gallery.
Penticton has been a sister city with Ikeda, Japan – located in the Nakagawa District of Tokachi in Hokkaido – since 1977.
The idea to establish a Japanese garden in Penticton arose during a 1992 visit to Japan. During the Ikeda delegation’s visit in 1993, newly elected Mayor Kazuo Oishi presented Penticton with a set of conceptual plans to build a garden. Construction began in February 2003 and the garden is today maintained by a group of volunteers.
The city’s Ikeda friends designed and constructed a traditional sign out of old growth walnut wood. It arrived just in time to be installed for the September 2005 dedication ceremony.
This is the front of the menu at Penticton restaurant in Japan. (Chelsea Ishizuka)
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