Tokyo, March 19 - Consulate staff delivered a congratulatory message and U.S.-Japan friendship pins from Ambassador Schieffer to members of Nagano Prefecture’s Tateshina High School Jazz Club who will travel to the U.S. to perform during the Washington D.C. Cherry Blossom Festival.

In 1912, Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo donated 3,000 cherry trees to celebrate the close relationship between the people of Japan and the United States. That March, First Lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese Ambassador to the United States, planted the first tree on the north bank of the Potomac Tidal Basin in Washington. In 1935, the first annual Cherry Blossom Festival took place. Every year, over one million people visit Washington to admire the cherry blossoms and participate in festival activities.

The Tateshina Jazz Club will perform during the street festival and at various locations in Washington while the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. To follow their experience in Washington, please read their blog (Japanese only) here.