Vancouver family visits sister city, sees replica fort

Felida — While some 5,000 miles from home, Dave Douglas and his family visited a bit of Vancouver away from Vancouver while in Japan. Douglas, a teacher at Columbia River High, School, his wife Sara Douglas, a teacher at Marion Elementary School, and their son, Joey Douglas, a student at Thomas Jefferson Middle School, went on a family trip to Japan, where Dave Douglas worked about 25 years ago. They took a trip to Joyo, Vancouver’s sister city, because Douglas is a volunteer at Fort Vancouver Historical Site. In Joyo, there is a replica Fort Vancouver, and Douglas reached out to the city to see if his family could get a tour. Joyo officials ended up giving his family a VIP tour of the replica and the city, and Douglas and his family met Mayor Toshiharu Okuda. “Joyo really values the sister city relationship and regularly sends delegations to Vancouver, most recently this past spring for the cherry blossom festival,” Douglas wrote in an email. “Vancouver visitors are pretty rare in Joyo, which is why we had such big reception.”