The City of Superior’s 30-Year Sister City Relationship with Ami-Machi
Nearly 6,000 miles separate Superior, Wisconsin, from Ami-machi, Japan. Yet for nearly 30 years, the two communities have found ways to make that distance feel a little smaller.
Located about 39 miles from Tokyo, Ami-machi is a community of agricultural landscapes, neighborhoods and small-town character. Like Superior, it is also a university town, home to the Ibaraki University School of Agriculture and the Ibaraki Prefectural University of Health Sciences.
The connection between Superior and Ami began in 1995, when the City of Superior started exploring the possibility of establishing a Sister City relationship with a community in Japan. The following summer, Superior and Ami-machi were reviewed and determined to be a strong match, sharing a similar population size and a location near a freshwater lake.
“The sister-city relationship is really about people, and that’s the best part,” said Parks, Recreation & Forestry Director Bridgit Maruska. “You can have an agreement between two cities on paper, but what makes the relationship meaningful is that people from Superior and Ami have continued to show up for each other over 29 years now!”
The relationship is built around a simple mission: to promote peace through mutual respect, understanding and cooperation; to share the culture of the Sister City with the people of Superior and the surrounding area; and to promote exchanges of people and ideas between the two communities.
For those who recently traveled to Japan as part of a Superior delegation, however, the meaning of that mission became much more tangible.
Superior’s Journey to Japan
“I expected the trip to be educational and obviously knew we would experience Japanese culture, but I don’t think I understood how personal the experience would be,” Maruska said.
The delegation was welcomed by Ami Mayor Chiba and City staff, members of the Ami International Exchange Association, volunteers, interpreters, teachers, students and community. They visited schools, explored temples and shrines, toured the community and sister-city garden, and participated in activities and field trips with their hosts. The hospitality left an impression that will last a lifetime.
For the City of Superior’s Broadband Manager Stephanie Becken, the relationship revealed itself in a different, but equally powerful way.
“My impression of the relationship is that it is meant to spark delight and curiosity,” Becken said. “There are nearly 30 years of shared memories between Superior and Ami that are warmly shared in stories, pictures and even trees. There is a gentleness in the sister-city relationship that seemed to bring out the best qualities from both sides.”
That gentleness was particularly evident in the connections made around the dinner table.
“One evening, I was sitting at dinner with a table full of intelligent, community-driven, passionate women who were also mothers and workers,” Becken said. “There was such care taken with words and such a desire to understand one another. It made for an experience that will stay with me.”
For the students who made the journey, the trip offered an opportunity to experience that connection at an especially formative time in their lives.
“It was so joyful! They played. They danced. They ate new food. They used translator apps and shared pictures and laughter,” Becken said. “Everyone present was so determined to do their best to understand each other and make for a positive time together.”
Those moments of curiosity and openness are at the heart of why the Sister City relationship continues to matter.
“There is value in knowing that our community is part of a bigger world,” Maruska said. “While Superior and Ami are far apart both geographically and culturally, the people of both have a lot in common.”
Nearly three decades of exchanges have demonstrated that international relationships do not have to be built solely through formal agreements or institutions. They are built through people taking the time to listen, share and learn from one another.
The Sister City relationship between Superior and Ami-machi has endured economic changes, a global pandemic and the relationship of nearly 30 years. Through it all, both communities have continued to show up.
“We have had 30 years of inviting our citizens to be curious, kind and adventurous,” Becken said. “We have had 30 years of genuine goodwill from another community that actively loves our children and has made investments to welcome and teach them.”
The distance between Superior and Ami may remain the same, but the relationship between the two communities continues to bring them closer together.
