In 2006 we spent a summer in Japan at the University of Aizu in Aizu-Wakamatsu in Fukushima prefecture.  Just today I found out that the original Japanese settlers in the US came from the same town, Aizu-Wakamatsu.  They settled in northern California where they planned on producing tea and silk.  They called their settlement the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony.

It turns out that the settlement didn’t last long, but the site itself remains and is a part of the National Register of Historic Places.  In fact, this summer is the 150th anniversary of its founding, celebrated by the 2019 Sesquicentennial Wakamatsu Farm Festival.