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Saratoga Sampler
It was a very good year for Hakone
By Mary Ann Cook
YEAR END REVIEW: Hakone Gardens celebrated a successful year with a holiday reception last month. Its gift shop has doubled in size from 300 to 600 square feet, with a lighter, airier building. The garden signed a 55-year lease with the city of Saratoga, signifying that the foundation now has control of operations and funding.
However, both Saratoga's mayor and vice mayor are on the board of trustees and master gardener Jack Tomlinson is paid by the city. Over the next two years the foundation will take over his salary. Newest paid employee is Masako Hall, director of administration.
This new addition freed up CEO Lon Saavedra for more fundraising efforts, a direction that evidently paid off. The foundation has raised $145,000 in the past six months, since Hall has been on board. The Hakone aim is to broaden its base--to make it an international center, not just a South Bay attraction.
For example, the consul general of Japan and other dignitaries came to a program Sept. 9. Another aspect in its expansive mode is the desire to include other Asian cultures in its offerings. A bond is being established with the director of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, Dr. Emily Sano. Sano spoke at Hakone in November. Hakone also intends to reinforce area horticulture groups such as the Bamboo Society and Sister City doings--to make sure Hakone is the location they think of when they think of meeting places.
The expansion on these many fronts is evidently paying off: record numbers have attended recent shows. The kimono show drew more than 100 people. And a weekend show of Santa Cruz potters likewise drew about 100--over a two-day, rainy period, no less.
Last summer Hakone hosted five weddings each weekend, and the summer of 2002 is half booked already. Hakone doesn't seem to know that a recession's going on. A new offering just under way is a cultural/social gathering to be held every third Thursday of the month.
The first in the series is Jan. 17 from 5 to 8 p.m. with an R & B band playing and a no-host wine and beer bar at the ready. Sake anyone? Hakone celebrates its 85th birthday in the year 2002. Would that we all looked that good at 85.
MEMORIAL: Louise Webb writes her own memorial before she leaves on trips these days. It's not that she doesn't trust the airlines. Well, not exactly. It's just that she wants her life laid out correctly if her time has come.
This isn't as bizarre as it may sound at first thought. I took a motivational course once where one of the assignments was to write your own obituary. The instructor's point was that putting your life down in written form will show you what's off balance, what part of your life may be wanting.
Career, hobbies, sports, volunteer work, the spiritual side--all were to be listed. The accounting included an assessment of one's emotional life as well--to make sure that, too was balanced. The exercise is probably as graphic an accounting system as one can use.
When I did that exercise I decided I was lacking in the public service sector, so I took a careful look around, lighted on Friends of the Los Gatos Library, joined the board and was amazed at how many firm new friends I made, as well as giving me a stronger bond to the community.
TO YOSEMITE: Peripatetic Saratogan Ed Porter took his entire family--21 strong--to Yosemite for Thanksgiving at the Ahwahnee to enjoy a five-day holiday to boot. That's four daughters and their spouses, seven grandsons and five granddaughters.
His youngest granddaughter was born just a few months ago. She's Catherine Chick Cunha, born Aug. 16 on her grandmother Chick Porter's birthday and named in memory of her. She's the fourth child of C.C. and Tony Cunha, the long-awaited girl, and lives in Palos Verde.
The other Porter daughters are Chick Runkel, Peggy McLaughlin and Kelsey Bannini, all of whom now live in Hillsborough. Ed had decided not to send out Christmas cards, but when the Ahwahnee group picture arrived, he melted and sent out photo cards.
OVERSEAS: The Sister City trip to England, Scotland and Ireland Aug. 3-18 has a few spaces left for signups. The cost is less than $3,000 and the coordinator is Dr. Fred Armstrong at 408.867.1090.
ROTARY FOR ROTOPLAST: International service committee members of the Saratoga Rotary Club are Ken Gortz, Fred Brunton, Simon Chin and Jim Le Blanc, working under chairman Jit Kapur. The group intends to visit Venezuela this year and is committed to raising $40,000 toward that goal.
Kapur is recently back from India where he is working on an orthopedic surgery program to help people with severe limb deformities walk again and live more normal lives.
FILM AT FOOTHILL: Filmmaker Chris Martin will present Broken Harts, the story of the 1933 kidnapping of Brooke Hart, next in the Foothill Club public lectures at 10 a.m. Jan. 22 at the clubhouse. For more information, call 408.867.2361.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
