Each year, Santa Barbara and its longest-standing sister city of Toba, Japan, take part in a cultural exchange program, with four teenage students from each city getting the opportunity to visit and learn about their respective countries and communities.
The city of Santa Barbara is now accepting applications for four teenage students, between the ages of 13 and 15, to take part in this summer’s three-week exchange program.
While Santa Barbara has six sister cities, its relationship with Toba, Japan, stretches back nearly 60 years and has been cemented through decades of shared memories, visits by government officials, and the student-exchange program, which has been the basis of many lifelong relationships, according to Takako Wakita, the former chair of the Santa Barbara Sister Cities board who helped build the program into what it is today.
Both Toba and Santa Barbara are known as seaside tourist locations, each city nestled in between the Pacific Ocean, mountains, and islands. Santa Barabra is known for its world renowned sea-urchin, or uni, while Toba is famous for its Mikimoto cultured pearls, the most expensive and cherished in the world, harvested for hundreds of years by groups of women divers known as ama (sea women).
Though the cities are over 5,500 miles apart, the two communities have helped each other through disastrous times. In 1990, when the Painted Cave Fire tore through Santa Barbara, visitors from Toba were staying with former Mayor Sheila Lodge. While the visitors were forced to leave, in less than a week, the people of Toba raised more than $15,000 to help Santa Barbara recover by rebuilding the Alpha Resource Center and replanting trees in Tucker’s Grove.
In 2011, a deadly earthquake and tsunami caused millions of dollars in damage to Toba’s harbor and coastal fishing industry. In response, Santa Barbara residents raised more than $40,000 in one night to help the people of Toba rebuild the damaged oyster beds.
Several former Santa Barbara mayors and city officials have taken the trip to Toba, learning the culture and history while bringing pieces of the Central Coast over to Japan. In 1989, the city of Santa Barbara donated a Dolphin Friendship Statue — just like the one near the shoreline at Stearns Wharf — which still stands in Toba today. In 2004, five Santa Barbara artists visited Toba to create an “I Madonnari” chalk-painting experience.
In return, Toba city officials have visited Santa Barbara to teach Japanese culture, dancing, cuisine, and history. In 2016, Toba delegates dedicated three cherry blossom trees planted in Alice Keck Park as a celebration of the two cities’ 50-year long relationship.
The summer student exchange program has been an annual tradition for more than 25 years. This year, four students from Toba will visit Santa Barbara for 10 days, including the week of the annual Fiesta celebration in August. Then four students from Santa Barbara will go to Toba to spend 10 days learning while living with local families.
Students who are selected will prepare for the trip with language and cultural lessons from the Sister City Organization.
All interested students between the ages of 13 and 15 should reach out to Santa Barbara–Toba Exchange Chairperson Sally Hamilton at sallyshamilton@gmail.com. Application deadline is April 15, 2025.
