I didn’t set out to make the Kitakyushu, Japan Monument at 3691 Rustin Way my new place of the day, but I found myself driving along Rustin Way enjoying the lovely weather and it just seemed like the thing to do! Kitakyushu was established as one of Tacoma’s sister cities in 1984 and this shiny sculpture was presented in 1989. The art piece shows a map with both Tacoma and Kitakyushu with an anchor in the middle.  

Looking over information from the Port (see the link below) I found the imports/exports interesting.  Our biggest export to Kitakyushu is cereals with a value of $203.1 million.  The other top four exports are inorganic chemical and rare earth metals ($198.2 million), prepared vegetables, fruit, nuts ($167 million), oil seeds, miscellaneous grain, seed, fruit ($160.6 million) and meat and edible meat offal ($141.2 million).

Their largest import to us is vehicles and parts  with a value of $2.4 billion and the next four are industrial machinery ($1.7 billion), electric machinery and electronics ($823.3 million), optic, photo, medical and surgical instruments ($276.9 million) and articles of iron or steel ($200.9 million).  Seems a little lopsided to me!

http://www.portoftacoma.com/page.aspx?cid=521

And more info can be found here:  http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/page.php?id=771