Stepping gingerly over the lawn in their spiky heels, first lady Jill Biden and Yuko Kishida, the wife of Japan’s prime minister, planted a cherry tree at the White House on Monday to honour decades of friendship between their countries.
“This is how you always plant a tree,” Biden said, laughing about their shoes as she and Kishida shovelled soil around the base of a Yoshino cherry tree sapling on the south grounds.
Kishida is on a rare solo visit to the United States. It’s the first time the spouse of the prime minister has travelled alone to the United States, and Kishida visited at Biden’s invitation, according to the Japanese embassy in Washington.She is spending part of the week in Washington to promote friendship between the US and Japan, as well as cultural exchanges, the Japanese government said.
Biden took Kishida to the Oval Office to see President Joe Biden, the White House said, and hosted her for lunch. Among those invited to the women-only meal were Rep. Doris Matsui, D-California; Maki Onuki, principal dancer at the Washington Ballet; and Akiko Iwasaki, immunology professor at Yale University School of Medicine, according to the first lady’s office.
The new sapling is a Yoshino cherry tree that was propagated from a cutting from a cherry tree that was planted on the south grounds in July 2017, the White House said. It was planted near the East Wing. The White House has 23 other cherry trees across the 18 acres.
The meeting between Biden and Kishida was rescheduled from January when PM Fumio Kishida and President Biden met in the Oval Office. Kishida’s wife accompanied him on the trip. But Jill Biden was unable to host Yuko Kishida at the time because the first lady was recovering from a surgical procedure performed two days earlier.
