For Seiji Horio, caring for hundreds of "ume" plum trees and "sakura" cherry trees is not so much a job as a mission.
Every Friday, the 70-year-old drives about 100 km from his house in Santa Clarita, Calif., to Schabarum Regional Park in Rowland Heights to tend more than 400 ume and 100 sakura trees planted there.
His pace is slow as he walks around the 2.6-sq.-km park, but it is important for him to continue his work, because for 16 years these trees have been a symbol of friendship between the land of his birth and his adopted home.