Cherry Blossom Festival in San Francisco

Hello again!

This time my friend Lau and I have been to San Francisco/California. On two weekends in April they are celebrating a Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown. So we took the chance and visited the festival on Sunday. The weather was very sunny and hot but it was so much fun!

Festival Stage

We checked the timetable before and we arrived just in time to see the Taiko performance of the San Francisco Taiko Dojo. I love Taiko and the group did pretty well. But we couldn't take a seat in front of the stage because there was no shadowy place and in the sun it was too hot, so we watched it from the shadows of the shopping mall.

Stage Plaza from our view

Afterwards we strolled around some booths near the plaza and there was a 'Pocky' Car where they distributed free packages of a new pocky flavour. That was cool and of course we got in line to get one package each^o^

Festival Street

Then we entered the East Mall of the Japan Shopping Center to cool down a bit. Inside were a big Daiso store located where must items cost $1.50. Lau got some more lashes while I found Matcha Iced Tea and Matcha Pan *lol* and also a package of instant sauce for making Mabo Tofu *_* I'm really excited to try it out!

Japan Center East Mall

Inside the mall were also some restaurants and other little shops but we decided to view more of the festival. In the north part of Japantown were also booths which sold different kinds of handicrafts. But everything looked kind of Americanized. But I was happy to get a cute Star Wars T-Shirt with a Darth Vader Chibi on it^o^

And Lau was happy to get a bowl of Kakigori so we took a break there and had a little lunch (I ate my Matcha pan which was quite delicious^^).

my Matcha gets & the free pocky

Time to do more shopping. So we entered the West Shpping Mall which is the bigger one. We got the impression of being in Harajuku and then in Kyoto Station. Everything was really Japanese, it felt like home XD

Japan Center West Mall

Unfortunately everything was really crowded but we managed to enter some interesting shops like some fashion boutiques – Shibuya SF – or the great Japanese bookstore. Of course we also went to the Purikura Center 'Pika Pika Land'. There you go to the staff, choose a machine and they start it per key for you. We tried out the Lumi-3 machine which did really great pictures^.^

Boutique 'Shibuya' & Pikapika Land

Then we strolled around on the 1^st floor where more traditional shops were located. There was also a replica of a Japanese castle which is really a beautiful decoration^^

decoration of the Mall's basement

Outside again we went down the festival street next to the West Mall. There were the booth of different organization and groups located like the one of the Taiko group. At the end was another little stage where they played music and the opposite were stands with food and many tables and banks to enjoy your meal.

Festival stage

We spend much time on the festival but around 6 pm it was closing. So Lau and I bought us a little snack at the Japanese supermarket for dinner and went back home.

Avocado Maki

We walked pretty much today and the hot weather was really exhausting. But we had so much fun and Japantown in San Francisco is really great. We are sure to come back again during the next days^_^v