Chinatown in San Francisco & Japanese Tea Shop

The day after the Cherry Blosson Festival in Japantown we had booked a bootstour through the San Francisco Bay starting at Fisherman's Wharf passing under the Golden Gate Bridge and around the prison of Alkatraz. We got there by Cable Car, that was really cool. It's pretty old but nice to ride and the up and downs of the city are really funny to drive.

Cable Car (Turning Point)

The boat trip was also a great idea to view all the sightseeings of San Francisco mentioned above, the only bothering thing were the mny Chinese tourists on the boat. They were loud and running up and down to take the best photos of everything.

But it is also obwious that many Chinese live in Amerika. You hear Chinese everywhere. Even some bus announcements are in Chinese.

On our way back from Fisherman'S Wharf we walked along the business streets of San Francisco till we arrived in Chinatown. It was really big and this time it looked quite pretty. In the main street were many shops selling Chinese and American merchandise and of course restaurants and some business shops were located there.

main shopping street in Chinatown

shopwindow of one of the many (Chinese) souvenir shops

We also entered a Chinese backery like always but this looked really shabby from the inside. The food weren't so special as well and we didn't find any Pandan cake (like we did in London) though it is a Chinese speciality and really delicious.

Down the street we passed the little Chinese Gate and from one step to another we were back in 'America' so to say.

But this Chinatown is one of the nicest one I have visited so far. It has much more atmosphere than the one in Los Angeles for example!

In the evening we also went a little shopping in the Westfield and Nordstorm shopping center on Market Street. Inside the Westfield Center is a beautiful Japanese Tea shop. I couldn't resist to enter it because now is Cherry Blossom season and they sold many different kinds of Sakura Tea. You could see and smell every single tea what was really inviting. In the end I bought a box with two different Sakura teas in beaufitul tea cases^.^

I also got a single tea bag of green tea called 'Happiness' for free. I'm looking forward to taste everything^.^

(but because of my excitement I forgot to take photos of the shop >.<)

my gets and a catalog of Sakura Tea^^