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The 2016 Cherry Blossom Festival
Is it that time of the year already? Yes, and past by two weeks-- well, better than two months of photos languishing in my phone before I get around to posting them. :)
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kagetsume was out in the area and by happy chance, there was a Cherry Blossom festival going on in Japantown, SF, on that weekend. He was quite interested so he willingly drove me up there on that Saturday. Good for me, since I hate driving past my 'leash range', especially up in San Francisco.
We got there early-- around 10 AM-- and most stores and restaurants had yet to open, so we spent some time browsing around the mall. I don't recall having seen this store open before, but it looks like it's been here a while. It sells all sorts of old mecha and ship models, as well as the anime posable figures beloved by otakus.
Okay, I found these teapots rather tempting. I just didn't want to buy them and then have to deal with carrying them all day long.
The Japantown katana collectors society had their usual exhibition. Here are some fine examples of Japanese money! From the plaque explaining the relative values:
This was a very fine looking samurai's helmet.
I don't think I'd noticed this before but a large number of the katana scabbards they were displaying had been tied up in highly ornate fashion. Here's an example. I'm at a loss whether this is some sort of peacebonding or this is how they were normally carried on the belt or whatnot.
Taiko drummers! It was raining out at the time, so the drummers had decided to move their act indoors. I'm not a fan of the decision-- in the enclosed space, the drumbeat really rattles you! But it's totally understandable that they don't want to perform outdoors either, where the moisture could damage the drums.
Given the change in venue, there were a lot of people gathered to watch, and it was hard for the small old woman behind me to see, so I held up my phone with the cam going so she could see through it, like a periscope. She was amused.
We broke for lunch at the 'On the Bridge' restaurant, which as the name suggests, was on the bridge connecting two of the buildings of the mall; I'd eaten there a previous time and was happy to recommend it tokagetsume. He had the beef curry, and seemed quite pleased at the novel (to him) flavor of Japanese curry.
This was the chicken katsu curry bowl. It's not quite like a regular chicken katsu curry plate; there's that fried egg on top, for one thing. I really enjoyed this version.
It's a good thing we ate when we did; when we came back later, all the restaurants were *packed*.
The Fanime maids were putting on a presentation at this stage. They were playing some sort of rock-paper-scissors game with the crowd; it didn't quite make sense to me how they were planning to use the results, but I think they were counting how many people put up the winning hands.
We passed through the forest of vendors and stopped by Jade Chocolate, where I treated Kagetsume to a piece of their chocolate; he liked it enough that on the way back, he wound up buying a box to take home, and I picked up a 'genmaicha brown rice tea chocolate bar' to sample. (it really does taste like brown rice and chocolate)
I picked up a couple of Asimov books from the used bookstore; Kagetsume picked up a Harlan Ellison book for his girlfriend.
On the north side of the festival, we browsed through the exhibits. Here are some interesting movies-inspired origami creations.
We also stopped to observe the tea ceremony. We managed to catch nearly the end of the ceremony, and by virtue of having stayed through it, I observed something this time that I hadn't the other times: they then welcomed us to try some tea and snacks ourselves. I declined, not wanting to overdo it on food, butkagetsume tried the green tea mochi and the mug of green tea they proffered him.
Didn't stay long enough to take in the performance, but I thought it was interesting to see a group of koto musicians-- usually the koto is a solo instrument, no?
The paper dolls club made a strong artistic showing as always! Here's a general being mean to a poor innocent tiger.
Another pair of Rochelle Lam's adorable critter dolls.
At this point I exclaimed, 'Okay, now they are just showing off!' They totally were. Check out these amazing Victorian-style paper dolls!
There was an Ikebana display next doors, Japanese flower arrangement. I wouldn't have batted an eyelash if you had told me that they were displaying alien life forms.
We browsed the food stands as well, but nothing there that really struck us as must-have, filled as we were on lunch and chocolate, so we made our way back to the car and headed back home, where I subjectedkagetsume to God of Cookery (Stephen Chow) and God of Gamblers (Chow Yun Fat).
I wasn't feeling up to cooking dinner so we headed to nearby Castro Street and the Asian Box for dinner. This is the first time I've had their food. It's not bad, per se, but I think it's easy to mess up in your choice of condiments and toppings. Next time, I'd choose a different sauce; the sriracha sauce is too hot and clashes with the subtle sweetness of the lemongrass pork.
Overall though, it was a pretty good day out! Even if I did spend the next few days recovering from the exertion. :) Going all the way up to San Francisco and walking around all day really takes it out of you.
kagetsume was out in the area and by happy chance, there was a Cherry Blossom festival going on in Japantown, SF, on that weekend. He was quite interested so he willingly drove me up there on that Saturday. Good for me, since I hate driving past my 'leash range', especially up in San Francisco.We got there early-- around 10 AM-- and most stores and restaurants had yet to open, so we spent some time browsing around the mall. I don't recall having seen this store open before, but it looks like it's been here a while. It sells all sorts of old mecha and ship models, as well as the anime posable figures beloved by otakus.
Okay, I found these teapots rather tempting. I just didn't want to buy them and then have to deal with carrying them all day long.
The Japantown katana collectors society had their usual exhibition. Here are some fine examples of Japanese money! From the plaque explaining the relative values:
THE BUYING POWER OF MONEY DURING THE EDO PERIOD (Circa 1700) 8 mon - a single piece of relatively low-quality sushi 16 mon - a bowl of soba 2 or 3 momme - a chaep ukiyo-e print 300-500 mon - one night with a "lady of the evening" at a post station 75 momme - the cost of a journey from Osaka to Nagasaki by boat (roughly 14-20 days) 1 Ichibu gin - the cost of a particularly expensive "lady of the evening" at a post station near Edo. 1 Ryo (koban) - the cost for a man's formal kamishimo outfit including hakama, haori, and kosode kimono. 2-3 Ryo (koban) - the cost of hiring a maid for a year. 6 Ryo (koban) - the typical annual wage for a laborer. 10 Ryo (koban) - the cost of a first visit to a Yoshiwara establishment, including tips for the servants and entertainment. 200 Ryo (koban) - a month in the Yoshiwara could cost as much as this. 360 Ryo (koban) - the cost of buyinga small room (80 sq. yards) in Edo. 483 Ryo (koban) - the annual salary of a typical hatamoto in 1711.
This was a very fine looking samurai's helmet.
I don't think I'd noticed this before but a large number of the katana scabbards they were displaying had been tied up in highly ornate fashion. Here's an example. I'm at a loss whether this is some sort of peacebonding or this is how they were normally carried on the belt or whatnot.
Taiko drummers! It was raining out at the time, so the drummers had decided to move their act indoors. I'm not a fan of the decision-- in the enclosed space, the drumbeat really rattles you! But it's totally understandable that they don't want to perform outdoors either, where the moisture could damage the drums.
Given the change in venue, there were a lot of people gathered to watch, and it was hard for the small old woman behind me to see, so I held up my phone with the cam going so she could see through it, like a periscope. She was amused.
We broke for lunch at the 'On the Bridge' restaurant, which as the name suggests, was on the bridge connecting two of the buildings of the mall; I'd eaten there a previous time and was happy to recommend it to
kagetsume. He had the beef curry, and seemed quite pleased at the novel (to him) flavor of Japanese curry.This was the chicken katsu curry bowl. It's not quite like a regular chicken katsu curry plate; there's that fried egg on top, for one thing. I really enjoyed this version.
It's a good thing we ate when we did; when we came back later, all the restaurants were *packed*.
The Fanime maids were putting on a presentation at this stage. They were playing some sort of rock-paper-scissors game with the crowd; it didn't quite make sense to me how they were planning to use the results, but I think they were counting how many people put up the winning hands.
We passed through the forest of vendors and stopped by Jade Chocolate, where I treated Kagetsume to a piece of their chocolate; he liked it enough that on the way back, he wound up buying a box to take home, and I picked up a 'genmaicha brown rice tea chocolate bar' to sample. (it really does taste like brown rice and chocolate)
I picked up a couple of Asimov books from the used bookstore; Kagetsume picked up a Harlan Ellison book for his girlfriend.
On the north side of the festival, we browsed through the exhibits. Here are some interesting movies-inspired origami creations.
We also stopped to observe the tea ceremony. We managed to catch nearly the end of the ceremony, and by virtue of having stayed through it, I observed something this time that I hadn't the other times: they then welcomed us to try some tea and snacks ourselves. I declined, not wanting to overdo it on food, but
kagetsume tried the green tea mochi and the mug of green tea they proffered him.Didn't stay long enough to take in the performance, but I thought it was interesting to see a group of koto musicians-- usually the koto is a solo instrument, no?
The paper dolls club made a strong artistic showing as always! Here's a general being mean to a poor innocent tiger.
Another pair of Rochelle Lam's adorable critter dolls.
At this point I exclaimed, 'Okay, now they are just showing off!' They totally were. Check out these amazing Victorian-style paper dolls!
There was an Ikebana display next doors, Japanese flower arrangement. I wouldn't have batted an eyelash if you had told me that they were displaying alien life forms.
We browsed the food stands as well, but nothing there that really struck us as must-have, filled as we were on lunch and chocolate, so we made our way back to the car and headed back home, where I subjected
kagetsume to God of Cookery (Stephen Chow) and God of Gamblers (Chow Yun Fat).I wasn't feeling up to cooking dinner so we headed to nearby Castro Street and the Asian Box for dinner. This is the first time I've had their food. It's not bad, per se, but I think it's easy to mess up in your choice of condiments and toppings. Next time, I'd choose a different sauce; the sriracha sauce is too hot and clashes with the subtle sweetness of the lemongrass pork.
Overall though, it was a pretty good day out! Even if I did spend the next few days recovering from the exertion. :) Going all the way up to San Francisco and walking around all day really takes it out of you.