Cherry Blossom

All the cherry blossom is out in the city and especially in Japantown. The other day Rose and I were walking home and as we looked up to the sky it seemed as though it was snowing. A gust of wind had taken all the blossom off the trees and was swirling it down the street. Beautiful.

This last Sunday we (Websters and Taylors) went to the second day of the SF Cherry Blossom Festival. It is in its 44th year and is a celebration of Japanese American culture.

Japantown was bustling with people, performers, stalls, games and Hello Kitty, including this fab black and white Smart Car! There was the most amazing smell of Asian cooking in the air and an array of exquisite japanese foods. Our wanderings took us from one stand to another, making intricate sand pictures and colouring shrinkies, watching sushi demonstrations with these fabulous wooden sushi shapers (which Helen and I both bought) and tasting a variety of different asian foods. The children were brilliant trying the japanese picnic we presented them with from sushi to udon noodles and okonomiyaki pancakes with bonito flakes scattered on top, which was probably a highlight for me.

Before leaving we managed to catch the very talented Taiko Dojo (Taiko meaning drum in Japanese - Kitty and I looked it up when we got home). This was a demonstration of traditional japanese drumming from a local group in SF. The children were transfixed even though we were quite a long way from the front. The group of men and women performed a very powerful piece written by their drum master entitle Tsunami, dedicated to the victims and survivors of the recent tragedy in Northern Japan.
There is a great response here to the recent disaster and many of the stalls and food outlets were donating profits to the relief fund.

The Queen of the Cherry Blossom will be crowned next weekend so hopefully we will make it back down again for the big parade on Sunday.

Hope you have enjoyed this,

Love Jo