Today is Sunday, February 08, 2009. My wife and I visited Japan Town in San Francisco, for the first time this year. Actually, my wife needed to attend her friends' new year party and I drove her there. Since I am not a member (a man cannot member for my wife's gathering. I will write an article about it later), I needed to kill 2-3 hours in Japan Town which is close to the place where my wife's party was held.It was the summer 2007 I visited to National Japanese Association to learn about Japanese American History to write in Japanese Web-magazine. Since then, my feeling about Japan Town changed quite a bit. Before, the place was just a convenient place to get Japanese stuff or eat with my Japanese friends, but I feel a little melancholy about what happened for Japanese Americans.
It is Sunday, Today. Melancholies should be put aside, I wanted to introduce some pictures I took some of them I used in my Japanese Web-magazine article.
Left:Tower located in North Center of Japan Town on Post Street. It says "Japan Town" in Japanese.
This tower copies Fire Watching Tower in Japan. In Edo era of Tokugawa Shogunate, volunteer and professional fire fighters were watching if there is fire. When they find a fire, ring the bell inside and alarm residents and signal fire fighters depart from base station.
Right:
Japanese style 5 stories Pagoda. It is said that Pagoda was build to preserve and protect Buddha bones after he deceased. This Pagoda is located in the Center Square of 2 main buildings in Japan town. The square is good place for having lunch with your friend in weekdays. The square today was full of young Asian tourists.
Left:
The Characters written on the Wall read "Peace" in Japanese. This square is for preserving and recording what happened in the World War II to teach people how war can affect people.
Right:Street Name is shown both in English and Japanese. This is the only place where I know the street name is shown in both languages. Maybe Los Angeles' Little Tokyo have similar arrangement. But I have not been there. I would love to visit to Little Tokyo next time when I visit Southern California.
I cannot imagine 2 countries have history of war in taking a look at this arrangement.
Left:Inside of Japan town. It looks really like walking in some shopping mall in down town Tokyo
There are Kimono (Japanese Traditional Clothes) Shops, Japanese Traditional Dram Training Place, Japanese Antique Shops, Lots of Japanese Restaurant. Sushi!!! I love Sushi restaurant in Japan Town, San Francisco.
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Feel free to contact me:
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Shaw Funami
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4 comments:
That was a fun tour. Thank you for sharing it with us. The photos are great.
Dan and Deanna "Marketing Unscrambled"
It's interesting to hear about your culture & the fact that you can't attend your wife's friend's new year party.
The pictures give us an idea of what Japan town looks like in the middle of San Francisco.
Thank you for sharing .. Hilary
Dear Hilary_ I will talk about the party later in my blog. Thank you for your comment. I hope you can come visit me in San Francisco. Catch you later!
Dear Dan and Deanna, Thank you for your visit & comment. I am glad you liked the pictures. I took so many pictures in Japan Town. Those Japanese restaurants are great, too. Please come visit us.
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