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LylibelluleCherry Blossom Festival
Posted by meronpan on April 11, 2009
San Francisco’s Japan Town has its fair share of festivals and such throughout the year. Today I actually remembered to bring my camera while attending the Cherry Blossom Festival.
Really beautiful day, but unfortunately that meant bigger crowds ^^;
Was raining really recently so was nice to have such a turn around.
As one of the bigger festivals they have (perhaps the biggest?), the street is closed to road traffic and booths are everywhere.
Near the pagoda they have a stage for performances… taiko drums while I was there.
Forgive the terrible video but I was far away and zoomed in on my camera ^^;
It ain’t ueno park or the meguro river… but I’ll take what I can get here in the states… sakura!
Hmm looks like I went a little sakura wild… thumbnails for the rest ^^; (of course, click for full size)
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mmmm truly a great day to be out.
Despite being a cherry blossom fesitval there’s really nowhere to enjoy the sakura orz
If you head in the malls there’s a handful of exhibits and such.
The framed pic below is actually some awesome needlework.
Sword exhibit was pretty neat. I believe it was a club of folk who were displaying their collections so nothing was for sale.
Mostly swords, but not completely :P
Various eats to be eaten. Had some yakisoba.
Forgot to snap a pic but the line for takoyaki is always insane. I woulda loved to have some… but jeez, it’s just takoyaki! Wasn’t going to wait for a half hour for that -_-
Another stage down the street for other music performances.
On the way back home, along the Great Highway.
Had half a mind to stop and just take more photos… didn’t so these are a just a few from the car ^^;
…and that’s why I haven’t finished my haruhi & yami reviews :P Hope to fix that soon ^_^
Are there events like this in your area? How are they?
以上！
ELTboy said
That’s nice. Didn’t know San Francisco has a Japan Town. I guess there must be a sizeable Japanese community over there to have this. It’s great to immerse oneself in other cultures at times. And anyway, I think takoyaki must be the most widely recognised and popular Japan food after sushi. There’s always queues for them anywhere.
There’s no seasonal changes in Singapore so we don’t get these kinda festivals. What we do get are bazaars that comes along whenever there’s any upcoming religious or cultural festivals. These are quite typical though, with stalls selling mostly food, clothing and miscellaneous items. And of course, we get quite a number of food festivals, mostly ad-hoc, throughout the year. Eating is our nation’s favorite pastime afterall. ^^”
meronpan said
i think in california it’s probably more like sushi -> “teriyaki” -> tempura in terms of well known/popular japanese food ^^;; maybe all the young folk know about it but all the people i know hardly even know what takoyaki is ^^;;;
i love food events, should be every nation’s pastime ^__^
Divine Fang said
Wow, superb tenki for photo shooting, the blue sky and sakura photos will make good printouts!
Wait… is that a UFO *last pic*?
meronpan said
good weather ftw ^^
i believe that’s just a kite in the last pic ^^;;
konadora said
Sapporo beer!! I want to try that :P
Didn’t know America had such festivals.. in Singapore.. even if there was one, there is not enough publicity, or there is too little attendees that it ends up canceled ;___;
meronpan said
depends on where you live for festivals… if there’s not a huge minority population, there’s no one to organize the festival ^^; it’s nice in the bay area because it’s really diverse and you get exposure to a lot of different cultures ^_^
aaroninjapan09 said
O you’re from California! Wow, that’s awesome, jealous!!!!!!
Best state imo!
meronpan said
it is pretty nice here ^^ i haven’t been to many other states though so i’d hate to generalize ^^; it’s kinda crazy how communities change from city to city, state to state… despite being the same country
kesenaitsumi89 said
Wow.. the festival is very fun. Hope I have time to go too…haiz. Will try out next year.
meronpan said
ooo, you in the bay area too?
Smithy said
Oh great photos, especially the blossoms look terrific! Very impressive. ^^
I went for a hanami yesterday actually: http://bluebluewave.wordpress.com/2009/04/12/hanami/
Took my Canon 450D, got nice photos but not as good as yours. Still lack skill and experience, plus my photos didn’t have much punch, colors a bit too subdued… yours look more vivid in comparison. What camera & lens did you use?
meronpan said
still on my trusty canon powershot s2 with the 6-72mm lens it comes with ^^; i think i was just lucky with the weather for the photos to turn out so vividly ‘cuz most of the time when outdoors I just set it to full auto and things usually turn out pretty good ^^; (well, i do go to macro mode for sakura)
also, i have no reservations about touching up photos before posting them, so not all of them are straight off the camera :P (i guess for this shoot, most of the indoor shots needed some adjustments. I think ‘cuz of the great conditions outside, those mostly turned out)
phossil said
Have you tried takoyaki before?? Oh wait.. Sapporo beer.. lol
meronpan said
yep, i’ve had my fair share of takoyaki ^^; fresh from a vendor in yoyogi park to frozen crap ones from the supermarket ^^;;
beer ftw (but cognac for more win :P)
Ayu said
Such amazing weather.. I wish I was there…
Hmmmm, I want to eat some Kagami…. ;)
meronpan said
heheh, unfortunately all the kagami stand had was agemochi & shaved ice ^^;
Persocom said
There’s no events around here worth talking about, wish I was back in California, so much going on out there all the time. Great pictures btw ^^ Oh, and send me some of that weather, we got rain and snow -.-
meronpan said
bay area’s great as long as there’s no earthquakes :P
i miss the cold weather, i just want to sleep in a kotatsu all day lol (not that i have one orz)
Blowfish said
We dont have Hanami festivals over here…Hope to catch some pics of the cherry blossoms tomorrow though!
What we have over here is the Japan Day! Cant wait for this years japan day! This time ill be more prepared and hope to bring a proper Coverage.
Cantw ait for your Yami Pics….Makes the waiting time for mine so much sweeter
meronpan said
you’ll have to content yourself with james’ review for now ‘cuz i did my haruhi review first (well, processed the pics, writing it up now)… though yami should follow soon after :P
love seeing events from all over the world, looking forward to the coverage ^_^
elczenius said
Very nice shots, loving those sakura closeups. :) Looks like the festival was a lot of fun. It’s still winter on this side of the continent, so I’m a bit jealous. :D
meronpan said
i coulda spent an hour just snapping pics of sakura but didn’t want to keep my relatives waiting ^^;
i’m afraid for the summer… got lotsa figures on one leg… it could be a leaning nightmare ^^;;
T.I.P. said
Nope, too cold here for any sakura…I think. There are a lot of different parades and events that goes on in DT Toronto once in a while, but I never go to any of them because I hate crowded places…have enough of that at work lol Might just hit a couple of them to share…just might…
Speaking of Yami-chan, not sure why HobbySearch haven’t sent mines out yet.
meronpan said
i hate crowds too, but mostly it’s the lines. the longer i have to wait in line, the more awesome the thing i’m waiting for better be. so when that awesome thing is… checking out at a crowded store or… buying a snack… i get -_- pretty quick ^^;
weird your yami hasn’t gone out yet… maybe they’re double checking their stock… ‘cuz mine shipped without a blade hand -_- e-mailed hobby search yesterday to see what to do… hopefully should get a response today or tomorrow…