A few days ago I spent a great long weekend with close girlfriends in San Francisco – Becky, Steph and Bophany (our SF connection). While we visited touristy locations such as Golden Gate Park, Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market and Sausalito’s waterfront, I really enjoyed our time in Japantown, which is located not too far from the trendy Fillmore District.
Hotel – we stayed at Kabuki Hotel, which is an interesting property that offered a mix of Japanese and western décor. Our room, while small with all the typical furnishing, had huge Japanese print screens in front of the windows, a long deep tub and shower without walls and a Zen like shrine with a spotlight. Outside, there was a Japanese garden adjacent to the hotel with a koi pond and small walking bridge. There was also a Japanese spa, but there was no time to relax with all the activities just steps away.
Shopping – our hotel was connected to a mall filled with mostly Japanese stores, including sushi bars, a dollar and general store with “made in Japan” products, toy stores with a lot of Hello Kitty merchandise and clothing stores with kimonos. While there, we spent a lot of time in the bookstore to peruse through magazines, cookbooks and origami books. Yes, we could not read Japanese; however, fashion and humor are universal. We also enjoyed a snack from Bo’s favorite crepe café.
Dinner – For our first night, Steph and I ate sushi at the hotel restaurant, as we were quite exhausted from a long flight and still on east coast time. However, with Becky’s arrival on Friday, Bophany took us to Shabu-Sen restaurant. Shabu-shabu is a Japanese dish that is like fondue – you dip and eat. Shabu-shabu comes with a pot of steamed broth, thinly sliced beef, seafood, tofu, vegetables, rice and dipping sauces. To eat, you throw whatever you want in the pot, wait a minute or two for it to cook, pull out the food with chopsticks, dip it into the peanut or soy sauce, take a scoop of rice and eat. It’s so easy and fun, especially when you have a cup of sake on the side.
Festival – a Cherry Blossoms festival took place over the weekend on the same street as our hotel. While Washington, DC’s festival is way better (see my blog posting on April 10, 2010), I did enjoy the various vendors, sword fighting demonstration and musicians. Best of all, they rolled out a large banner that read “SF Cares for Japan” in honor of the earthquake/tsunami victims in Japan. They took an areal photo of the crowd holding the banner and plan to send it to Japan.
On every occasion I stay in San Francisco, I usually make a point to visit Chinatown, which is one of the best in the nation. However, this time, I did not miss it because I had Japantown. This new location made my trip so much more interesting, especially when I got to share it with the ladies!
A few more photos from my weekend:





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