April 12, 2014:
I woke around 7am the next morning, meaning I had only slept for 4 or 5 hours. Even in a different time zone, my mind knew what time it was. I laid completely still and tried to go back to sleep because A.S. doesn't like getting up early on the weekends unless he has to and if you know anything about SF apartments, you know the walls are paper thin. I have proof of this because I know when his neighbor upstairs is urinating. I managed to go back to sleep for a couple more hours, but I'm pretty sure I woke myself up with my own snoring. Oops....
Eventually (around 10am or so), I hear A.S. get up and move about the apartment. I then get up as well. Today we are going to the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown. This is the reason I came on this mini vacation/weekend trip. We get ready and then head to Japantown. It's not that far, 12 blocks, I think. Walking the city is great, once you get used to the uphill battles you will face. Haha...of course, if you know someone who knows the city, then they will sometimes try to find the downhill streets if they can for you. So, after we get there, I just kind of stand there and soak the city in and the people gathering for the festival. I eventually decide to get some yakisoba for lunch at one of the food stands. I meet a lovely shiba inu named Saiya while in line.
After I eat, we decide to walk around. I peruse all the vendors and eventually find some stuff I want to buy for K.F. and A.W. I look in the festival book and decide we should go look at the Ikebana exhibition. These are just a couple of my favorites. These are done by different schools of Ikebana. Each school has it's own style. We also came back later for an ikebana demonstration in the auditorium.
After the ikebana exhibition, we go see a washi ningo exhibition (Japanese paper doll art).
After that, we go to the next room and they are doing shishu (traditional Japanese embroidery). I even get the courage to ask one of the embroiderers a question. I'm usually very quiet and like to observe people doing their art.
There are actually ten different levels of shishu. It was the question I asked him. He is on level 9. He said once he is done with the piece in the photo that he is working on, that it will be the work that gets him to level 10/master status. I wish I could see the finished piece because I knew it would look better than the photo beside him. After that, we went to the origami display.
Then, we watched a tea ceremony. Usually tea ceremonies last for hours, but they do a shortened version for the festival. A.S. thought it would be good for me to get to participate in an actual tea ceremony, so we went down the block to another place that let you be a part of the ceremony and learn what you were supposed to do during the ceremony. It was really interesting and fun. I felt silly though because I kept feeling like I was doing something wrong and disgracing the Japanese culture. It was my first "tea ceremony", give me a break. Hahaha...After that, we went to the Peace Plaza stage and watched some of the performances. Taiko drummers, a dojo doing some sword demonstrations, and KANA.
After all the fun and interesting festival activities, we had to walk home and get ready for dinner with my cousin, aunt, and a bunch of other people for M.T. (my cousin) and A.M.'s birthday. We had reservations at Palamino and the view was great.
After dinner, we (9 of us) got a limo and went to a club called Slide after we found out that the club (Ruby Skye) my cousin wanted to go to was a $30 cover. The bouncer at Slide let us in for free, even though cover was normally $10. Slide has a slide in it and that's why it's called that. We drank, we danced, and had a fun time. I drank a bit much because somehow my cousin always coerces me into drinking hard liquor (I normally drink beer) and poor A.S. had to coddle me a bit until we got back home and I could lay down on "my couch". I even complained about the water tasting like tequila when I wanted to drink some before bed. The next morning, I woke up with cotton mouth, but was overall fine. I had to be at the airport around noon, so eventually A.S. went to go get the zipcar and he took me to the airport, hugged me goodbye and I did all the airport stuff and got on my plane and went home.
I'm always sad when I leave San Francisco. I love that place like its my second home.
