japan town

so, i want to write about the one of the many places i've planned to visit for a long time now. although i am a san franciscan sadly i have never been to japan town. one of my friend always speaks of going to japan town and taking these photo booth pictures. she says it's really cheap and you can edit the pictures with words, cute anime characters, little add on's to your body and face, change backgrounds, etc. it sounds really fun and there are probably plenty of more activities you can explore when going to japan town. you might be thinking why am i blogging about this when i've never been there? i think it is very important to know the background behind everything just so when you experience such as going to a widely known place you are aware of it's history and how it became. i feel it'll make the experience more worth it because the history and exploring are both equal in parts. so, some say japan town is an inexpensive way of visiting japan without actually travelling there. there are resturants, sushi bars, karaoke lounges, supermarkets, theatres, hotels and shops that offer merchandise from japan. on weekends, particularly on spring cherry blossom festival you can see traditional japanese music, dance performances, flower arranging demonstration, etc. learning this is pretty impressive because japan town has so much shit you can do that you can actually get a feel for how japan is like. you can taste how their food is, buy the clothes they wear such as a kimono or buy japan inspired clothing and jewlery, watch their traditions, and more! and the cool thing about it, it is just locted a mile from union square and i didn't know that. as you can tell i haven't gotten around the city much, but now that i'm older and parents give me more freedom i plan to finally explore the city and understand why a building, bridge, statue, or area was built and what it's significance is. and i actually do have plans on friday to go out and explore the city with my girls so hopefully this will turn out to be a sick adventure. so a quick sum up of how japan town became to be it began in 1855 with the van ness ordinance. japan town was only land that was sandy and barren which carried all sorts of wild life like bobcats, rabbits, quail etc. in the 1870s san francisans began to move to this area and built homes. van ness avenue was the eastern boundary of the western addition and it experienced the 1906 earthquake that caused a big fire. the western addition stayed untouched by the fire and provided a place for the victims of the fire. tent villages were set up next to parks and families crowed around small apartments. eventually people started building businesses such as resturants, theatres, saloons, and hotels that shaped what we call japan town today.

--ria.