Friday Evening / Saturday morning in San Fran

Now that I am rested I can actually look at some of my pictures and see what should be posted. On the Ferry we caught a glimpse of the Golden Gate bridge - and that is always an exciting reminder of the fun to come. (As always you can click on any photo for greater resolution and to enjoy the fine details.)



Here is the city as you approach it from the ferry.



For dinner we went to Chinatown and had wonderful food at the House of Nanking.



The owner (shown behind us in the picture) has very good write-ups and the food truly was piquant and delicious.



I had a lovely fried tofu with black bean sauce and the scallops were to die for.



Of course one always sees amusing things in large cities. These signs are all over the city near bus stops. I don't know if they are anti-dog or just a reminder not to be so high and mighty, but I found them funny.

If you are a wine connoisseur you will want to steer clear of the following.



They also had a fine selection of Elvis wines, but the marilyn version had many more varieties.

This is just a little cityscape image to give the flavor of the city.



Of course anyone familiar with my and/or my blog will know that I am obsessed with Japan, so the first place I had to go was Japantown Nihonmachi. I enjoyed that the street signs were in Katakana Laguna was written in both English and as ラグナ .

A first stop was at Kinokuniya to try and find a particular Lace Knitting book that is out of print.



No luck on that one, but of course that did not stop me from buying several others!

A primary feature of Japantown is the Peace park.



There was a troupe of dancers practicing for a festival next week - doing Traditional Hawaiian hula.



Another interesting place in Japantown is the Origami paper store that has a small exhibit of some incredible examples of intricately folded paper objects. We were drawn in by this Kimono displayed in the store window. It is folded out of a single piece of paper.



Most of these images do not need words to describe them. (Click to enlarge) they really are quite impressive!







I'm not sure I would want to wear a paper evening gown out to a party, but again for something folded out of one sheet of paper (no scissors allowed) - well - one would be a much bigger sensation wearing this than one of those silly paper dresses from the 60s!



These balls are made of paper cranes!



We ended our time in Japantown at a Japanese restaurant, meeting with a woman who is doing work with youth in the Mission district. You really wouldn't know we hadn't spent the morning in Japan!



The food was great and you can see the sushi glow for miles!