Cherry Blossom Festival makes Japantown the place to be this weekend

If you didn't know that the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival was taking place in San Francisco last weekend and this weekend, don't worry. You haven't missed the climax of the event. Yet. The Grand Parade happens tomorrow (Sunday), starting at the Civic Center at 1 p.m., and proceeding up Polk and Post Street, ending in Japantown.

It's a spectacle to see - larger than life, Hello Kitty looms on her float, accompanied by traditional Japanese dancers, the Cherry Blossom Queen and her court, and much more. Apparently, it's the second largest Cherry Blossom Festival in the US, after Washington D.C.

I was lucky enough to get a preview at the Hotel Kabuki on Friday night, where the annual Friendship Ceremony took place. It was an insider's look at the Cherry Blossom Festival, an event where I was not only one of the few white people there, I was also one of the only people not wearing a kimono or other traditional garb.


Teams of performers took over the stage, twirling around in vigorous dances, beating on drums, and in between the acts, thanks were given (in English and Japanese) to the people who had come all the way from Japan to participate in the festival. Sprinkled throughout the audience were the pretty young princesses who competed to be Cherry Blossom Queen.



There was a team of master soba noodle makers - I kid you not - with a constant audience watching in awe and taking pictures of the process, and waiting for the taste of noodle bliss that would follow.

It was a good night in San Francisco, and much cheaper than a trip to Japan.