This isn't Japantown; it's Chinatown, but I put this picture first because this is the way a lot of tourists are seeing San Francisco. Segways and little gas powered, two-person, sit-down go carts are popular. While waiting for the cable car at Fisherman's Wharf, I and the other tourists watch an Asian couple in their early 20s that have just rented a couple of bicycles. The girl has apparently never been on a bike, and the boy is walking alongside her, holding onto the seat and trying to teach her. We watch her crash about three times, and then they walk the bikes back to the store. I would not like to learn to ride a bike here: steep hills and too much traffic.
This is Japantown. I think this girl is tanning. Really. On the concrete between the entrances to two halves of the Japantown mall.
The cupcake store. I can never bring myself to spend $3.50 on one of these little cakes. But I do spend $3.50 on strawberry shortcake at the Andersen Bakery across the walkway.
I can also bring myself to eat a ramen dinner with gyoza. This is why I come to Japantown. My favorite ramen shop in Northern CA is in San Mateo, but without a car I can't get there. So this is good enough. I also stop in the store downstairs for some Japanese bath salts.
I am staying at the Westin Market Street (actually 50 3rd Street), just a block or so from the Moscone Center, where we have our show.
Just so you know that I really do attend a trade show in San Francisco, here is our booth. Notice that it has plenty of workers but few customers. That's because we have one of the largest booths at the show, so someone sticks it in a corner, and this aisle, which showcases two new products that need a lot of exposure, is a near-dead end, so few people wander down here.
This is a demo skull at a dental implant booth.
Now to Chinatown on Friday evening.
Lots of T-shirts.
Several guys are playing this stringed instrument in different locations, some alone and some in groups of three or so. I give this guy a couple bucks for letting me take his picture, and when he stops to take the money, the music continues.
You can buy a beanie here.
These back scratchers are handy and cheap.
Home decorations.
Expensive jewelry. Just kidding. Several stores do sell pearls and jade, but I have no idea how to judge quality or real from fake. I'm guessing this stuff on tables on the sidewalk is not the most expensive available.
Tights and a couple hats, anyone?
Meat and vegetable sellers start hauling their goods out about 5 p.m., and the crowds are big. Chicken feet seem popular.
So is fresh fish. The fish that's barely in the picture on the bottom left is still flopping.
The streets parallel and perpendicular to the main Chinatown trinket street is where you'll find all the fresh vegetables, fruit and meat.
This mural is on the side of an apartment building in Chinatown.
One reason I attend trade shows is to meet with magazine reps and consultants. Tiffany from DPS treats us to lunch at Fang near the Moscone Center. As we're finalizing our selections from the lunch menu, Peter Fang walks over, takes our menus and tells us, "You don't need these. I'm the chef. I'll take care of you." And he starts sending out wonderful dishes one at a time.
This is the last dish, deep-fried shrimp and apple pieces in a unique sweet-and-sour sauce that is delicious (this is Trevor, the marketing campaign manager for our Mac-based product; his identical twin flies helicopters over the Grand Canyon from the Las Vegas Airport).
On Saturday I venture to Fisherman's Wharf for lunch via the Cable Car. (This picture is at the Wharf-end of the ride; the other end is at Powell and Market Streets, close to the Apple Store. You should always know where the Apple Store is when you travel.)
When we approach a Cable Car coming the other way the conductor warns us not to let body parts hang out too far. He also scolds the lady who keeps holding her iPad in front of him to take pictures out the front window of the car. People should not take pictures with their iPad anywhere, anyway. It just looks silly.
As we come down the hill toward Fisherman's Wharf, if you squint, you can see the Oracle America's Cup boat cruising right to left.
Here's the Oracle boat (two Oracle boats are in the Bay) as it approaches the Golden Gate Bridge. I think the Louis Vuitton Cup, which is a qualifier for the America's Cup, is going on now. That's what I heard others on the pier saying. What do I know?
The Prada boat passes Alcatraz Island.
Panhandlers are plentiful on Fisherman's Wharf. This guy not only ignores the sign (he probably chooses this spot because of the sign), but he has a 7-Eleven cup in front of the McDonald's entrance. Street performers are also abundant, some entertaining (the gold guy) and some not so much (the Michael Jackson imitator and the juggler who never juggles).
Interesting signs abound.
I come to Fisherman's Wharf for clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl at Boudin's. This place has always been popular, but it has grown over the years into a huge tourist stop. Here a worker is making sour dough turtles and teddy bears behind a street-side window afixed with speakers and microphones.
From the cable car back we can see the pyramid Transamerica Building that gives San Francisco its distinctive skyline.
And from this street, the Oakland Bay Bridge.
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