SF’s 39th annual Sakura Matsuri
Last weekend I went with Jared and Elroy to Japan Town in San Francisco for the 39th annual Sakura Matsuri. Matsuri is Japanese for festival and is normally supported by a local temple or shrine. This specific celebration was to recognize the blooming of the cherry blossoms, or better known as Sakura. It was also the 100th year anniversary of Japan town itself, so there was a big crowd in attendance.
When we got there, I ordered 6 Takoyaki, a street food normally comprised of a bite-sized fried ball of dough normally stuffed with squid. To grab more business, they changed the octopus legs for the more palatable ground beef, and it still tasted good. Elroy and Jared had Terriburgers, which were hamburgers slathered in Teriyaki sauce. Sounded simple enough, but the couple bites I had were pretty tasty. I ended up with a plate of Korean spareribs (kalbi) with extra hottttt kim chee. Not as good as that time in Chicago, but tasty nonetheless. We shared a family sized order of yakitori to round out the meal, which is just some fried Japanese noodles with bacon cabbage and picked veggies on top.
After we ate, we walked around the little shops and Japanese-centric malls and just checked things out. I had a fish-shaped waffle filled with a banana/chocolate filling (taiyaki) and a green tea bubble tea. LOL. I ate so much that day. There were performances too. Small-time idols, Aikido demonstrations, Kodo drumming and even some katana techniques. What a great (and semi-cheap) way to spend an afternoon. I even had some cash leftover for a few Asian-authored books to last me until the end of the month.
YAY Japan Town!
Good times, good times. 
~Spec
April 20th, 2006 at 1:18 am
Is it me or does that other “cat” look disturbingly like a young Gary Obaob?
April 20th, 2006 at 8:29 pm
I KNOW RIGHT
i wasn’t gonna say anything but damn
April 20th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
ok. weird.
April 24th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
yay! japan town! i’m sick of china town.
hope you’re having fun out there!
April 27th, 2006 at 9:17 am
I’m amused by this post if anything because it sounds like where I live. Oh wait…that’s ‘cuz I live in Japan now.
You should come visit me. There are SOOO many takoyaki and okinomiyaki places! ESPECIALLY since I live in Osaka! We can live it up down by Dotombori!
August 15th, 2007 at 3:49 am
Hi Gary Obaob. Sorry for this email if you are not the right person
but I am looking for a Mike Obaob who used to
live in Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines.
He was my neighbor back home in our town of
Mandaluyong and my older brother, Tony Matias,
was Mike’s co-band member of an oldies group called the
B-Bops band. My brother’s name is Tony Matias
and Mike and him were real close friends. Mike
Obaob graduated in BA in Chemistry in college in Manila,
that is what I heard of.
Mike Obaob supposedly migrated to Chicago, Illinois
that is all we know. The chances of other Obaobs in
Chicago is not that many I’m assuming. If in case
your uncle or Dad is Mike can you please tell him about
Tony Matias or better yet kindly give me his email
or phone contact number we could reach him.
Thanks so much and sorry for burging into your blog site here.
August 15th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Juanito- I sent a message to my mother. Mike is not my father but I’ll check if she knows a Mike Obaob
January 7th, 2008 at 4:51 am
hey people
i was checking out some sick videos and i came across
a weirdo martial art called aikido
check it http://www.aikidotube.info
peace x