The streets leading into San Francisco’s Japantown were completely closed off to vehicles over the weekend in celebration of the 45th Annual Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival.
This event is known to be one of the most prominent celebrations within the Asian culture in California.
According to the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival official website, this festival is the second largest cherry blossom festival outside of Washington, D.C. as it draws in around 200,000 attendees annually.
The website also acknowledged this year’s festival will be commemorating several events, including the centennial anniversary of Washington D.C.’s National Cherry Blossom Festival and the one-year anniversary of the Tohoku Region earthquake and tsunami.
The sun was out and the atmosphere was warm as the streets of Japantown were crowded with festival attendees of all different ethnicities. Some attendees showed their support of the culture by wearing their traditional kimonos or dressing up as anime characters.
Cherry blossoms were seen all over, whether growing on trees or depicted on flags and posters.
Booths selling T-shirts, jewelry, artwork and Bonsai trees stayed consistently popular all day, as tons of people lined up to purchase merchandise.
The 2012 Cherry Blossom Court was presented at noon at the Peace Plaza Stage. While each of the five candidates had their coronations the night before, it was at this time where they made their public debut under their designated titles.
The princesses were UC Berkeley student Chihiro Hirai, UC Santa Cruz student Manami Kidera and San Francisco State student Miki Fukai. The title of First Princess went to Mount Holyoke College graduate Megumi Yoshida while the queen was declared to be UC Davis student Asaki Osato.
Osato explained how she wasn’t sure if it was really her name that was announced during the night of the coronation, but when her fellow candidates were telling her that it was her, she couldn’t believe it. She thanked the candidates for their support for getting her to where she is now.
While the princesses and queen were making their speeches, members of the San Francisco Taiko Dojo were warming up backstage.
At half past noon, they kicked off their performance with a dance to a traditional Japanese fishermen song called “Soran Bushi.”
With the audience’s attention caught, the taiko drummers proceeded onward with their drum pieces, including one called “Tsunami,” dedicated to the victims of last year’s tsunami and earthquake in Tohoku, and a performance called “Too Many Sides” by the dojo’s youth group, Rising Stars.
Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka, the first Japan-trained taiko drummer in the United States and founder of the San Francisco Taiko Dojo, could all the while be seen in the background, drumming along with his students.
The taiko dojo left such a big impression on the audience that when they opened up the opportunity for them to try out the drums, a long line was immediately formed.
These stage events along with others provided eye-capturing entertainment for festival attendees.
For San Francisco resident Yulee Cameron, this was her second time at the cherry blossom festival. While she admitted to enjoying the traditional outfits some of the people wore and the food, she said that she really couldn’t find any significance in the event.
For Japan native Toshihiro Bakaira, on the other hand, the festival was very significant.
“I’m Japanese so I’m glad to see the Japanese culture each year and many people know [a lot about] Japanese culture. It’s [a] good opportunity,” Bakaira said.
The Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival is to continue this weekend with more festivities on Saturday and ending with a parade on Sunday.
