Yesterday I took off work and met one of the very first good friends I ever made online, Emma. She’s in the Bay Area to see some cousins graduate from high school and college, so we met in San Francisco and I took her to Japantown. It’s my very favorite place in the whole city. We had lunch at Izumiya (ebi fry and matcha ice cream!), then spent way too much $$$. It’s easy to do that in Nihon Machi.
I got some incense at Asakichi, yuzu and lychee and orange blossom, then let the owner talk me into some green tea. He lit a stick and OMG it smelled good. He also gave me a free sample of hinoki and said to burn it with the tea and it smells really unusual.
We took some photos in a photobooth–there’s a store in Kintetsu mall that’s got at least a dozen of them:
We wandered through Kinokuniya bookstore, and at the stationary store I got some refills for my Pilot Petit 1, which is the best pen ever made, but hard to find. I also got a new cell phone charm (the eyes have worn off my old one, kind of creepy) and another papercraft chest of drawers. I love assembling those.
We also went to Ichiban Kan, where I got:
Now I can justify getting another pair of geta–my old ones are all splintery.
I’ve been looking everywhere for those mushroom-shaped cookies! And I really don’t need more picks, but when they’re only $1 a pack, why the hell not? I also already have those pig-shaped sauce bottles, but the ones I have didn’t come with stick-on wings.
So that was where I was yesterday. Good times, noodle salad.
p.s. I didn’t really take any general photos of stores and buildings because I go to Japantown a couple times a year and have done it all before. You can see some of the photos here.
