I spent 2 days in San Francisco with my best friend. We had a wonderful time! This was my second time visiting the city and my friends first, so she had asked to see the "touristy stuff".

We did get to have coffee and a pastry from a nearby Starbucks together before starting our tour of the city at around 7:45 a.m. We then walked up Powell Street to Geary Street to catch the 38 bus line at that corner. We hopped off at Geary St and Laguna St. We were very early, and most of the shops did not open until 11 so we had to walk around for a bit.

Japantown isn’t very big so that did not eat up a lot of time, but I got some good photos of the Japantown Peace Plaza Pagoda.


To kill some more time and re-fuel for the day, we stopped at O Izakaya Lounge for a Japanese-style breakfast bento. Grilled salmon, scrambled eggs, miso soup, rice, fruit and vegetables were all present. It was excellent!


By the time we finished breakfast some more shops had started opening up. Soko Hardware was our first stop. It was a regular American hardware store that also carried a lot of Japanese goods. Most of the Japanese products were downstairs, but there were some traditional Japanese woodworking tools upstairs. This place had the best pricing for iron teapots in the area.

Sanko Cooking Supplies was near Soko Hardware. They also had iron teapots, a very large selection of table service, and small appliances such as rice cookers.

We then walked through the Japan Center Mall which has the Peace Pagoda between its two buildings. Most of the shops were still closed, but there were many people hanging around the restaurants and shops which were open. There were enough open ones to keep us busy until the rest opened at 11:00. Kinokuniya Bookstore reminded me of a Barnes and Noble, but it had about 90+ percent Japanese language publications and books. We also stopped in a store called Sanrio with a ton of pink Hello Kitty merchandise to snap a few pictures on my phone which I sent to my friend who happens to be a Hello Kitty collector.


The Katachi knives store had all sorts of cool Japanese swords ranging in price from $25 to $2500+. They also had knives, statues and figurines. I resisted the temptation to pick up a sword and have it shipped back home.

Asakichi Cast Iron was a tiny shop on the bridge spanning across Webster St. between mall buildings. Here I purchased a small ceramic koi figurine. They also had Samurai figurines, boxes, tea pots and other figurines all in cast iron.

We left Japantown on the same 38 bus route back to Powell and Geary Streets. From there, we hopped on one of the Powell cable cars taking it up the hill to California Street. We then walked down California turning at Stockton to head into Chinatown. We wandered around a few blocks in Chinatown for the next 45 minutes or so, then decided to grab some lunch at Mario’s Bohemian Cigar Store Cafe. We headed over to Columbus Ave, then up to Mario’s in the North Beach or little Italy area near Washington Square.

Mario’s was packed around 1 PM, but managed to grab an outside table with two chairs. Service was very slow. We had to hang out at our table for quite some time before the waitress acknowledged our presence. Once she did, however, the service was fine. I had the meatball panini sandwich (by the server's recommendation) with a Hop Head Red beer from Green Flash Brewing Company.


After lunch, we walked through Washington square, then headed uphill to Coit Tower. Since Tia didn’t have much luck capturing the murals inside the tower, I attempted to do a better job with my point and shoot camera. We also paid the $5 admission to go to the top and took photos from each of the windows before heading back down into Chinatown for an afternoon snack.


Then we wandered through Chinatown a bit more, taking some photos along the way. We ended up at the AA Bakery where we purchased an egg custard that we took with us to the Transamerica Pyramid, where we found a quiet seat in their Redwood Park to eat it. After the custard was gone, I took a few photos in the park and of the building, then we headed over to California Street to catch the cable car back up the hill.


Finally, we ended the evening at Mel’s Drive-In on Mission Street for some dessert before heading back to the hotel to rest before another big day.

Next blog post....Alcatraz! and much more.