city hall sake

friday night my coworker invited me to tag along to Mayor Newsom's Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Japantown and the 39th annual Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival, which was at city hall. being a sucker for all things cultural and free, i accepted the invitation. i hadn't been to city hall (i lived in LA for 5 years and never went to city hall there, in fact, i don't think i've ever been to any city's hall...) so i was excited to not only get my japanese culture on, but some SF sightseeing in too.

the reception was in the rotunda. which is quite lovely. even in computer. there were many boring speaches from those in charge and those affiliated with those in charge. but the host was missing, newsom couldn't attend his very own celebration so he video taped a message for the masses. it's almost like being there.

inbetween the speeches where performances by the most adorable school children you could possibly imagine (tiny kimonos and thick glasses with pigtails, boys in short pants with bowl cuts-- i died from cuteness), the most stoic of dancers, and the winner of all popularity contests, the SF Taiko Dojo. taiko drums are always a crowd pleaser, but especially so when followed by free sake and the ceremonial breaking of the sake cask.

after the sake (which was oh-so-yummy. go takara sake) we went into the light court where they served us yummy bento boxes filled with delicious japanese food stuffs like sushi and gyoza. coworker and i were high on japanese culture (and still hungry) so we decided what better way to cap off the evening than to go to japantown for dinner. we wandered the halls of the kintetsu mall looking for something to strike our fancy. we found it. but i think the sake hit me a bit harder than i realized as i have no recollection of the name. but the spicy tuna hand rolls were heaven wrapped in seaweed.

and of course all this would be much more interesting with pictures, but i left my camera at work.