On Sunday I went with a friend to San Francisco for Fleet Week. She enjoys her exercise like me, so we walked down The Embarcadero to Pier 39. Although we got started a bit late (we cleaned her house after a party the night before) we managed to time it almost perfectly and got there about an hour before the Blue Angels performed.
I had seen them perform several years ago, but barely remembered anything of those shows, so I was super psyched to see them this weekend. Basically I was willing to miss every other performer as long as I did not miss the Blue Angels.
It was a fantastic show, with the jets showing off awesome tricks and maneuvers. Surprisingly we managed to snag spots right next to the water, so we had something to look at even when they were flying around other places. The jets were flying so fast that I only managed to catch one good picture of them (while close-up). Since my camera is slow at taking pictures, I usually managed only to get pictures of the blue sky.
Afterwards, we went to get shakes (in my case, just good ole' ice cream) and then headed back to Berkeley for the Maroon 5/One Republic concert. We drove up to the hill to 'watch' it, although it's more like hear it because trees block the view. The pretty colorful lights still could be seen ^.^
We brought along a bottle of wine and the three of us finished about half of it. The concert finished at about 10-10:30 ish, so we decided to go and explore Berkeley. Since one of my friends had never been inside the stadium, we snuck inside and had some fun in the basement portion. The funniest thing was seeing how one of my friends totally couldn't be quiet to save her life.
We did climb some gates to get inside, but when we started hearing some clanging/walking sounds we decided it would be in our best interests to scram. Once we found a way out (not the same way we took in of course), we had another hurdle to deal with. The friend that couldn't be quiet...also was afraid of heights. Unfortunately, the way out required a little fall over a wall with some trash cans to help us climb up the side we were on.
It took a good several minutes to convince her to climb it. Although when she finally DID fall, it was only about a foot...LOL. It was still early after that, so we checked out the rumor of a skate park near Clark Kerr. Surprisingly, it was almost a fully completed park, but it had chains everywhere. There definitely were people who 'used' the skate-park because we found game equipment, like a foosball table and croquet, and a skateboard (without the wheels) that people had used to slide down the walls (it was already scraped up).
It was a lot of fun to climb and run and slide around, but I definitely wasn't dressed for it. I would have taken pictures but I didn't bring along the camera and my phone camera can't take pictures in the dark.
Showing posts with label sightseeing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sightseeing. Show all posts
10/12/2010
10/05/2010
Graffiti
I went with friends on Sunday to the Live Graffiti Battle taking place in Oakland. While we were supposed to have met up with them at 3 pm, the bus not only came late, but the bus driver decided to chat to passengers waiting at the bus stops instead of driving to the next stop. When I planned the trip using the bus schedules, I allowed myself 15 minutes in order to transfer to the next bus at MacArthur Bart.
Unfortunately, when I got there, the 26 had just left and the next bus wouldn't be there for another half-hour. So I decided that I would walk down to Market and attempt to catch the 88 instead. After hitting Market I realized waiting for the bus would probably take about as long for me to just walk to the event, so I decided to walk along the 88 bus route until I hit 18th, at which I would walk down to Adeline. If the bus came during that time I would catch it, if not, I'd be there anyway.
I managed to walk the entire way from the Bart to the Park without seeing one bus >.< When I got there, my friend told me that I had essentially walked ~25 blocks in one of the worst parts of Oakland - West Oakland. Surprisingly I thought the area I walked through was pretty nice, for Oakland at least.
In any case, we had a fabulous time looking at all the pretty art pieces that were created, did some drawing, and got hungry because we didn't want to pay for food. I had 3 favorite pieces and apparently they were all Bay Area style graffiti, which is logical considering I don't even know what the difference between Bay Area style and Brooklyn style is.
We didn't stick around long enough to hear who the winner was; it got really cold and the sun hid behind lots of clouds so we decided to leg it and go eat dinner.
They had other cool things to see and do besides the watching the graffiti artists. There were large pictures with oil pastels for people to color, stencils to spray-paint whatever you want, a random graffiti-ed car, a skate-park, and a dance floor. We saw some tiny kids skateboarding at the makeshift park and they were doing tricks! I noticed one guy in his 20s blading like Apolo Ohno and doing really cool rail tricks. Overall it was a fun day filled with lots of art.
Unfortunately, when I got there, the 26 had just left and the next bus wouldn't be there for another half-hour. So I decided that I would walk down to Market and attempt to catch the 88 instead. After hitting Market I realized waiting for the bus would probably take about as long for me to just walk to the event, so I decided to walk along the 88 bus route until I hit 18th, at which I would walk down to Adeline. If the bus came during that time I would catch it, if not, I'd be there anyway.
I managed to walk the entire way from the Bart to the Park without seeing one bus >.< When I got there, my friend told me that I had essentially walked ~25 blocks in one of the worst parts of Oakland - West Oakland. Surprisingly I thought the area I walked through was pretty nice, for Oakland at least.
In any case, we had a fabulous time looking at all the pretty art pieces that were created, did some drawing, and got hungry because we didn't want to pay for food. I had 3 favorite pieces and apparently they were all Bay Area style graffiti, which is logical considering I don't even know what the difference between Bay Area style and Brooklyn style is.
We didn't stick around long enough to hear who the winner was; it got really cold and the sun hid behind lots of clouds so we decided to leg it and go eat dinner.
They had other cool things to see and do besides the watching the graffiti artists. There were large pictures with oil pastels for people to color, stencils to spray-paint whatever you want, a random graffiti-ed car, a skate-park, and a dance floor. We saw some tiny kids skateboarding at the makeshift park and they were doing tricks! I noticed one guy in his 20s blading like Apolo Ohno and doing really cool rail tricks. Overall it was a fun day filled with lots of art.
9/28/2010
Now and Zen; together again
I had been looking forward to Sunday for several weeks. Alice 97.3 (the radio station in SF) hosts a free concert twice a year - once at the beginning at summer and once at the end (though I didn't know about the early summer ones). The lineup, in order, for Now and Zen 2010 was Ryan Star, Five for Fighting, Natasha Bedingfield, Plain White T's, and Sara Bareilles.
I've noticed that as the show goes on, more and more people become interested in the artists, until the ending act has almost everyone involved. It's really interesting to see.
In any case, I woke up a bit late and just barely managed to make the bus to SF. I was doing a quick jog from my apartment until I could see that the bus was sitting at the bus stop (it takes about a 5-10 minute break at that particular stop), but when I slowed down to take a breather I heard - to my horror - the engine start. Breaking into a run, I climbed aboard the bus and a fellow passenger gave me a high-five and said 'You made it!.' I guess he had noticed me jogging/running for awhile.
While I was supposed to go with some Berkeley friends and meet up with Fremont and Oakland friends at the concert, my Berkeley friends still hadn't awoken by the time I left. Since I had a bit more freedom with my time because no one was rushing me to do anything besides myself, I decided to go to the farmer's market at the Civic Center BART to grab some snacks for the concert.
That station is about half-way between where I was and where I wanted to be, so I decided that I would walk along Market until I saw and could hop on the MUNI (bus). Not knowing the buses that well, I thought I would ask the 5 driver whether he passed by the Civic Center BART. He said 'No' when I was at Powell BART, so I kept walking. Oddly enough, I was walking just as fast as he was driving the bus...and he lied to me! I saw the bus at the corner of Market and 8th! In any case, I made it to the concert 15 minutes late.
My Oakland friends (and their friends) were in line for the McDonalds bathroom when I got there, so I decided to stick with them - and wash my fruit too. They had been waiting for the restroom for half-an-hour! By the time we made it into the park, Five for Fighting was just finishing up their set. In the half-hour we missed, two groups had come and gone - really short sets.
The friends of my friends really aren't concert-goers. They wanted to set up 'camp' at the very end of the park, where nothing could be seen, just heard. My friends and I, however, were adamant that we not be stuck at the back the entire time. You can't tell people that you've seen singers in concert, when you can't see them!
So we set out to find good seats, luckily we managed to snag some awesome seats because a group was just leaving to meet up with other people.
It was really good timing - two people were right behind us, asking if we needed all that space, so it's a good thing I also brought two picnic blankets to cover the area. Then, those friends of friends didn't stand up when artists came on (even when a lot of people in front were standing, so they couldn't see a thing). The only good thing about that was that they watched our things when we went closer to the stage; they didn't want to come because they were scared of people possibly pushing/shoving them (it's not a rock/metal show, there's no mosh pit). Also they decided to leave about 20 minutes before the concert ended, to 'beat the rush of the crowd.' *sighh*
The concert was awesome - what I saw of it anyways. Having never heard of Ryan Star before the promotion for this concert, I didn't care if I missed him - and I did. Though I'm disappointed that I missed most of Five for Fighting, at least I heard their Superman song. Natasha Bedingfield was good and had really awesome vocals live, but the crowd wasn't super into her. I've heard her new single Strip Me before, but it's wayyy catchier when she keeps repeating that la-la-la part live.
Plain White T's were sooo good and apparently this was their first concert in 2010! They were busy writing songs for their new album and premiered some of their songs today. After they sang '1,2,3,4', I predicted that they would end their set with 'Hey There, Delilah' and I was right. By then, people were much more into the concert, and a lot more people sang along.
Then Sara Bareilles came on and she was amazing, which I didn't really expect her to be. Since she's more of a slow song-person, I expected her to not do much (like Colbie Caillat last year who kinda bombed in my opinion). I was wrong. Her vocal chops are ridiculous, like Natasha, and it probably helped that she was either drunk/high because she kept swearing and saying things like 'I'm drinking straight vodka.' The crowd totally loved her, and in one part of 'Love Song' she had the crowd sing and it was LOUD!
I met up with my Fremont friends after the concert ended; they managed to arrive just as Sara Bareilles started her set. Since the weather was a rare sunny day, we decided to hang out in SF for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, my Oakland friends had to leave to meet up with their other friends who skipped out early >.<. I'm lucky I managed to meet up with them though, I hadn't seen them in several months because they're always busy with family events.
. At first our game plan was to hang out at the Piers, watch the bridge light up when it gets dark, then walk to Japantown to eat dinner, then go home...but that all changed. Though we went to the Piers just near Embarcadero BART, and hung around as the sky was darkening, we got really hungry about 7-ish and couldn't wait for the bridge to light up. After consulting the map, my Fremont friends weren't willing to walk the 2 miles to Japantown just for food, especially since the restaurants probably closed early, so we headed over to Chinatown instead.
People on the corners in Chinatown kept trying to get us to go into their restaurants, but I realized that if those restaurants had enough money to pay people to direct customers to go in, their food was probably expensive. We managed to find a little hole in the wall restaurant (those are almost always the best) that apparently won some food award in a SF magazine. The dishes were decent tasting, piled high, and cheap.
Afterwards, we headed down to Union Square to just chill and talk for awhile. I lost track of time while we did all these things, but we started heading home at about 11. I unfortunately missed the bus by 1- minutes, so I ended up arriving home about 12:30. A very tiring, but fun day.
Pics to come when I get them from my friends.
I've noticed that as the show goes on, more and more people become interested in the artists, until the ending act has almost everyone involved. It's really interesting to see.
In any case, I woke up a bit late and just barely managed to make the bus to SF. I was doing a quick jog from my apartment until I could see that the bus was sitting at the bus stop (it takes about a 5-10 minute break at that particular stop), but when I slowed down to take a breather I heard - to my horror - the engine start. Breaking into a run, I climbed aboard the bus and a fellow passenger gave me a high-five and said 'You made it!.' I guess he had noticed me jogging/running for awhile.
While I was supposed to go with some Berkeley friends and meet up with Fremont and Oakland friends at the concert, my Berkeley friends still hadn't awoken by the time I left. Since I had a bit more freedom with my time because no one was rushing me to do anything besides myself, I decided to go to the farmer's market at the Civic Center BART to grab some snacks for the concert.
That station is about half-way between where I was and where I wanted to be, so I decided that I would walk along Market until I saw and could hop on the MUNI (bus). Not knowing the buses that well, I thought I would ask the 5 driver whether he passed by the Civic Center BART. He said 'No' when I was at Powell BART, so I kept walking. Oddly enough, I was walking just as fast as he was driving the bus...and he lied to me! I saw the bus at the corner of Market and 8th! In any case, I made it to the concert 15 minutes late.
My Oakland friends (and their friends) were in line for the McDonalds bathroom when I got there, so I decided to stick with them - and wash my fruit too. They had been waiting for the restroom for half-an-hour! By the time we made it into the park, Five for Fighting was just finishing up their set. In the half-hour we missed, two groups had come and gone - really short sets.
The friends of my friends really aren't concert-goers. They wanted to set up 'camp' at the very end of the park, where nothing could be seen, just heard. My friends and I, however, were adamant that we not be stuck at the back the entire time. You can't tell people that you've seen singers in concert, when you can't see them!
So we set out to find good seats, luckily we managed to snag some awesome seats because a group was just leaving to meet up with other people.
It was really good timing - two people were right behind us, asking if we needed all that space, so it's a good thing I also brought two picnic blankets to cover the area. Then, those friends of friends didn't stand up when artists came on (even when a lot of people in front were standing, so they couldn't see a thing). The only good thing about that was that they watched our things when we went closer to the stage; they didn't want to come because they were scared of people possibly pushing/shoving them (it's not a rock/metal show, there's no mosh pit). Also they decided to leave about 20 minutes before the concert ended, to 'beat the rush of the crowd.' *sighh*
The concert was awesome - what I saw of it anyways. Having never heard of Ryan Star before the promotion for this concert, I didn't care if I missed him - and I did. Though I'm disappointed that I missed most of Five for Fighting, at least I heard their Superman song. Natasha Bedingfield was good and had really awesome vocals live, but the crowd wasn't super into her. I've heard her new single Strip Me before, but it's wayyy catchier when she keeps repeating that la-la-la part live.
Plain White T's were sooo good and apparently this was their first concert in 2010! They were busy writing songs for their new album and premiered some of their songs today. After they sang '1,2,3,4', I predicted that they would end their set with 'Hey There, Delilah' and I was right. By then, people were much more into the concert, and a lot more people sang along.
Then Sara Bareilles came on and she was amazing, which I didn't really expect her to be. Since she's more of a slow song-person, I expected her to not do much (like Colbie Caillat last year who kinda bombed in my opinion). I was wrong. Her vocal chops are ridiculous, like Natasha, and it probably helped that she was either drunk/high because she kept swearing and saying things like 'I'm drinking straight vodka.' The crowd totally loved her, and in one part of 'Love Song' she had the crowd sing and it was LOUD!
I met up with my Fremont friends after the concert ended; they managed to arrive just as Sara Bareilles started her set. Since the weather was a rare sunny day, we decided to hang out in SF for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, my Oakland friends had to leave to meet up with their other friends who skipped out early >.<. I'm lucky I managed to meet up with them though, I hadn't seen them in several months because they're always busy with family events.
. At first our game plan was to hang out at the Piers, watch the bridge light up when it gets dark, then walk to Japantown to eat dinner, then go home...but that all changed. Though we went to the Piers just near Embarcadero BART, and hung around as the sky was darkening, we got really hungry about 7-ish and couldn't wait for the bridge to light up. After consulting the map, my Fremont friends weren't willing to walk the 2 miles to Japantown just for food, especially since the restaurants probably closed early, so we headed over to Chinatown instead.
People on the corners in Chinatown kept trying to get us to go into their restaurants, but I realized that if those restaurants had enough money to pay people to direct customers to go in, their food was probably expensive. We managed to find a little hole in the wall restaurant (those are almost always the best) that apparently won some food award in a SF magazine. The dishes were decent tasting, piled high, and cheap.
Afterwards, we headed down to Union Square to just chill and talk for awhile. I lost track of time while we did all these things, but we started heading home at about 11. I unfortunately missed the bus by 1- minutes, so I ended up arriving home about 12:30. A very tiring, but fun day.
Pics to come when I get them from my friends.
9/25/2010
A Treat of Aida
Last night, I headed to SF for a live simulcast of Aida in AT&T park. I hadn't looked at the map before heading out because I thought I knew where the stadium was - and I did, but it was a lot closer in my head. My confusion stemmed from having passed a street sign several times before that said AT&T Park with an arrow, leading me to believe it was close. I ended up walking an extra mile because of the twisty turns of the streets, and the fact that I was following the driving directions.
I started at the bus terminal (circled in pink), walked to point A to get some bottled juice, and then took the route in blue to get to point B (AT&T Park). I could have simply taken the route in green and shaved off a lot of time.
Luckily, the walk to and from the stadium was nice and I got a couple of nice shots. I followed the Embarcadero along the water and got gorgeous views of the sunset and the bridge at night.
I had brought all my things ready sit in the field, but I got there too late and the field reached capacity quite a ways before I managed to step inside >.< Surprisingly, there were very few restrictions on food and drink, so I brought along both and made my stomach happy.
The stadium was crazily packed. The announcers estimated 32,000 people showed up, with an extra 3,000 at the War Memorial Opera House. The lines to get in were ridiculous. I was sitting behind a group of people who seemed to be pretty knowledgeable about opera, so I got to hear some tidbits. I would have talked to them, like I did to the people waiting in line with me, but I felt I had nothing to offer them - no pearls of opera wisdom of my own.
The full scope of the line doesn't come through here. I was by myself, so I didn't want to step out of the line just to get a picture, and lose my spot.
This picture was taken after the opera ended, and lots of people had already left.
Aida was magnificent, and at the end I was so moved, I was holding back a few tears. Surprisingly, I was able to make out some of the Italian (from my Latin knowledge). Mostly, the words were so twisted from the singing it was difficult to tell.
After the opera let out, I rushed over to the bus terminal, and made it with a couple minutes to spare - good thing I didn't hang around too much. It was a great experience, though I did manage to lose my earphones >.<
I started at the bus terminal (circled in pink), walked to point A to get some bottled juice, and then took the route in blue to get to point B (AT&T Park). I could have simply taken the route in green and shaved off a lot of time.
Luckily, the walk to and from the stadium was nice and I got a couple of nice shots. I followed the Embarcadero along the water and got gorgeous views of the sunset and the bridge at night.
I had brought all my things ready sit in the field, but I got there too late and the field reached capacity quite a ways before I managed to step inside >.< Surprisingly, there were very few restrictions on food and drink, so I brought along both and made my stomach happy.
The stadium was crazily packed. The announcers estimated 32,000 people showed up, with an extra 3,000 at the War Memorial Opera House. The lines to get in were ridiculous. I was sitting behind a group of people who seemed to be pretty knowledgeable about opera, so I got to hear some tidbits. I would have talked to them, like I did to the people waiting in line with me, but I felt I had nothing to offer them - no pearls of opera wisdom of my own.
The full scope of the line doesn't come through here. I was by myself, so I didn't want to step out of the line just to get a picture, and lose my spot.
This picture was taken after the opera ended, and lots of people had already left.
Aida was magnificent, and at the end I was so moved, I was holding back a few tears. Surprisingly, I was able to make out some of the Italian (from my Latin knowledge). Mostly, the words were so twisted from the singing it was difficult to tell.
After the opera let out, I rushed over to the bus terminal, and made it with a couple minutes to spare - good thing I didn't hang around too much. It was a great experience, though I did manage to lose my earphones >.<
9/20/2010
Walking around SF town
Normally after walking a lot, my legs twitch in the morning from over-usage. On Sunday morning, however, my legs felt great and my feet weren't sore. So I decided, why not punish them some more XD. I planned on going to another fun event - Comedy Day at Golden Gate Park.
Getting ready to leave was quite a hassle; I kept remembering things I needed/wanted to bring. Having forgotten the sunblock yesterday (and looking at a very prominent tan line), I grabbed some sunscreen, as well as a water bottle, a picnic tablecloth, phone/radio earphones, a camera, and my wallet.
Once I was all prepared, I started heading towards the bus stop...only to realize that I only had about 5 minutes to get there. The Berkeley buses usually run a bit late, so it's not a big deal to get to the stop exactly on time. However, the F bus (which goes across the bay bridge to SF) leaves on time, and sometimes even a bit early. Unfortunately as I was jogging to the bus stop, I could tell that it had already left.
Since the bus runs every half-hour, my choices were to sit down at the stop and read a book, or to walk part-way and catch the bus further down the route. When in doubt, I almost always choose the route of exercise - partly because I don't figure in the time to go work-out. In any case I managed to walk over 2 miles - almost to my friends' house - by the time the next bus came.
After arriving in SF, I walked from the bus terminal all the way to the park, passing several 'shady' parts of town. A good 4 miles walk, it took me about an hour and 10 minutes. Maybe I looked a lot tougher than I felt, but nothing happened, although I did receive several 'who does this girl think she is walking alone' looks. Half the time I was frightened that I would get mugged. However, I put on a brave face, didn't completely make eye contact, kept my camera out of sight and power-walked.
Once I finally arrived in the park, I was half-surprised to notice that not that many people had shown up. The weather was a horrible mist of doom and gloom and at times was more sprinkling than mist, but the comics completely made up for it. The 1st half of comedians weren't that funny, and indeed tended to get just a spattering of laughter - more silence than anything else.
The 2nd half were pretty much all great. Johnny Steele, a host for part of the show, had some amazing practical jokes, like walking into a fast food restaurant and ordering something weird to see them turn around and look. Many people started leaving when the rain started falling more, but I'm happy I stayed because Robin Williams was there. ROBIN WILLIAMS!! It was an amazing show and I'm glad that I went, even though people didn't come with me.
Afterwards I headed over to my friends' house (the same one I almost managed to walk to) because they decided to hold a bar-b-que. Luckily they live along the F bus route that goes to SF, so I easily made it to their place (though I had to sprint to catch the bus and made it with a minute to spare). Predictably, the weather cleared up as I boarded the bus - just in time for me to miss the sunshine. Compare the weather as I was outside to when I was inside the bus.
One of my friends is vegetarian, so it was a vegetarian BBQ with tofu, mushrooms, corn, and veggie burgers. Chips, beer, margaritas, and ice cream sandwiches completed the feast - a fun night overall. Unfortunately it was a Sunday night, so the party broke up relatively early - people still needed to get their homework finished, and get over their sicknesses. Hopefully they didn't pass along the germs, but since I just got over being sick last week, I think I'm relatively safe.
9/19/2010
Fest Quest
Health professionals recommend walking at least 10k steps a day for good health, and I normally manage to hit around there per day (7000-9000). However, I've been lazy and taking the bus for the last several days, so my average fell from about 8k daily to 5k this week. So today I had a little walk-fest to make up for the rest of the week.
SF hosted two festivals today 9/18: J-Pop Summit Festival in Japantown and the Autumn Moon Festival in Chinatown. So I walked from the transbay terminal (point A) to Chinatown (point B) to Japantown (circled in red) back to Chinatown and then finally back to the terminal - a total of about 7 miles, which according to my pedometer (sorta) is about 22k steps. O.o My feet don't feel like I've done that much walking, but I guess I did sit down and rest quite a bit.
Since I couldn't catch the earlier bus (it only comes every half-hour), I ended up missing the beginning of both festivals; they both went from 11 am to 6 pm >.< So I went to Chinatown just in time to see the ending of the lion dance (from far away), but wasn't able to get any pictures.
Luckily I was able to see the dragon dance, even if it was performed by middle-school kids so it wasn't super professional or anything. It was actually quite funny to see how they kept stepping on each other. Like many other festivals, there were balloon artists - but they did awesome animals, not just the normal dog/butterfly. I saw a hello kitty balloon, and the guy was twisting some complicated asian monkey when I was passing by, at that point I swear it had 20 different little twist bubbles - though it doesn't really come out in the picture.
After hanging around for about a half-hour, I realized that it was really very similar to the Oakland Autumn Moon Festival I went to a couple weeks ago - a whole bunch of booths selling mooncakes (duh), lots of 'dvds/cds' for sale, tv stations, banks, a food...lots of it. So I decided to hop it and head over to Japantown because I had never been to a J-pop festival-like thing.
On the way to Japantown, I walked up several SUPER-CRAZY streets, and at one point I was panting when I reached the top of the street. The sign said park at 90 degrees, and there was a little picture too. Literally I was looking down and able to see the bay - pretty amazing. Also on the way, I passed several gothic-looking buildings that looked as though they were those old Gaelic medival castles. Of course, they were churches.
Japantown wasn't as crowded as Chinatown was (thankfully), but there were still a good 1000 people there. I headed to the concert area first and checked it out. The first band I saw was SOU, but they weren't that good. Only one person was into them, while a whole crowd of people were just sitting there - not a good start to my J-pop experience.
By then I was getting a little thirsty, it was pretty hot out and I also forgot my sunblock >.< So I went and got a nice boba milk tea, very refreshing. I checked out the food stands too, and they had some pretty cool asian fusion stuff - like seaweed on hotdogs.
Although the hotdogs sounded interesting, I wasn't willing to shell out the money, so I hung around and did other stuff, like check out the stores selling cosplay outfits and an art gallery, which was all red and cool. I found a cute little stand that sold hats, hairbands, headbands, jewelery...pretty much all the accessories a girl could wish for. I found an awesome hairband which worked really well with my hair and complexion, but it cost $15. If I wore that kind of stuff more frequently I might have bought it, but I know I'd just stick it down somewhere and almost never wear it...so I let it go.
Yes, I'm squinting it that picture (it was really bright!) After that, there was an anime cosplay contest! Unfortunately, this being America, the cosplayers here aren't that good...so I didn't really take that many pictures. The winner of the contest got 'big prizes' which turned out to be more cosplaying clothes LOL. There was only one guy who I thought was worthy of being called cosplayer...but he didn't win! (He did get the most requests for pictures though).
Then an AWESOME band came on called Jinny Oops! Apparently they're pretty well-known because they got everyone pumped up, and had tons of people crowded around the stage yelling that they loved them. I got right up next to the stage - and managed to hurt one of my ears >.< but in exchange I got some awesome pics and video clips of them. I also managed to run out of camera batteries because of them, but I ended up using my camera phone for the rest of the pictures.
There was also a graffiti artist spray painting a huge mural for the entire 6 hours of the festival, and during that time people could make a silent bid on it for charity. It was pretty crazy because each time I walked by it looked really different, and had added complexity. I'm surprised he could work on it the full time in the heat!
Then there was a harajuku fashion show, with the fashion (and some girls) coming straight from Japan! It was way to neon-y bright for me. Bright pinks and greens dominated the show, with several yellows there too. Ughh...yes it's supposed to be all bright and punky and cute, but still...neon?!? Those are the colors I hate the most!
There wasn't really much else to do after that - unless I wanted to watch an air guitar competition >.> count me out. So, I decided I should get back to Chinatown and grab a roast duck. When I got there, I called a friend to get the name of a famous Chinatown bakery from them. To my surprise, they were in Chinatown when I called, but not for the festival, which cracked me up. They meant to go, but set out too late...so they were going to go to Fisherman's Wharf.
We went to Golden Gate Bakery, and got their famous egg tarts - even though it took 45 minutes of waiting time, during which I practiced my Cantonese with a fellow line-waiter, someone who reminded me of my mom. We almost didn't even get egg-tarts because they were out, but we were lucky and got the last batch - after much arguing from other customers. Wanting to enjoy our treat, we went to a milk-tea shop and grabbed a couple drinks. I got matcha green tea icey with red beans...yummy.
The egg tarts really were as good as the rave reviews. A fluffy crust and perfectly cooked custard. It was interesting to look at the texture of it and see it jiggle more than normal. YUMMM. Unfortunately, by then it was too late to grab any roast duck and most of the places were closed. I decided to ask for a recommendation for a good roast duck place from the tea shop people. They gave it to me, and also advised me to come at 8 or 9 in the morning to get good ones. >.> No way I'm coming out that early just for duck...thanks, but no thanks...I'll just get it from them later, LOL.
I had just enough time to get walk back to the bus terminal, and caught the bus with a couple minutes to spare. The F bus, which crosses the bridge to SF only runs hourly at night, so I was super lucky for that to happen. I was power-walking by the end of it because I was hoping that I wouldn't just miss the bus - not that I knew what time it left.
I was hoping to get this post out on the 18th, but I've missed that mark by 8 minutes *sigh*
SF hosted two festivals today 9/18: J-Pop Summit Festival in Japantown and the Autumn Moon Festival in Chinatown. So I walked from the transbay terminal (point A) to Chinatown (point B) to Japantown (circled in red) back to Chinatown and then finally back to the terminal - a total of about 7 miles, which according to my pedometer (sorta) is about 22k steps. O.o My feet don't feel like I've done that much walking, but I guess I did sit down and rest quite a bit.
Since I couldn't catch the earlier bus (it only comes every half-hour), I ended up missing the beginning of both festivals; they both went from 11 am to 6 pm >.< So I went to Chinatown just in time to see the ending of the lion dance (from far away), but wasn't able to get any pictures.
Luckily I was able to see the dragon dance, even if it was performed by middle-school kids so it wasn't super professional or anything. It was actually quite funny to see how they kept stepping on each other. Like many other festivals, there were balloon artists - but they did awesome animals, not just the normal dog/butterfly. I saw a hello kitty balloon, and the guy was twisting some complicated asian monkey when I was passing by, at that point I swear it had 20 different little twist bubbles - though it doesn't really come out in the picture.
After hanging around for about a half-hour, I realized that it was really very similar to the Oakland Autumn Moon Festival I went to a couple weeks ago - a whole bunch of booths selling mooncakes (duh), lots of 'dvds/cds' for sale, tv stations, banks, a food...lots of it. So I decided to hop it and head over to Japantown because I had never been to a J-pop festival-like thing.
On the way to Japantown, I walked up several SUPER-CRAZY streets, and at one point I was panting when I reached the top of the street. The sign said park at 90 degrees, and there was a little picture too. Literally I was looking down and able to see the bay - pretty amazing. Also on the way, I passed several gothic-looking buildings that looked as though they were those old Gaelic medival castles. Of course, they were churches.
Japantown wasn't as crowded as Chinatown was (thankfully), but there were still a good 1000 people there. I headed to the concert area first and checked it out. The first band I saw was SOU, but they weren't that good. Only one person was into them, while a whole crowd of people were just sitting there - not a good start to my J-pop experience.
By then I was getting a little thirsty, it was pretty hot out and I also forgot my sunblock >.< So I went and got a nice boba milk tea, very refreshing. I checked out the food stands too, and they had some pretty cool asian fusion stuff - like seaweed on hotdogs.
Although the hotdogs sounded interesting, I wasn't willing to shell out the money, so I hung around and did other stuff, like check out the stores selling cosplay outfits and an art gallery, which was all red and cool. I found a cute little stand that sold hats, hairbands, headbands, jewelery...pretty much all the accessories a girl could wish for. I found an awesome hairband which worked really well with my hair and complexion, but it cost $15. If I wore that kind of stuff more frequently I might have bought it, but I know I'd just stick it down somewhere and almost never wear it...so I let it go.
Yes, I'm squinting it that picture (it was really bright!) After that, there was an anime cosplay contest! Unfortunately, this being America, the cosplayers here aren't that good...so I didn't really take that many pictures. The winner of the contest got 'big prizes' which turned out to be more cosplaying clothes LOL. There was only one guy who I thought was worthy of being called cosplayer...but he didn't win! (He did get the most requests for pictures though).
Then an AWESOME band came on called Jinny Oops! Apparently they're pretty well-known because they got everyone pumped up, and had tons of people crowded around the stage yelling that they loved them. I got right up next to the stage - and managed to hurt one of my ears >.< but in exchange I got some awesome pics and video clips of them. I also managed to run out of camera batteries because of them, but I ended up using my camera phone for the rest of the pictures.
There was also a graffiti artist spray painting a huge mural for the entire 6 hours of the festival, and during that time people could make a silent bid on it for charity. It was pretty crazy because each time I walked by it looked really different, and had added complexity. I'm surprised he could work on it the full time in the heat!
Then there was a harajuku fashion show, with the fashion (and some girls) coming straight from Japan! It was way to neon-y bright for me. Bright pinks and greens dominated the show, with several yellows there too. Ughh...yes it's supposed to be all bright and punky and cute, but still...neon?!? Those are the colors I hate the most!
There wasn't really much else to do after that - unless I wanted to watch an air guitar competition >.> count me out. So, I decided I should get back to Chinatown and grab a roast duck. When I got there, I called a friend to get the name of a famous Chinatown bakery from them. To my surprise, they were in Chinatown when I called, but not for the festival, which cracked me up. They meant to go, but set out too late...so they were going to go to Fisherman's Wharf.
We went to Golden Gate Bakery, and got their famous egg tarts - even though it took 45 minutes of waiting time, during which I practiced my Cantonese with a fellow line-waiter, someone who reminded me of my mom. We almost didn't even get egg-tarts because they were out, but we were lucky and got the last batch - after much arguing from other customers. Wanting to enjoy our treat, we went to a milk-tea shop and grabbed a couple drinks. I got matcha green tea icey with red beans...yummy.
The egg tarts really were as good as the rave reviews. A fluffy crust and perfectly cooked custard. It was interesting to look at the texture of it and see it jiggle more than normal. YUMMM. Unfortunately, by then it was too late to grab any roast duck and most of the places were closed. I decided to ask for a recommendation for a good roast duck place from the tea shop people. They gave it to me, and also advised me to come at 8 or 9 in the morning to get good ones. >.> No way I'm coming out that early just for duck...thanks, but no thanks...I'll just get it from them later, LOL.
I had just enough time to get walk back to the bus terminal, and caught the bus with a couple minutes to spare. The F bus, which crosses the bridge to SF only runs hourly at night, so I was super lucky for that to happen. I was power-walking by the end of it because I was hoping that I wouldn't just miss the bus - not that I knew what time it left.
I was hoping to get this post out on the 18th, but I've missed that mark by 8 minutes *sigh*
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