San Francisco Cherry Blossom Festival 2018
Yay for a year in which I wasn't sandbagged by an annoying and lingering cough all spring! We left my place early and trekked up to San Francisco for the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was fun!
This samurai doll-like statue greeted us near where we came in. Y HALO THAR.
Most of the shops and exhibits were not yet open, since it was around 10-ish, so we poked around a bit, until Books Kinokuniya was open.
Here is Dracosphynx patting an Akita! The Golden Gate Akita club hadn't quite gotten things set up; things weren't really open yet so there was no wait to pat the very, very, very fluffy dog.
Dracosphynx pointed out the large-ish catbus! I believe that's a small Totoro plush squeezing his way out of it.
Tiny plastic cut-outs of small figures to be inserted into architectural models!
I'm pretty sure Foxmagic would love this book. A collection of photos of art based on Lego pieces!
This looked interesting... Not quite my style though. It might interest costume designers out there.
I picked up a couple of manga volumes and an interesting art book that showcased historical art alongside anime/manga re-interpretations of them. (since I bought it, I didn't feel a need to take a picture of it at the time, but you should DEFINITELY check this out if you like art)
A shop we passed while poking around. Dracosphynx was looking for a Zojirushi travel mug, but unfortunately we didn't manage to score one here. Still, that's a really impressive manekineko.
Is it my imagination or is the Osaka castle model this year bigger than what they had on display in previous years?
Dracosphynx opined the pork broth was so rich it tasted like "cream of bacon" soup. I rather liked it, but the "mild" spiciness I had ordered was actually about as spicy as I could handle, whew. Dracosphynx agreed: his "medium" spicy broth was actually pretty hot. It was doing a good job of melting out his sinuses.
We had ice cream at Aube Creamery which was a new place having its soft opening during the festival. I picked green tea ice cream, with a sprinkling of kinako powder. It was really good! Strong green tea flavoring. The kinako flavoring was rather subtle, I think.
The paper dolls were off the hook this year! Seriously amazing craftmanship and lots of details. This was a sequence featuring the Cherry Blossom Festival.
Emperor's Court set.
I always adore Rochelle P. Lum's fuzzy creations!
The presentation on this one was impressive and groundbreaking! Very artistic.
That's all of them, I think! I didn't take pictures of the basic paper dolls that I had seen before.
While on the way out, we passed these two thematically costumed dogs.
This part of the festival seemed to be aimed at the younger manga- and anime-loving crowd.
Here's Rory from the Gate anime! Spectacular cosplay. It looked as if she was there to drum up interest in some kind of app to watch Asian TV channels from one's phone.
I picked up a couple of prints in the artist's alley and in the general merchants section.
Yuumei Art's "Boundless". Simply spectacular! This poster would appeal to any bookwyrm.
And... (edited because I found the artist's name! Sushi Cats by Jed Henry. His "Metal Gear Solid done old-time Japanese style" poster caught Dracosphynx's eyes, but I liked this one the most for putting up somewhere in my office.
Dracosphynx protested that I don't eat sushi. I don't, but I love the art. -.-
Finally as we headed out, I saw this rather thoroughly decorated car. It's the Aria Company car!
Thanks for driving me up, Dracosphynx, it was great. ^.^
This entry was originally posted at https://tuftears.dreamwidth.org/194681.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
This samurai doll-like statue greeted us near where we came in. Y HALO THAR.
Most of the shops and exhibits were not yet open, since it was around 10-ish, so we poked around a bit, until Books Kinokuniya was open.
Here is Dracosphynx patting an Akita! The Golden Gate Akita club hadn't quite gotten things set up; things weren't really open yet so there was no wait to pat the very, very, very fluffy dog.
Dracosphynx pointed out the large-ish catbus! I believe that's a small Totoro plush squeezing his way out of it.
Tiny plastic cut-outs of small figures to be inserted into architectural models!
I'm pretty sure Foxmagic would love this book. A collection of photos of art based on Lego pieces!
This looked interesting... Not quite my style though. It might interest costume designers out there.
I picked up a couple of manga volumes and an interesting art book that showcased historical art alongside anime/manga re-interpretations of them. (since I bought it, I didn't feel a need to take a picture of it at the time, but you should DEFINITELY check this out if you like art)
A shop we passed while poking around. Dracosphynx was looking for a Zojirushi travel mug, but unfortunately we didn't manage to score one here. Still, that's a really impressive manekineko.
Is it my imagination or is the Osaka castle model this year bigger than what they had on display in previous years?
Dracosphynx opined the pork broth was so rich it tasted like "cream of bacon" soup. I rather liked it, but the "mild" spiciness I had ordered was actually about as spicy as I could handle, whew. Dracosphynx agreed: his "medium" spicy broth was actually pretty hot. It was doing a good job of melting out his sinuses.
We had ice cream at Aube Creamery which was a new place having its soft opening during the festival. I picked green tea ice cream, with a sprinkling of kinako powder. It was really good! Strong green tea flavoring. The kinako flavoring was rather subtle, I think.
The paper dolls were off the hook this year! Seriously amazing craftmanship and lots of details. This was a sequence featuring the Cherry Blossom Festival.
Emperor's Court set.
I always adore Rochelle P. Lum's fuzzy creations!
The presentation on this one was impressive and groundbreaking! Very artistic.
That's all of them, I think! I didn't take pictures of the basic paper dolls that I had seen before.
While on the way out, we passed these two thematically costumed dogs.
This part of the festival seemed to be aimed at the younger manga- and anime-loving crowd.
Here's Rory from the Gate anime! Spectacular cosplay. It looked as if she was there to drum up interest in some kind of app to watch Asian TV channels from one's phone.
I picked up a couple of prints in the artist's alley and in the general merchants section.
Yuumei Art's "Boundless". Simply spectacular! This poster would appeal to any bookwyrm.
And... (edited because I found the artist's name! Sushi Cats by Jed Henry. His "Metal Gear Solid done old-time Japanese style" poster caught Dracosphynx's eyes, but I liked this one the most for putting up somewhere in my office.
Dracosphynx protested that I don't eat sushi. I don't, but I love the art. -.-
Finally as we headed out, I saw this rather thoroughly decorated car. It's the Aria Company car!
Thanks for driving me up, Dracosphynx, it was great. ^.^
This entry was originally posted at https://tuftears.dreamwidth.org/194681.html. Please comment there using OpenID.