Cherry Blossom Festival

One of the nice things about having classes in Japantown is that we are always in one of the cultural centers of San Francisco.  Japantown has a Festival for every season so there is always something to see and do.  Every year the Festival begins with the San Francisco Taiko Dojo stating off with a Taiko Performance.  It's sort of cool that the warm up excercises that the drummers do are Chen Taiji Ruler Qigong moves that I taught Sensei Tanaka....he always tells everyone Taiko came from China and that adding martial movements from China is merely going back to the roots!!  One of the neat parts of the Taiko Dojos performance was the Japanese Lion Dance..........definitely this borrows from the Chinese tradition....difference is that the Japanese Lion is only performed by one person..........similar to the Chinese baby lions.  After the Lion Dance the Festival began with cultural performances, lots of booths to shop at , and food to enjoy, and tons of people.  Our Wushu Team will perform on sunday, do drop by and watch!                    

The San Francisco Taiko Dojo began setting up for it's opening number that would officially start the Cherry Blossom Festival.

Noske-san is one of the few Japanese Lion Dancers in the United States, it's performance similar to the Chinese Lion Dance.

And for the first time that I can remember two lions!  If one is lucky two is even better!

The Peace Plaza was packed with spectators enjoying the sun and the performances.

Across from the Peace Plaza and down Post Street there were booths with food and lots of craftsman with unique things to buy.

Pet peeve:  thought I throw one out cause someone just scraped the paint off my bumper in the parking lot.  I hate it that people don't seem to care about other people.........in this case cars....I drive and park everywhere but people seem to just open their doors and leave dents in my car or just plain old push in your bumper when they park...look people(!)........or maybe it's just that they need more driving practice?  Anyway if you wanta share one of yours post them...at least you can get it off your chest. Lol........anyways.....................................

I'm sure it will be a beautiful day tomorrow please drop by and visit, Cya !