Dear Diary: Japantown

Ya gotta see Chinatown.  That’s what everyone says about San Francisco.  It’s the largest Chinatown in the US.  I get it.  I’ll probably visit.  Chinatown’s seem to all be extremely similar from Philly to New York to Toronto.  Toronto’s is by far the largest I’ve seen.

NOBODY ever mentioned Japantown, except my buddy Robbie and his lady.  I never heard of any city having a Japantown, which is an entirely different world altogether–at least in San Fran.

A street festival just ended as we arrived and we didn’t want to wait in the long lines for sushi, so I don’t have any food stories.  But the streets were cluttered with Cosplay peeps:

Warriors:

Peaceful dudes with balloons on their heads serenaded the crowd:

We stumbled into the Japantown Mall because my buddy, Robbie, raved about a large Japanese bookstore.  Being left-handed, he loves their magazines because they read back to front.

The mall had stores for fans of films like Tokyo Drift  and Fast & Furious

And then…there was the bookstore:

That’s Robbie rockin his Phillies vest in SF.  We’ll be watching the Phillies/Giants later this week at some SF bars.  The bookstore lived up to the hype.  Peanuts were popular:

Next to that sweaty photo of Tiger was a copy of Slugger Magazine with a cover story called New World Order.  I’m guessing from the picture of all the Japanese players in MLB accompanying the story that it’s about the influx of Japanese talent.

Inside Slugger, they broke down each team.  The Phillies got a B- for what I have no idea. Jonathan Pettibone was featured so they must’ve been breaking down the prospects, maybe?

I was sad to the leave bookstore and Japantown.  That place was a headtrip.  I wasn’t as sad as this dude, though…

For more articles and nonesense follow: @ViolationsGreg on Twitter and Violations Greg on Facebook.  Please excuse any typos….this was written on the road and in a stream of consciousness.