I don’t recall much from the first time I visited Japantown in 1992, but it was a pretty great place to visit under turbulent but clearing San Francisco skies in February 2024. In an alternate reality where I somehow settled in SF as opposed to Boston, I think I would be hanging out all of the time there, wearing an old Seiko watch, buying myself ramen and Matcha lattes over endless lunches, and annoying shopkeepers in the bookstores with stupid translation questions. Actually, why didn’t that happen? My wife and I even honeymooned in San Francisco.

The San Francisco Peace Pagoda, 1968, Yoshiro Taniguchi architect.