A steaming bowl of ramen arrives alongside citrus soda and salted edamame, disappearing quickly at no-frills sidewalk tables that hum with chatter. Across the street, a supermarket houses shelves of Japanese snacks and condiments whose ingredients demand Google Translate. It could be a regular Kyoto evening—except this tiny enclave sits deep in cosmopolitan San Francisco, a dew-drop portal into the Orient called Japantown. Also known as Nihonmachi, the historic enclave is the oldest of only three remaining Japantowns in the US.
At its entrance rises the five-tiered Peace Pagoda—designed by Japanese architect Yoshiro Taniguchi and gifted by San Francisco’s sister city Osaka in the 1960s to strengthen cultural ties. Beyond it, the streets unfold into sushi counters, ramen joints, shabu-shabu restaurants, karaoke bars, and specialty supermarkets. Matcha cafés offer sweet interludes; at ChaTo, tea appreciation unfolds in a family-run setting, where the quiet ritual of whisking green tea slows time.
AloJapan.com