A Week in San Francisco (Part IV)

What was initially planned as a fairly chilled out final day in San Francisco turned out to be a surprisingly full one, as we travelled the city on a bit of a foodie adventure.

Ferry Building

After a fairly late start we headed down to the historic Ferry Building. Completed in 1898 as a ferry terminal for all of the boats shuttling across the bay, the place must have been especially busy before the construction of the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges. These days, it still operates as a ferry terminal as well as housing an extensive food hall and playing host to a massive market on Saturday afternoons. Being hungry, we thoroughly enjoyed trying bits and pieces from different market stalls throughout; gourmet hot dogs, steamed pork buns, samosas and plenty of free samples all added up to a tasty lunch.

Market at the Ferry Building

From there we headed back to Golden Gate Park to do some of the things we missed out on on our first day, and to explore the park a little more.

Our first stop at Golden Gate Park was the De Young Art Museum, to climb the Hamon Observation Tower, which had been closed during our last visit. Up at the top of the tower we had 360 degree views out over the park and beyond. At this point near the end of our trip it was nice to be able to look out and see some of the places we had been over the course of the week.

Views from Hamon Tower

Afterwards we made our way to the Japanese Tea Gardens that are just next door to the De Young Museum. The gardens are the oldest public Japanese Gardens in the United States having originally been created for the California Midwinter International Exposition in 1894. The gardens are full of little paths to explore, pagodas, ponds filled with koi, and zen gardens. After a bit of exploring we sat down at the tea house in the centre of the gardens for a spot of green tea. Very chill.

Japanese Tea Gardens

From there we started an aimless wander through Golden Gate Park. With no destination in mind we ended up taking a few odd paths - dirt paths along main roads, or through thick woods - but we eventually wound up in some nicer parts of the park. Since it was a nice day there was plenty of activity; costume parties, weddings, weird ball games and plenty of cyclists. Very few cabs though, which made it a little difficult to make it to our next destination!

Once we found the only cab in town, it was straight to Japantown - bit of a theme emerging here. Japantown was once the largest Japanese enclave outside of Japan, covering around 30 city blocks. However, after Imperial Japan’s attacks on Pearl Harbour during WWII, anyone of Japanese descent was relocated from the Pacific Coast and interned.

Today, the area of Japantown covers around 6 city blocks and really is like entering a little Japan. The smell of the food fills the area, with a wide selection of sushi places arranged around a central square. Being hungry once again, we settled in a great little sushi restaurant and shared a couple of plates of sashimi, sushi and one gigantic, American-sized bento box.

Peace Pagoda in Japantown

From there we were able to walk back to our apartment for an early night before our early rise the following morning.

So ended our awesome trip to San Francisco. A great time was had, and we definitely plan to return to California in the future! In case you missed them, here are links to our other blog posts about our time in San Francisco and area:
- A Week in San Francisco (Part I)
- Napa Valley Monday
- A Week in San Francisco (Part II)
- Yosemite Wednesday
- A Week in San Francisco (Part III)
- Muir Woods Friday

And here are some more photos from the last day of our trip: