San Jose Heritage Rose Garden

Today I visited the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden ( not to be confused with the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden, which I will visit soon ).  I imagined it would be located somewhere downtown but it's actually adjacent to the Guadalupe Gardens, south of the Norman Mineta San Jose International Airport.   This land used to be a patch of weeds but was turned into a redevelopment project to create a large public garden and park for everyone to enjoy.  

An aerial view photo of the garden which was dedicated in 1995.

A sign showing some of the variety of roses grown in the garden.

Only a handful of the 3600 plants and 2600 varieties of roses in the Heritage Rose Garden.

These two photos were taken at Civic Center Park in Santa Clara.  The city is named after Saint Clare and the statue in the middle of the reflecting pool was cast in Italy and shipped to the city in 1965.

I like this last photo because the water bathed in the golden lights makes it look like volcanic fire erupting through the water.  At least to me it does. ^ ^

Cherry Blossom Festival, Grand Parade

The weather was absolutely perfect for a parade.  It was bright and sunny, but not too hot ( although standing in the same spot for 2 hours did get a bit warm under the afternoon sun. 

One of the first groups that marched in the parade was this group of San Francisco Firefighters.  I like this older style of fire engine. 

This Boy Scout troop, Troop 12 representing the Japanese community carried this koinobori.

Troop 12 also had a bugle and drum corp that marched in the parade.

 Nihonmachi Little Friends is a Japanese, bilingual and multicultural childcare facility that is active in Japantown.   Nihonmachi Little Friends march in the parade every year. 

This float was the San Francisco Taiko Dojo Rising Stars.  

Nippon Minyo Buyo Renmei.

Hula dancers from Hawaii.

 Taiko group from Japan.

Students from Clarendon Alternative Elementary School, a  Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program.

San Francisco Okinawa Kenjinkai

2009 Cherry Blossom Festival Queen, Eri Tagaya.

 2010 Northern California Cherry Blossom Queen and Court.

San Francisco Taiko Dojo, a staple of the Cherry Blossom Festival.

The final two groups marching in the parade.  Over 100 people were required to carry the large mikoshi through the streets of Japantown.

More photos from the entire festival and parade are here

Cherry Blossom Festival, Part 2

Here are some photos I took of the Cherry Blossom Festival on April 17 and 18.  The weather was much nicer so the activities took place outdoors.

 Mikoshi on display the day before the Grand Parade.

 Some of the booths that were selling Japanese food.  The most popular booths were selling takoyaki, udon and of course, teriyaki burgers.

Young students of the SF Taiko Dojo performing in front of a large crowd.

Kendo demonstration.

Two women from the audience were called up on stage to try.  The one in the back with the long dark hair was supposedly a kendo student in Hawaii.   

There were also booths selling arts, crafts and merchandise that were Japan-related.  This one was selling Miyamoto Musashi t-shirts and samurai themed goods.  

 Many people wanted to take this woman's photo because of the beautiful kimono she was wearing, but actually, she was filming a Japanese language television broadcast from the Festival.  I'm not sure if the program was shown in the U.S. or back in Japan.

Many beautiful handmade dolls were being displayed.  I was amazed by the exquisite detail and craftsmanship that was required to make such lifelike dolls.  There were others that were very cute, like these mother and baby birds and monkeys. 

I talked to this woman just before I left.  She told me about the detail and time it took to create such beautiful dolls.  I then asked her which ones she made and was able to take her photograph standing next to her creations.  I was really very impressed and glad that I was able to see them.  Sugoi!

 Not Japanese-related, but there was a booth set up by a banking institution that was set up near the spot where I sat down to relax.  It was quite popular because everyone was allowed to spin a wheel to win a prize.  Most of them were tied to incentives to open an account with the bank.  But there was this cute monkey coin bank that a lot of people were hoping to win.  I didn't see anyone fortunate enough to win, however.

The 2010 Cherry Blossom Queen Court made a final appearance of the Festival.  They were on stage one last time to assist in the Festival Raffle.  They each drew the names of the raffle winners.  The grand prize was a new Toyota Corolla. 

Japan Air Lines, a long time sponsor of the Festival provided the parade float that carried the Cherry Blossom Queen Court.  They also provided first prize in the raffle, which was two round trip tickets from San Francisco to Japan aboard JAL.    Unfortunately, I did not win.  Boo...  :( 

2010 Cherry Blossom Queen Arisa Hiroi draws the name of the lucky winner!

I will create a separate post for the Grand Parade.