Sanfrancisco day 4

Day 4 saw us heading to the Asian Art museum. On the way there we ran into a small street fair that can be best described only as a Persian bazaar. We checked out the bazaar, Kathy bought an orange dress so she could look like a hippy local, and we proceeded on our way towards the museum. It was about what you could expect out of any museum with the exception that it was all slanted towards ancient China, Japan, and other Eastern/Middle Eastern countries. The big exception to the everyday happenings of a museum was the special Samauri exhibit. There were several Samauri coats of armor on display as well as swords and other artifacts in a few special rooms. We weren’t allowed to take pictures in that section and had to pay extra to get to it. It was worth it though. After the museum I decided that I wanted to head over to Golden Gate Park and take a look at the Japanese Garden there and hopefully find the Japanese tea house. We had lunch at Munch Haven (our new favorite restaurant and a local hangout) then jumped on a street car after I worked out the logistics of the next destination. We had no sooner got on the street car when Kathy realized that she had forgotten her camera at Munchies (I started calling it Munchies instead of Munch Haven because I like that name better). We argued and fussed for a couple of stops then jumped off the street car to hoof it back to Munchies in what I was positive was a futile attempt to recover her camera. I told her over and over that it was gone and that was that. Well, when she dashed in there after it the guy who waited on us had it behind the camera and already was getting it out when she walked in. Very nice people in that town. I was amazed that it hadn’t grown legs and walked right out of there.

Onward to Golden Gate Park we grabbed the next street car and got off at the entrance. Golden Gate Park is a mighty big piece of real estate and it was getting sort of late afternoonish on us. We had some serious hiking to do so we put it in high gear and proceeded to march our way thru it in search of the elusive Japanese garden. We finally got to it after what seemed to be a couple of miles walk. What do you know; they charged admission. Another chance to clip a poor tourist. $10 got us both in. It is a very nice place. The pictures will tell the story. We found the tea house too. It was small and pretty Spartan. I really liked it. We sat down outside on the edge of the seating area and ordered tea for two. A tiny Japanese girl dressed in a kimono and those wooden, cloggy, looking Japanese shoes brought us a pot of tea. I found out that in Sanfrancisco, the Japanese made the best tea overall, at least as far as restaurants are concerned. I can’t compare their tea to the tea we had in Chinatown at the tea shop, but then again, that was the best tea I had ever had in my life. $700/lb tea is wonderful tea and it had better be for that price. Anyway, we also got some Japanese snacks with our tea. I would have fell in love with this little tea house if it weren’t for the fact that it was packed to the brim with people. I doubt most of them truly understood what tea was all about. They were too busy stuffing themselves full of those snacks. I was looking for a very quiet place to enjoy the scenery and relax. The tea was supposed to just be the final, perfect, accompaniment to my enjoyment. The surprise at the end of the tea house fantasy was a bill for $8.25. Yikes. If I were to calculate out how much tea they put in that pot I bet it would come out to be $400/lb anyway. Oh well, I’m not going to have tea in a Japanese tea house like this back home so I sucked it up and forked over the cash.

By this time we had seen everything in the Japanese garden and decided to get out of the park before dark. I had read scary things about the park after dark and I didn’t want to find out how true they were. We grabbed another bus and headed out for our next adventure. On the way to the park we went right thru the Haight Ashbury district. We wanted to get some T-shirts for family so we got off on the main drag and proceeded to go shopping, possibly hoping to get a glimpse of either a real hippie or maybe Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead (that would have been a miracle since Jerry has passed away but hey, this was where he was from). We didn’t see any hippies to speak of but we saw all manner of touristy, hippie wannabe shops. It was 1965 and it was all for sale. The 60’s stuff was vastly overpriced junk that didn’t impress either of us. We tried a few stores and didn’t see anything that turned us on until we wound up in a T shirt shop. Kathy bought two T shirts for the princely sum of $56. I nearly lost it and the shop owner had to have heard me complaining about the exhorbitant cost. I walked out of the shop, knowing no good was going to come out of my bitching and decided to see if I could tell where this mythical Haight Ashbury corner was. After about 5 whole minutes of puzzling, I realized that I was standing on the very corner of Haight and Ashbury itself. Pretty neat. People were taking pictures of the street sign and everything. And we even got some authentic T shirts to commemorate the occasion. Further down the street we encountered a “Hemp shop”. Everything in the place was made out of hemp. There was a sign when you first walked in warning you not to ask if they sold dope, pot, mary jane, weed, marijuana, and a dozen other names for it. I got a kick out of that. I spotted a wallet (also made out of hemp) for $12 and bought it. This same wallet was $18 at the Persion bazaar and I prided myself on actually getting one over on some touristy vendor thief during our stay. I came to within a nickel of buying that wallet at the bazaar. I had seen them on the internet and they looked like they would hold up well so I was glad I got it.

Another hop on Sanfrancisco’s famous MUNI public transportation system and we found ourselves once again in the hustle and bustle of Union Square. If I had to do this trip again, I would not stay downtown. I think I would stay in Japantown which is where we journeyed to the very next day.