It’s mid-April, the weather’s warming up, and the flowers are blooming. So, what does this mean? It’s cherry blossom viewing time! In Japan, this is the time of the year when families and company groups will go out to the park for picnics under big cherry trees.  Unfortunately we don’t have this custom in the US.  But what we do have is the annual Cherry Blossom Festival (Sakura Matsuri) at San Francisco Japan town.  Given that I had nothing going on this weekend, I decided to go check it out.  See pics below:

One booth was selling dolls and characters made out of felt. I don't think that this was on sale but this picture is of a human-sized Tottoro!

Cosplay people in the parade - I definitely saw multiple pikachus and final fantasy characters.

A guy on a huge mikoshi (float). Sorry for the two guys wearing the g-string. It's tradition in Japan for guys to be wearing this type of outfit at a festival. Over twenty people were carrying the float. I can only imagine how heavy it was with the two guys and the sake barrels on the float!

With tons of food booths and cultural performances, it turned out to be a fun day.  It was very fitting to have such an event at this time, and for the people come and show support for Japan with what happened to the country in the recent earthquake and tsunami devastation.