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Saturday 16 April 2016

Cherry Blossom Festival 2016

Cherry Blossom Festival in San Fransico's Japantown district is on again this weekend!


Last weekend we headed into the city for an afternoon of fun at the festival - which the girls like to call the "Hello Kitty Festival" due to all of the Hello Kitty themed kids' activities.

True to form, the first place the girls wanted to go was the kids' activity area where they could make lots of fun Hello Kitty crafts. I've learned the hard way not to leave this until later in the day (all of the best craft activities sell out quickly) so we bypassed the market stalls and headed straight to Hello Kitty land where we met up with friends. The girls had fun making sweet key chains and sand art pictures. They also had a go at a carnival game and won Hello Kitty prizes.


All that crafting made us hungry so we headed to the food stands to grab a bite to eat. Udon noodles for lunch and yummy red bean filled pancakes for dessert. Last year at Cherry Blossom Festival Mathilde tried udon noodles for the first time and she was hooked. She still loves them and stuffed her face with hand-fulls of noodles! The rest of us slurped them up in a more dignified manner - ha!


Then of course, we had to check out the Hello Kitty Cafe food truck where we bought cookies and petit fours. Last year we bought Hello Kitty macarons and they were absolutely delicious. They'd sold out by the time we arrived this time though. Actually, the food truck had just closed for the day by the time we got there, but the staff were very nice and let the girls buy their cookies.


Oh, look... Lola's duck face came back! We haven't seen it for a while.


We then stopped by one of the stages to listen to a funk band. Mathilde made lots of fans dancing up the front by the stage. Ava and Lola were a little shy to join her.


Then it was time for a little Japanese music. The girls took turns learning the basics of  Taiko drumming. Once again, Ava and Lola were a little shy to go take a turn, but once they saw Mathilde playing they decided they didn't want to miss out.


By now, the festival was closing for the day so we didn't get to see much more. Ah, the perils of always arriving everywhere late!


Cherry Blossom Festival is always such a fun event with delicious food, fun kids' activities, great live entertainment, and lots of shopping opportunities. This Sunday there will also be a parade. We've been on parade day once before and while it was fun to see, the girls were a little disappointed that the Hello Kitty kids' area was closed to make way for it. I'm not sure if that's still the case, but it's always good to check before going if you have Hello Kitty loving kids like mine. 

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