Balboa Park 2013 8th Annual Cherry Blossom Festival

    
This was almost a whole month ago, back in March, but I wanted to post photos from it!

The event happens every year at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park, San Diego.  

This was the 8th annual festival they've had - I wasn't able to make it last year because I

had an exam the following Monday, but I swore I'd get to it this year.

It celebrates the first blooming of the cherry blossom trees - in Japan it's called sakuramatsuri.

There's always a lot of Japanese fair food, and vendors - this year they had the grand opening of the Garden's extension, with a cherry blossom lane. c:  It's always really crowded as well, I've heard,

but it wasn't too hard to find parking a bit farther away (get ready to walk a lot though, the garden

extension has a winding dirt path leading to the small meadow at the bottom).

It was a little early in the season so not all the trees were completely blooming, but it was still really pretty.  

Probably the one rare time I actually got to wear my yukata - there

was a Japanese festival at my uni this Thursday but I didn't know till the

day of, so I didn't have the chance to bring it with me :ccc

My sister wore hers too (autumn leaves).

 The long vendors' alley down at the bottom of the lane.  There was also

a snow cone vendor, kettle corn, and a whole children's activities corner!  The 

stage with performances was a little further down the lane.  

At the top of the Garden by the entrance gate is Tea Pavilion - we climbed the path

all the way back up to eat lunch there because the festival food lines were insane around midday.

(The teriyaki salmon plate's really good, and you get a nice big chunk of salmon

with rice and veggies.)

 The day started out pretty chilly and grey, but eventually the sun 

came out and everything looked really gorgeous.

 Taiyaki's my favorite Japanese sweet, it's so delicious when it's freshly made

(they only have it frozen at the asian market...still good but not quite the same)

The guy making taiyaki - we got in line as the event was ending, we were

the 3rd to last people to get taiyaki before the stand closed!

Here's the official website from this year. 

I think they'll have it on the Balboa Park events calendar

next year again, sometime around late February/early March!