San Francisco's 🇯🇵 J-Town:
The Nation's First Japantown
Walk with local Japanese American and Jewish home cook, entertaining expert and storyteller Kristin Eriko Posner to discover how history shaped the food, culture, and landscape of the oldest Japantown in the U.S.
This geo-tagged audio tour is best between 10:30am - 3:30pm on Wednesday-Saturdays, when all of the businesses on the tour are open. However, it can be taken at any time, on any day. Most stops are open until 6pm.
Make sure you have time to go on a leisurely walk. The tour is 50 minutes without stops, and about 2 hours with optional stops for meals and/or snacks.
Come hungry! There will be optional snacks and meals along the way.
Bring cash for a manju, a traditional Japanese confection at a 112-year old neighborhood institution.
Wear comfortable walking shoes and layers- it can be warm and sunny, then foggy, within a couple of hours in Japantown.
“Kristin’s narrative is like being led by your favorite grade school teacher on a nostalgic field trip: it’s comforting to listen to, informative and super entertaining... You feel like an insider after walking this tour, and it will leave you wanting to experience it all over again another day.”
“I’m a local, and really enjoyed this audio tour... Kristin’s tour provided a lot of great and interesting facts that I wasn’t aware of, and has given me a whole new and better perspective of the community. I highly recommend this tour to others!”
“I loved being guided around the neighborhood with this app! The stories on the tour were really immersive. I’m a local, and saw so many cool spots that gave me new perspective on Japantown”
CREDITS
Narrator: Kristin Eriko Posner
Featured Music: UC Berkeley Cal Raijin Taiko and Goh Nakamura
Image Credits: Julie Leong, Renee Lynn Frojo, Diana Emiko Tsuchida and Dorothea Lange
Featured Voices: Linda Mihara and Diana Emiko Tsuchida
ARIGATO 🙏
To: Bryan, Jonas, Gary and the awesome team at VoiceMap, my family family and friends, for all of your support in creating this tour.
For: The people of Japantown, Benkyodo, Linda Mihara, Aunty Jane and Aunty Mariko. I promise to never forget your stories, and will make sure they get passed down, through the generations.
MORE INFO:
Japanese Pantry Essentials Guide
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT JAPANESE AMERICAN HISTORY IN THE US:
Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project
More Perfect Podcast with Karen Korematsu