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Food, History, and Resistance: A Self-Guided Audio Tour of San Francisco's Japantown

Overview
Explore San Francisco's historic Japantown at your own pace on this self-guided audio tour. Japanese-American local Kristin Eriko Posner will guide you through the neighborhood, sharing little-known stories on 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.

The tour is ready whenever you are and the audio plays automatically at exactly the right time and place using your smartphone's GPS and the VoiceMap mobile app, which also works offline.

City: San Francisco
Sun 23 Feb
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You can choose the date already on the booking website
Starting at $6.99
Sun 23 Feb
Starting at $6.99
Make a reservation
What's Included
VoiceMap Application
Offline access to audio, maps, and geodata
Lifetime access to 'Food, History and Resistance in Japantown' tour
Additional Info
  • Wheelchair accessible
  • Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
  • Service animals allowed
  • Public transportation options are available nearby
  • Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
  • Suitable for all physical fitness levels
What To Expect
1
Japantown
While there are many great restaurants, there’s just so much more to Japantown than ramen and sushi. There are stories here that so many don’t know - stories you might never know unless you were part of the community.
2
Benkyodo
Benkyodo is one of only three traditional Japanese manju makers remaining in the US. The others are in each of the other two remaining Japantowns in Los Angeles and San Jose. Manju is a traditional Japanese confection, traditionally filled with sweet bean paste and wrapped with mochi, a glutinous rice that is pounded down into a sticky, gooey, delicious mass.
3
Fillmore Street
Bop City at 1712 Fillmore Street became the place to play after hours. Anyone who was anyone in jazz played here: John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis and Duke Ellington to name a few. In the 1940’s San Francisco’s black community grew immensely and Fillmore Street was dubbed the Harlem of the West.
Cancellation Policy
All sales are final. No refund is available for cancellations.
Traveler Photos
Reviews (7)
D7940GCtheresaa
Jun 2021
i love how accurate her descriptions were. we went at our own pace and there was so much more i learned about Jtown than i knew. specifically the Jewish synagogue and Jazz/blues movement
Marisa0007
Apr 2021
Narrator is very easy to listen to and felt like she was with me. Paced perfectly. Very informative, I will definately try other tours in the series if they are all this good
nikki300
Jan 2020
I'm a local, and really enjoyed this audio tour! Some visitors recently asked me to give them a tour of Japantown, and while I was familiar with many of the shops and restaurants, I realized I wasn't very familiar with the history of Japantown. 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!

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