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

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

Sat 31 May

Other dates

You can choose the date already on the booking website

Starting at $8.99

Make a reservation

Sat 31 May

Starting at $8.99

Make a reservation

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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

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.

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.

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 (8)

Sharlene_H

Jul 2024

I know my grandparents, my father (he was 6) and his younger brother lived in San Francisco before they were interned, first at Tanforan horse track and then Topaz, Utah. I know Japantown is no where near as large as it was before WWII so the odds that I walked anywhere where my grandparents would have are slim, save perhaps the gate next to the Japanese Language School. Apparently through this gate was a location where Japanese reported for internment. I couldn't help but wonder if this was the one place where my family also stood those many decades ago. The author/narrator of the two did an excellent job. All of the sites she spoke about are still in existence. It was almost surreal to be standing in so many places of history, surrounded by many people who were oblivious as to the life and lives that preceded their own presence. This tour was fascinating. I highly recommend it for anyone.

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