The Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC/the Center), in San Francisco Japantown is a unique indoor Festival venue that provides visitors a “one-stop-shop” experience of cultural presentations and performances. This quiet, focused venue allows for various traditional and folk music, dance, and cultural art groups to share their culture and talents. Festival…
Our community is very fortunate to have numerous, seasoned photographers like Mark Shigenaga who beautifully capture memories from every corner of our festival grounds, including the following photos.” Enjoy Mark’s photos of our performers and read more about his experience and future hopes for this Festival! I photographed my first Cherry Blossom Festival in 2009. I arrived…
With the virtual nature of the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival in 2020 and continued socially distanced plans for the festival in 2021, these recent festivals will certainly be events to remember. Incidentally, our volunteers are no strangers to quickly shifting plans and accommodating needs on the fly. PR/Marketing Committee Co-Chair, Jane Yu, reflects on…
While our Festival has the most prominence in the month of April, a core group of committee members continues to volunteer year-round in preparation for the next. This year was no exception and included the challenge of converting the format into a virtual festival within weeks of the event (before Zoom had become a daily…
What a year 2020 turned out to be. While we could not come together physically in April, the connections we continue to make online have been a tremendous blessing and source of support. As November arrived, we want to take this opportunity to thank all of our contributors who help us maintain a sense of…
Thank you for participating in our 2020 Halloween Cosplay Contest! Our team reviewed the cosplay photo entries, and we admire and appreciate the cosplayers’ great attention to detail and creativity in their costumes and props. Narrowing down the entries to the finalists was no easy task, as all of our cosplayers submitted great costume photos.…
One of the delightful sights of the NCCBF is observing everyone’s fashion. Every year, our fellow festival-goers inspire us with the wide-range of clothing from the traditional and formal kimono or hakama, to the casual yukata and jinbei on warmer days, to modern prints and anime-inspired outfits. As we get inspired roaming the festival grounds,…
Each year, the Washi Ningyo Japanese Paper Dolls Group selects a special theme for their dolls to be showcased at the Cherry Blossom Festival. The dolls are intricate, gorgeous, and entirely handmade! One of the groups leaders, Yurie Nakamura, shared the following message this year: “I think it is great that the committee is able…
Jade Chocolates is one of the NCCBF Arts & Crafts Fair artisans known for their tantalizing bonbons, flavored Genmai chocolate bars, lilikoi and kalamansi lime truffles, as well as the rice paddies. All of their chocolates are handmade and produced in small batches to ensure the highest quality of ingredients. Jade Chocolates specializes in blending…
The NCCBF Food Bazaar is a crowd favorite. Visitors can taste the best Japanese outdoor festival foods prepared by various organizations from within the local Japanese community. The NCCBF Food Bazaar is unique in that all food vendors are non-profit organizations; for-profit, commercial food vendors and food trucks are prohibited. All sales directly benefit the…
