Snapshots of San Francisco // Japantown & The Beats

Hello from the fabulously hot Las Vegas! I hope you are having a great week! :) Today I am posting about San Francisco again!

One of the days we were in SF we met up with Gina who blogs over at Pink Wings and her hubby. We met up in Japan Town - which KC and I explored, and then we parted ways and headed out to North Shore where the Beats hung out. #diversity

Eat: We were on a very strange eating schedule this day, again. So we had a lunch/brunch at a cafe called Sweet Maple - which was right near Japan Town. We shared some type of breakfast-y scramble and it was delicious. We met up with Gina and her hubby for crepes at Belly Good Cafe & Crepes. How cute are the little crepe animals?! Dying. Overall the crepes had a lot of ice cream etc. in them, and I'm not big on the texture of crepes... so I just ate all of the fruit! haha For dinner we went to a chain (that we don't have here) called Super Duper Burgers. We thought that the burgers, fries, etc. were really good. The place was cool as well, though I'm not the hugest fan of '80's music. This is another place that had soft serve on the menu, but I was definitely too full for dessert. This restaurant is pretty close to the same area with the Jewish Museum and Museum of Modern Art. 

See: The fun shops and restaurants in Japantown. Plus all of the cute things that they sell. There was a bit of street art in that area as well. The Beat Museum is another good stop. It's in North Beach - right across from City Lights booksellers... I love to see unique museums when we travel, this one was really quirky and fun as were the Beats. I can't say I know an overlarge amount about the Beats and I haven't read a ton of their work, but visiting this museum gave me a picture, and I bought a little compilation of some of the writing from that movement. I can't help think of Paris Gellar though (GG) .... hehe

One of the Beats, William Burroughs, lived in our hometown during the end of his life. Famous people like Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth and Kurt Cobain from Nirvana came to visit him in Lawrence. The guy at the museum must have known, because he asked us if we ever saw William Burroughs around town. To which I thought, "I was 7 when he died..." so no.... LOL

Shop: We visited the shops in Japantown. It was fun to see all of the imported goods, the manga, etc. I really loved some of the art and stationery stores. I bought some washi tape and postcards... of course. The Beat Museum also has a selection of books. I bought a anthology of Beat writing.... because I don't know a lot of it! We also had to go across the street to City Lights Booksellers. I bought a copy of War and Peace. #lightvacationreading ... *whistles*

Do: Explore Japantown, North Beach's Beat area, and the surrounding areas. Visit The Beat Museum.

Favorites: Punny t-shirts in Japantown, the cute stationery and art stores, meeting up with Gina, Books, books, books! :) 

New Experiences: The Beats and their museum, visiting a Japantown, and animal faced crepes.

Random Tip: We did The MUNI passes in SF. We purchased them at a Walgreens near our hotel. They were $40 each with unlimited (bus, cable car, trolley, etc.) rides for 7 days. (does not include BART or anything that reaches outside the city) No one ever checked them, but it was cheaper than paying each time. After all the cable car is $6 each way!

Have you ever been to a Japantown? Or any other cool ____town? 

How cute are those crepes?!

Have you met any blogger friends IRL?

Other California Posts: Piers & Sea Lions, Japanese Tea Garden and The DeYoung Museum, Conservatory of Flowers & Mission, Stanford & Google, and Pacific Coast Highway! 

Happy Travels!

Alexandra