Friends warned me against going to San Francisco with the (rental) car, so I decided to hail an Uber, which was a good idea for two reasons: Indeed, there seems to be an enormous amount of cars in the Bay City, but no parking. Plus: On the 60min drive up the 101 my Romanian driver Marian shared with me everything – from his observations on social life in America on to musings on what value for money means up to typical Romanian Christmas dishes.
Marian dropped me at the Peace Plaza in Japan Town, where the Cherry Blossom Festival was already in full bloom. I watched Kodo drummers, gazed at ladies in Kimonos and girls in Cosplay gears, and in the ground floor of a shopping center found two illustrators who seemed to have found a new take on Manga-style drawings.
Whilst Yuumei – originally born in Mainland China – seemed to take a dream-like, solitary stance not unlike the work of Edward Hopper, Christopher Cayco gave his characters and unexpected, elegant and very witty depth.
a postmodernist's view 