SF Japantown

If you like Japanese culture, or are just curious, Japantown is the place to go.

The main part of Japantown is the Japan Center mall. Originally designed by Minoru Yamasaki (the same architect that designed the twin towers of the World Trade Center), the mall is designed to look like an outdoor shopping district of Japan, while still being indoors.

Some of the cool places to check out in Japan Center are:

Kinokuniya Books

Has a large selection of Japanese books, manga, and other things related to Japanese culture.

I particularly like their books on art and photography. They’ve had some interesting ones on pixel art and urban exploration photography. Their magazines are also interesting, like they have one called “B” that just explores different brands in depth.

Kinokuniya also has some stationary and other gifts, but for even more stationary check out Maido, which is also owned by Kinokuniya.

Marufuku Ramen

This is a pretty popular ramen restaurant on the second floor of the Kinokuniya side of the mall. Their ramen is pretty decent, but they’ve got kind of a long wait (which is made even more annoying since they use Yelp for their waiting list). There are other ramen places in Japantown you can check out too like: Hinodeya, Ramen Yamadaya, and that one place that used to be Tampopo but is now called Hoshinoya. If you want an interesting ramen experience outside of Japantown but in SF, check out Mensho Tokyo.

Katsura Garden

Has bonsai and plants.

On the Bridge

This is one of my personal favorites. Located literally “on the bridge” that spans the Kinokuniya building and Japan Center West, this restaurant serves “yoshoku” which is Western-influenced Japanese cuisine. They’ve got things like curry pasta, locomoco, and hamburger steak.

I think what I like about this place is its casual nature of the place that feels… I don’t know… like it simply is Japanese without trying to be Japanese. The restaurant has a bunch of manga books you can read (they might be in Japanese though) and several sun-faded anime posters. Small figurines and knick knacks line the bar, above which is a TV that usually plays some anime.

Like… Marufuku is arguably just as Japanese and definitely more popular, but I feel like I can get something like Marufuku in a lot of places, whereas I haven’t really seen something like On the Bridge in many places in the US.

Japan Video

A Japanese video store. Doesn’t seem like it’s as active as it used to be, but they’ve got a cool selection of Japanese media. I will say their website used to be pretty cool.

Festa Wine & Cocktail Lounge

A karaoke bar. This is one where you pay two dollars (in cash) to sing a song on the karaoke machine. The karaoke is in front of others, unlike a private karaoke room (there’s “Do-re-mi” and “K-box” both in Japantown that seem to offer this, but I’ve been to neither). Festa has a pretty laid back vibe, which I liked. The other karaoke place in J-town that I’ve been to is “Club Mari’s/Mogura”.

Club Mari’s/Mogura

Also a karaoke bar, like Festa, and also on the second floor of the Kinokuniya Mall. (Though I think you can also reach it from the first floor on Post Street.) Technically Club Mari’s and Mogura are two separate places that share the same… uh… room or whatever it is. Someone working there told me that one’s the bar and one’s like more of a restaurant or food place, but I forget which is which, and when I went there only one was open anyway.

You also sing in front of others here, but whereas Festa has a microphone stand you sing at, Mari’s just has a bar you sit at.

It’s also pretty laid back and has cocktails.

Nijiya

A Japanese grocery store. Go here if you want sashimi for making sushi. They’ve also got Japanese canned coffee and snacks.

Daiso

Cheap variety store. Has a lot of cool knick-knacks and house goods.

Some other good places to check out in Japantown:

Daeho

This is a Korean restaurant that’s well-known for their beef soup.

Paper Tree

If you like origami, go here. They’ve got all kinds of origami paper and books, and even have some pretty complex origami on display.

Yasukochi’s Sweet Shop (map)

Located inside Super Mira.

They’ve got really good cakes, especially their coffee crunch cake. The lady is pretty particular about when you pick up the cake, in order to maximize the freshness of the cake. Like, I think she told my partner it’s better to pick it up in the afternoon because it’ll be made that morning. If instead she picked it up in the morning, it’d be made the previous night and maybe like frozen or refrigerated or something. I also heard that it’s better to freeze the crunch cakes since otherwise the candy on the outside gets soggy.

A large 9" round Lemon Crunch cake is like $65, as of May 2024.