Walking San Francisco

The Victorians of Cottage Row escaped the wrecking ball of redevelopment in the 1960s.

PARKING: There is a parking lot beneath Japan Center. Street parking is often available on Webster St., south of Geary Blvd.

PUBLIC TRANSIT: The 22 and 38 Muni buses stop at the corner of Geary Blvd. and Fillmore St.

Japantown and the Fillmore District are two odd and interesting neighborhoods. Japanese immigrants began settling here after the 1906 earthquake and were unjustly moved from their homes and relocated in internment camps during World War II. The African Americans who moved to the Fillmore were drawn by jobs in wartime industries, but 1960s redevelopment of the area caused yet another exodus as a sizable proportion of the neighborhood’s housing was demolished to make way for the widened Geary Boulevard Expressway and for hotels and retail structures.

Although the Japanese had dispersed by that time, the redevelopment included construction of the Japan Center, along with some senior housing catering to elderly Japanese. So what we have now is a modern commercial district with a strong Japanese flavor but only a very small remnant of the Japanese community. Similarly, Fillmore Street retains hints of the area’s African American past. Amid the modern hotels and condominiums are some gorgeous Victorian homes that were spared the midcentury wrecking ball. The neighborhood is pleasant for walking, but the chief interest here is inside the Japan Center itself. We’ll end up there.

Walk Description

Start at the southwest corner of Geary Boulevard and Fillmore Street, at the

Fillmore Auditorium, legendary for its rock shows during the 1960s. The elegant hall predates rock and roll by several decades, however. Built in 1912 and originally dubbed the Majestic Ball Room, it had a brief stint as a roller rink among other things, but in the early 1950s it once again provided music to the masses as the Fillmore. Very likely some of the most remarkable shows to ever take place in the building were by jazz and R&B performers during the heyday of the black Fillmore District: Count Basie, Billie Holiday, and a young James Brown electrified audiences here. Rock promoter Bill Graham put on shows here from 1966 to 1968. All the local bands—the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company—took the stage on a regular basis, and out-of-town guests included Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, and The Velvet Underground, with the psychedelic posters lining the walls to prove it. The Fillmore reestablished itself as one of the city’s preeminent rock venues in the 1990s and remains an intimate venue where top-tier talent performs in a variety of musical styles. And in a nod to Graham, a barrel of free apples is still available to those who want them.

Cross Geary Boulevard to reach the

Boom Boom Room, a Fillmore District stalwart. This classy little cinderblock dive was for many years known as Jack’s and was one of the first nightclubs in the neighborhood to cater to African Americans. It’s a loungelike inner-city juke joint with a black-and-white-checkered linoleum floor, padded booths, and a small stage where blues artists perform nightly. During the late 1990s, the club was partly owned by bluesman John Lee Hooker, who for many years lived in Redwood City, just south of San Francisco.

Cross Fillmore Street at Post Street and continue up to Sutter Street; then turn right on Sutter and walk on the north (right) side of the street. Before reaching Webster Street, head up the path to

Cottage Row Mini Park. The six two-story cottages along this little pedestrian block were built in 1882 and are on the National Register of Historic Places. Cottage Row ends at Bush Street. Turn right and then right again on Webster. At No. 1737, the John J. Vollmer House is one of the neighborhood’s better-preserved Victorians; built in 1885, it was moved here in the mid-1970s. It was evidently a tight fit—part of the house had to be sliced off to get it into the narrow lot. Nevertheless, the trim, with flowers carved into the woodwork, is some of the city’s finest.

Adjacent to the Japan Center, the Peace Pagoda is a symbol of Japanese–American friendship.

Turn left on Sutter and, if you have a sweet tooth, make your way to

Yasukochi’s Sweet Stop, a tiny bakery inside the unassuming Super Mira Market. You’d never know it simply from passing by, but the Yasukochi family has spent near half a century providing San Franciscans with their beloved coffee crunch cake. A signature special occasion treat of the long-defunct Blum’s pastry shop, the Yasukochi’s replica is so authentic that the retired Blums allowed them to use the name upon tasting it. The alternating layers of whipped cream, sponge cake, and crushed coffee candy regularly make lists of things to eat in San Francisco before you die, and the cakes sell out before closing every day.

Turn left on Laguna Street. At 1909 Bush St. is the

Konko Kyo Church, where members of a Shinto sect worship. The church, built in a simple yet graceful Japanese style, went up in 1973.

Turn right on Pine Street. Just off the corner of Octavia Street, at 1881 Pine, the large structure with the stupa on the roof is the home of the

Buddhist Church of San Francisco. The temple was built in 1937, but the Jodo Shinshu congregation began worshiping here, in an earlier building, in 1914. Hidden within the stupa are relics of the Buddha, given to the congregation by the king of Thailand in 1935.

Turn right on Octavia Street. At Bush, the corner lot behind the row of eucalyptus trees on the Octavia side is of historical interest. In the 1860s a woman Mary Ellen Pleasant built a mansion here and planted the trees you see. A plucky entrepreneur who embellished her life story—she may or may not have been born a slave in Georgia, and she may or may not have been the granddaughter of Virginia governor James Pleasants—Pleasant arrived in San Francisco with an inheritance from her first husband already in her pocket. She saw the flophouses that men were living in (and at that time the city was nearly 85% male) and saw an opportunity. She amassed a fortune—at one point estimated at more than $500 million in today’s dollars—operating a string of boardinghouses and investing in the stock market and real estate; she also built a career as the go-to event planner for San Francisco’s elite, catering lavish meals and organizing parties and balls. The house she built on this spot became known as the House of Mystery after her business partner and assumed lover, a younger man named Thomas Bell, died here under suspicious circumstances. The local newspapers imbued Pleasant with an unsavory reputation, spreading rumors that she was a voodoo priestess and a madam, and they nicknamed her Mammy Pleasant—a moniker that she despised (“I am not mammy to everybody in California,” she once groused). What is known for certain is that she used her wealth to aid the escape of slaves on the Underground Railroad. After a legal battle with Bell’s family over his estate depleted her fortune, Pleasant died in poverty in 1904, and her mansion was demolished in 1927. A memorial plaque is embedded in the sidewalk amid the eucalyptus trees.

Continue on Octavia and turn right on Sutter Street. At Buchanan turn left into the Buchanan Street Mall, a pedestrian shopping strip that echoes the Asian emphasis of the Japan Center, to which the street directly leads. Stop in at unassuming bakery and coffee shop

Benkyodo, one of the oldest family-owned-and-operated businesses in Japantown. Its first store opened in 1906, but its real claim to fame was supplying so-called fortune tea cakes to the Japanese Tea Garden, thus birthing the fortune cookie (see the Backstory in the Chinatown walk). The shop was closed during Japanese internment but reopened following the war and has been churning out fresh manju and mochi (traditional sweets made with buckwheat flour and rice flour) ever since. While the ambience screams “diner,” the handmade confections are the real Japanese deal and have a loyal neighborhood following.

Crossing Post Street, you’ll enter the plaza of the Japan Center. Built in the 1960s, architecturally it reflects the style of the era but with distinct Japanese overtones. It was designed by Minoru Yamasaki, who went on to achieve greater heights by designing the ill-fated World Trade Center in New York. Crossing Post Street, you’ll find a 100-foot pagoda in Peace Plaza, a stark concrete slab where the elderly sometimes take in some sun. If you’re facing the pagoda, to your left is the East Mall, home to the fashionable

Hotel Kabuki, a very hip hostelry, in which the rooms have sleek Japanese stylings. To the right is Kintetsu Mall. Go on in.

The mall has the meandering feel of an airport, with food courts and narrow stores selling the same sorts of cultural curios you’d find in duty-free shops. If the impulse strikes you, you might wind up with a new silk kimono while here. Of more likely interest is the

Kinokuniya Bookstore, where several aisles are devoted to Japanese art books, manga comics, DVDs of anime films, and a smattering of Godzilla classics. Studio Ghilbi fans take note: there are all sorts of books, videos, plushies, and decor dedicated to the Tokyo film studio’s works at the bookstore. On your way there, you’ll pass through restaurant row, where the decor really lays it on with the movie-set Japantown feel. The windows all have artfully arranged plastic meals on display to lure you in.

Marufuku Ramen, touted by Zagat Survey as one of “8 Must-Try Ramens in the Bay Area,” is an excellent place to try traditional Hakata-style tonkatsu (pork) ramen, characterized by a rich broth and ultrathin noodles. To capture your Japantown experience on film, head across from the bookstore to

Pika Pika, where campy photo booths await. Styled after the print clubs popular in Japan, Pika Pika lets you enlarge your eyes, add makeup, and embellish your printable sticker photo with a pet, crown, confetti, and the like—think Instagram filters on steroids. For another J-town (as locals call it) novelty, head to

Chocolate Chair to sample some Dragon’s Breath dessert balls. While not necessarily a Japanese experience, the chance to blow smoke out your nose and mouth after ingesting these liquid nitrogen–soaked treats (they taste like fruity cereal) is hard to resist. If you’d like to linger longer, Kintetsu Mall also has several cafés, a posh movie theater, and karaoke bars.

Back on the street, at the corner of Post Street and Webster Street, be sure to drop by the

Nijiya Market, a supermarket in miniature, with tiny carts and narrow aisles stocked with Japanese foodstuffs. Just past the registers, an aisle is stocked with a huge selection of bento lunches neatly packed in plastic trays.

Continue down Webster and make a right on Geary. Toward the end of the block,

Kabuki Springs & Spa offers the perfect antidote to urban grit. For $25, you can enter this serene sanctuary and enjoy communal baths (hot pool, cold plunge, sauna, and steam room) in the tradition of Japan’s public baths. Designed to instill harmony and relaxation, this is an oasis of calm. Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday, the baths are open to women; Monday, Thursday, and Saturday are reserved for men; all days are clothing-optional except Tuesday, when the baths are coed and bathing suits are required.