| JAPANTOWN, SAN FRANCISCO: The Gateway to Japanese Culture, Cuisine, and Shopping | |||||||||||||||||||
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SF JAPANTOWN PLANTS MORE CHERRY TREES TO COMMEMORATE ANNIVERSARY OF MARCH 11 EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI
San Francisco, February 8, 2012 -- As part of the commemoration of the March 11th disaster in Japan, the San Francisco Japantown community and the Friends of the Urban Forest will hold a cherry tree planting on Sunday, March 4th from 9am to 12pm. A total of 16 trees will be planted on this date, and the hope is that another 30 trees will be planted later this summer. This contribution of trees to the neighborhood comes on the heels of more than 50 cherry trees that were planted just over a year ago. The original planting, bolstered by a grant from the City of San Francisco, raised an initial $50,000 to fund the purchase and planting of the trees with the FUF. According to the FUF, which has planted more than 40,000 trees throughout San Francisco, the planting in 2010 was one of the largest plantings in San Francisco. Additionally, because this year will mark the 100th anniversary of the cherry tree planting in Washington DC, the Japanese Ambassador, Ichiro Fujisaki, will plant cherry blossom trees across the United States this year. As part of that planting, San Francisco has been selected as one of the sites, and several of the trees will be planted at strategic places in San Francisco. In Japan, the flowering cherry tree or "sakura" is widely embedded in the culture, and has broad symbolism connected to the country's Buddhist religious tradition. Accordingly, great care has gone into the selection of the sakura variety to be planted in Japantown, with neighborhood, city, and the FUF eventually agreeing on both Akebono and Kwanzan varieties, whose double pink blooms last twice as long as standard cherry blossoms and more readily withstand San Francisco's foggy, windy climate. |
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