means a visit to the temple, a haircut, a new outfit, and a huge dinner at the family's favorite Chinese restaurant. For us, the Chinese New Year will always remind us of our wedding day so at least driving by the golden dome of San Francisco's City Hall (our wedding chapel) is a must. This year, however, we thought, "Chinese New Year? Let's go to Chinatown!"
Visiting Chinatown on New Year's Day seems like a great thing to do. Surprisingly, Chinatown was pretty quiet. There were actually fewer people on the streets than on a regular weekend. No lanterns, no music, no festivals, no lion dancers. The festivities come later, at the end of the two-week period that brings in the New Year. We were early.We did make the rounds of the three historic temples, climbing the three
or four flights of stairs to get to the main hall of each, parting clouds of incense smoke as we made our way to the altars, and watching visitors depositing oranges and dollar bills as offerings.On the quiet, almost noise-less streets below, we were startled by a surprise stink-bomb attack. The youth made their getaway while
throwing mini-explosive poppers over their shoulders. We ducked down the nearest alleyway, finding the Fortune Cookie Factory along our way.Although we tried, we couldn't quite find the atmosphere we were hoping to find on this New Year Day. Moving away from Chinatown, however, we did find something that brought to mind what the new year should symbolize; renewal and a fresh start. We walked down a small, dead-end
lane of beautiful shingled homes. The entire alley was lined with blossoming cherry trees. The petals had already begun to fall and the street was a river of pink and white. We'll take the ground littered with cherry blossom petals over one covered in firecracker residue any day. As more petals floated to the ground, I tried to recall the Japanese expression for this very event. "Pink rain" or "rain of blossoms" it was. Welcome, New Year. What will the Year of the Tiger bring our way?
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