I have never travelled anywhere in the United States. Through my friend's invitation, I participated in the San Francisco tour.

At first, I didn't know what to expect from this tour, other than the fact that it will be a 3 day trip to San Francisco where we will visit famous tourist locations and some not so famour areas. There were a total of 6 people for this trip, including me. We departed on Friday noon.

The first day was mainly road travel, as it took about 6 hours to reach our destination. We rested at Hayward before heading towards San Francisco.

The second and third day were spent entirly in San Francisco. We visited Union Square, participated in the St. Patrick's day parade held on Market Street, strolled around Chinatown, drove up to Twin Peaks to view the San Francisco city, went to Japantown in time to catch some art festival and went to Fisheman's Wharf to see why it was a tourist favorite spot. We also went to the Golden Gate Bridge Part where we spent time relaxing on the park. Some of us visited Point Fort, but I stayed outside because I didn't like the feeling of prisons.

Among the 3 day trip, what I liked about was the filming activity. I have never shot anything on video before, but through this trip, I was being handed a digital videocam and I shot as much footage as I could. I remember heading down to Treasure Island and spending time looking across the ocean and viewing San Francisco during sunset. It was breathtaking! After we came back, together with my friend's help, we edited our footage. It was wierd seeing myself on video, but seeing the video brings back the good memories. I'm glad I took part in the trip.

- Yuri Shimosaka

> Back to Community