There is also a Soy and Tofu festival each June, an Anime festival every July and a street fair each August.

Across the street, at Soko Hardware – founded in 1925 by the Ashizawa family – you can buy a ryoba (Japanese pull saw), a kanna (plane), a set of Japanese rice bowls and traditional cooking pots. Or choose a hanging lantern from the wide range suspended throughout the store.

In the neighbouring food mall, there are plenty of cheap restaurants selling all kinds of ramen noodles, sustainable sushi, fried octopus balls, and spicy miso broth with beef and pork.

Just like you'll find in most Japanese cities. Except we're not in Japan, but San Francisco.

This is Nihonmachi, also known as Japantown (or J-Town) – one of only three such "Japanese ghettos" that still survive in the US, though  they were once dotted all over the west coast.

Most visitors to San Francisco know about the city's famous Chinatown, yet few realise the equally historic J-Town exists, let alone is worth visiting – for the food alone.

It's much smaller than Chinatown. Just six blocks, between Geary and Bush, Webster and Laguna – a short number 38 bus ride or 1.5km walk from Union Square.

Here, you'll find chefs who still practise the ancient art of "pulling" their own noodles, origami artists and incense specialists keen to demonstrate their skills, and the occasional kimono-clad woman taking part in a traditional tea ceremony.

Perhaps the best way to explore J-Town is to spend an hour doing the free, self-guided Japantown History Walk. Pick up a brochure at the Japanese Cultural and Community Centre of Northern California on Post Street, or simply follow the 16 interpretative wall signs which begin and end at the Peace Pagoda (each sign points you to the next one, so the route is easy to follow).

Designed by Japanese architect Yoshiro Taniguchi, the pagoda is a gift from the people of Osaka (San Francisco's sister city), presented in 1968 to mark the opening of the Japan Centre, the focal point of J-Town.

But before you start, pop into Benkyodo (number 6 on the walk, a few metres away, on the corner of Buchanan and Sutter). This family-run business is the only traditional Japanese bakery left in J-Town. It's been on this spot since 1906.

Each day, brothers Ricky and Bobby Okamura make 1500 pieces of manju – a sweet Japanese bun filled with sweet beans. They also make mochi (balls of pounded rice) and both desserts are traditionally eaten on birthdays, New Year's Eve and other special days.

The first Japanese in San Francisco – or Soko, as they called it – arrived in the early 1860s and settled mostly in Chinatown and what is now SoMa (South of Market Street). But the devastating 1906 earthquake and subsequent fire destroyed those areas so the Japanese community moved here. Soon the area had become a miniature Ginza, with Japanese shrines, churches, restaurants, businesses, shops and baths.

This first generation of Japanese to settle in the US were the Issei. Their American-born children, the Nisei, began to learn English and other Western customs but J-Town stayed essentially the same, largely because there was much distrust of, and prejudice against, the Japanese community by white America.

At its peak, J-Town covered more than 30 city blocks. But that all came crashing down in 1942 when Imperial Japan bombed Pearl Harbour.

Franklin D Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which forced all Japanese of birth or descent in America into inland internment camps, whether or not they were US citizens.

For the rest of the war, thousands of Japanese Americans were locked up behind barbed wire fences. Meanwhile, their homes and shops were taken over, mainly by the vast influx of Afro-Americans who left the segregated south for the wartime industrial and dockland jobs in California.

There was tension between the two communities when the original Japanese Americans returned. Ultimately, the Japanese won out, though serious overcrowding and a lack of cash made J-Town a pretty unsavory place. The result was a 1960s-style redevelopment which razed three square blocks to create the J-Town we know today.

Apart from the delicious restaurants, you can treat yourself to a Japanese bath at the Kabuki Springs and Spa on Geary Street (check which days are for naked men only, naked women only, or both sexes wearing swimsuits).

To finish? What could be better than an authentic karaoke bar. Festa Wine & Cocktail Lounge on Post Street comes highly recommended for the comedic effect that only a visiting Japanese businessman can convey performing a saki-soaked version of Don't Fence Me In.

TRIP NOTES

MORE INFORMATION

sanfrancisco.travel

GETTING THERE

Fiji Airways has a new, twice-weekly flight from Nadi to San Francisco, with connections to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane which allows a Fijian stopover for a few days on the way there or back. See fijiairways.com

STAYING THERE

The Kimpton Buchanan, on Sutter Street, is in the middle of J-Town. One of SF's newest boutique hotels, don't miss the chain's signature free Happiest Hour from 5pm-6pm when guests are encouraged to mingle.  See thebuchananhotel.com

Steve Meacham travelled courtesy of Fiji Airways and San Francisco Travel.