As only one of three cities of its kind in the United States, San Francisco's Japantown provides its visitors with both a cultural and historical experience of the Far East. The neighbourhood was originally founded back in 1906, when an earthquake forced many Japanese and American-Japanese citizens to move to the area, and ever since has been an iconic district of San Francisco. Visitors can embrace Japanese traditions through tasting the local cuisine, celebrating the fantastic architecture or savouring the vast amount of Oriental horticulture. Japantown also hosts two major national events – April sees the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival arrive into the area, and The Nihonmachi Street Fair is in August – so if you time your trip right, you'll get to witness these cultural wonders.