Summary
- The Academy of Science is one of the largest natural history museums in California.
- Pier 39 is the liveliest waterfront shopping district and offers amazing seafood and souvenirs.
- The Palace of Fine Arts is a magnificent building with detailed European-style carvings.
- The Golden Gate Bridge has a significant presence from a distance, but we can actually go right next to the entrance.
Highlights
California Academy of Science
- It mainly consists of a planetarium, greenhouse, and aquarium.
- It costs $44 even for students, but we can enjoy the complementary planetarium as many times as possible. There will be three different shows, and its hemispherical screen gives us the sensation of flying with impressive Hollywood-quality movies based on rigorous scientific simulations.
- The design of the building and exhibitions is unique, characterized by its elegant use of curvature. Especially the spherical greenhouse and hill on the rooftop are impressive.
- San Francisco is beautifully surrounded by fog frequently, and the picture capturing it with long exposure was beautiful.
- In the greenhouse, there were actually hundreds of butterflies, but I’m scared of insects, so I couldn't capture any. However, the experience of actually getting inside the exhibition is unique.
The Painted Ladies
- Unfortunately, it was a little crowded, but its location on the top of the hill provides an impressive view of the city. I hope there is a little bit of an exhibition, but the way to get there was also beautiful.
Pier 39
- It’s the liveliest and most famous pier of all.
- There was a performance at the tip of the pier that attracted people all the way to the end of the pier.
- It has two stories, and its complicated shape and series of beautiful signs make this place really attractive.
Palace of Fine Arts
- It’s huge, even from Fisherman’s Wharf.
- There is nothing inside, but it rather creates an impression like a ruin.
Ferry Building
- It’s also located waterfront and is currently filled with many food shops.
Golden Gate Bridge
- Conveniently, we can get there just by using a cheap municipal bus.
- We can even walk onto the bridge for free or go to the visitor center, which has a lot of souvenirs.
- There is a small model of the tower and a portion of wire.
Other Interesting Buildings
- Surprisingly, we can actually ride fully automated vehicles in San Francisco. They react well to people's movements and are really quick with fully optimized steering.
- The architecture of City Hall is great here too, and like many other US cities, we can actually go inside. It's really good that the US government opens many facilities to the public.
- The famous Twitter sign is now gone, and the sign for X has disappeared too.
Food
- For some reason, US hostels provide breakfast, probably because they're operated by non-profits or charities.
- It would be fancier if I brought some more dishes for the bread.
- The clam chowder in bread is $15, which is a fair price in the US, and the portion is great. However, the normal version is better than the red tomato version.
- There are many foods not seen in Japan, such as Halloween pumpkins and unbelievable meats.
Conclusion
- Some exhibitions actually allow us to enter, even though usually people can't in many places. Those experiences provided impressive immersion and increased satisfaction and understanding of the exhibitions. It's still difficult to create immersion using electronic displays, but I want to find out what makes them immersive.
- The curved surfaces look impressive with proper lighting and backgrounds. I want to work on more organic-shaped computer graphics and make them look more natural using proper shading effects.
- The topics of science museums vary a lot, and I think I should search for museums by category rather than by fame. I want to find museums that focus on cutting-edge technology and digital arts.
- European architecture is amazing, but I think it's a little difficult to be a lively place since it conveys a more luxurious sensation. Meanwhile, Chinatown always attracts many people. I hope to understand how both elements can coexist and benefit from each other at the same time. Pier 39 is somewhat like a European version of Chinatown, with a similarity in featuring a lot of art on the street.
