A trip is always exciting because new places are motivating for many reasons: unknown products to consume, tourist attractions and entertainment, other ways of conceiving a city, different cars, different stores and brands, unknown customs and traditions.

Japanese Village Plaza in Little Tokyo

Los Angeles was no exception in any of these and many more variables.

It is a flat, long, endless city because behind the hills there are more and more buildings.

Like any large city, this one is multicultural, generating different ethnic groupings (even if they are only in appearance, because we are all the same), also, manifestations of diverse cultures and mixtures of their customs with those of other cultures and with what is considered American – which is not, but, another, uniform mixture of all the cultures, customs and traditions that forged the great American Dream of a good life in pleasant company (today unfolded into materialism, unfortunately).

It is a big city where the days become small, where the trip is short because of everything there is to see, experience, photograph (without oriental obsession).

Little Tokyo

To our surprise – my wife and I – we stayed in a hotel in the center of Little Tokyo (I have learned to travel without researching too much because what life gives will always be good). An excellent hotel with many Latinos working inside; Spanish could always be used when the mind was tired.

On the way back we found a Starbucks (our favorite coffee shop for its variety and convenience although not for its organicity... naturalness... that is, without chemical food additives although it has excellent coffee beans); If we continued walking we found a minimarket and a supermarket with Japanese products, then a shopping center with a lot of restaurants and stores with Japanese imports.

If we continued, another plaza, Honda, with shops and restaurants, one Chinese, one Japanese, another Starbucks and several other proposals.

So many restaurants in a few blocks... we couldn't stop eating, every night, in a different place or buying products whose labels I didn't understand but I could guess what they had inside from the images (I didn't learn Japanese because it was imposed on me, when I was little). , through an old arrogance).

Hollywood Bowl

This trip was a pleasant diner experience complemented by theme parks and a sensational Hollywood boulevard, among others, so filmed, named and photographed for decades (such as La Brea, nothing interesting but smelly and the well-maintained film Chinatown to record scenes for movies... they told us not to touch anything, that everything was ready to record, that if we broke something we would pay for it... but we were still able to take photos and see the whole place).

Always returning from walks, one of those nights we ate at Koshiji, another at Kagura, the next at Shin-sen-gumi (a Nikkei from San Diego asked about that restaurant where she was going to meet friends, right after we had eaten there... they say it's the best).

Another night was at Chin-ma-ya, and finally at Wakasaya; some were in Weller Court and others in Village Plaza but all close by, easy for fans of eating and eating because, like mongooses, you can jump from place to place trying different flavors and presentations and end up at a tea house to “lower the mood.” fat” (and go to sleep with pleasant satisfaction although with heavy digestion as the majority of humanity does daily).

Tonkotsu ramen (CHIN-MA-YA) and wakame salad (WAKASAYA)

There are a lot of restaurants missing because we were missing nights to enjoy different proposals; They were all light meals so I could sleep because the next day was going to be just as exhausting and exciting.

But for the afternoons, frozen yogurt and sweet pastries at Yamazaki and Mikawaya, and for quiet breakfasts in the room, Mammoth bakery and green tea-based drinks (which are not available in Peru).

Fluffy bread with strawberry and cheese (YAMAZAKI), Yokan maki - Mikasa - Chofu (MIKAWAYA), Uguisu-an bread (MAMMMOTH BAKERY)

Having breakfast in the room is a great opportunity to try everything possible found in a supermarket (seasonal fruits, pastries, imported drinks) and also avoids repeating breakfast in the same hotel restaurant every day. Each option increases the travel experience.

And for the journey, whether on foot or by bus, two Japanese products bought at Marukai market as well as soft drinks in plastic bottles, very cold, to be able to continue moving forward until the quiet afternoons around Little Tokyo, cool, with many trees and tracks and paths. clean, with few people (where was the movement... or is it that since they are in cars they don't walk?).

When we went a few blocks away, 4 or 5, it was no longer Little Tokyo but something similar to a Chicano neighborhood, saturated, with people who look at everyone up and down, with stores saturated with low-quality products.

Waiting for a bus in this area that was perceived to be unsafe (I'm not saying it is), we saw an “easy” woman get out of a white car and complain because a traffic police officer gave them a ticket for parking between 2 spaces and not putting a coin in the parking meter... at that moment we were going, by public transportation, to Citadel outlet, where we found an interesting proposal, healthier than its neighbors in the food-court: Roll it, fresh oriental food in one of the 2 or 3 stores that They have and none close to Downtown Los Angeles.

This is a city where – for a tourist – there is a lot of oriental, Chinese and Japanese, very different from the elegant and refined proposals in the center of San Francisco (it is perceived as “easier” to enter a restaurant in Los Angeles).

On the way back, the night in Little Tokyo awakened the movement of diners (hunger always calls): restaurants filled with young people who went elsewhere or simply gathered to eat. Long lines in several places, waiting for a table; When they were already seated, they asked and asked, sometimes double orders lengthening their stay and increasing their belly.

With tired feet, sore waist (from not knowing how to walk), we waited for a hot shower to continue walking, getting to know, experiencing one more day.

Japanese American National Museum

After many years of writing for Discover Nikkei, I was finally able to visit its headquarters, a nice low-rise building – 2 blocks from the hotel – near the Little Tokyo shopping center.

And, finally, I was able to meet Yoko, with whom I have exchanged so many emails but we had never spoken. Our photo came out blurry…were we so excited to meet each other for a few minutes?

Everything was very calm and quiet, with the distant bustle of buses and the occasional car passing by on the street. Few people were walking, the sun at a beautiful angle announced the entry of night and, regrettable but etched in memory (and both photos), the end of the trip.

But the experience continued at home with a lot of packages with green tea of ​​different brands and flavors, with chocolate with green tea and, more interesting, with the review of memories of everything lived, eaten, walked and experienced.

© 2012 Victor Nishio Yasuoka