LITTLE TOKYO LOS ANGELES

[AsahinaKimi]

[Art_from_Ark]

1. Are these pictures that you took?

I visited Little Tokyo back in 1982 (I bought a Japanese grammar book and ate my first yakimeshi there). It looks like it's changed a lot since then.

[AsahinaKimi]

2. Friend of mine

sent these to me. I have never visited Little Tokyo, and she told me she would go and take photos. I live in the shadow of the San Francisco Nihonmachi..If I can, I will post some photos!

[freshwest]

3. Oh, please, I bet it's beautiful. I haven't been there in many years, though.

[agent46]

4. Little Tokyo L.A. - many good memories

When I was in high school my family moved to Los Angeles. I was a Judoka back then and competed nationally. When we moved to LA I had to join a new dojo and that year we all went down to Little Tokyo to celebrate Nisei Week and compete in a big Judo tournament. After the tournament we all went out for sushi. There were parades and shows and all kinds of examples of Japanese Art and culture including the lovely Nisei Week Queens!

I had my first sushi that day and was exposed to a lot of Japanese culture too. Years later I lived in Japan for four years. Little Tokyo L.A. is where my life long love of Japan and things Japanese began!

[Kablooie]

5. I've been visiting Little Tokyo LA every couple of weeks or so for 25 years now.

We go out there for dinner often and my wife does much of her grocery shopping there.
Japanese grocery stores are the only places that have fish fresh enough for her standards.
There are three Japanese grocery stores there now and in the last few months three new restaurants have also appeared.
I had the best ramen I've had in years at the new restaurant Shin-Sen-Gumi.

Little Tokyo actually used to be bigger when Yaohan was there in the late 80's and early 90's. They had a full Japanese department store in the middle of a large Japanese shopping mall. When Japan's economy declined so did Little Tokyo. It seems to be slowly growing again today though.