Thursday, April 17, 2008

J-Town

Last night I was safely escorted to Little Tokyo A.K.A. Lil' Tokyo, Shō-tokyo or J-Town for an abundance of sushi, multiple photo ops, homeless hugs, shiny legging viewing and some good clean fun.

J-Town is an ethnic Japanese American district in downtown Los Angeles, one of three official Japantowns left in the United States. Founded around the beginning of the 20th century, the area, is the cultural center for Japanese Americans in Southern California. At its peak, Little Tokyo had approximately 30,000 Japanese Americans living in the area. While a shadow of what it once was in terms of population (only about 1,000 mostly elderly residents actually live there now), Little Tokyo is still a cultural focal point for Los Angeles's Japanese American population. It is mainly a work, cultural, religious, restaurant and shopping district.

After we soaked in culture and the wild sights, we had a hankering to be as close to a photo booth as humanly possible, so we went straight to the Short Stop in Echo Park where even more fun ensued! - a delightful time was had by all, I think...

Highlights: the middle east, kids these days think that squatting in a shopping cart while holding a bag of food makes for a bad photograph - what do they know?, Evil Knievel, "the great 2008 night of no sleep-a-thon", red eye rita, can I have $1.17?, akbar, you're a chameleon in pictures, the black widows is a super catchy name for the little ladies who dabbled in murder & insurance fraud, health department gave it a C, what did you have for lunch?, Tom Petty medley, hot sake, hecklers, boring phone conversations, I look like I'm 67, the uniform, photo booth call out - talk on your shoe, ripped bras, how are you? how's the truck? how's Lola?, my boyfriend should meet your girlfriend on Friday night, bolting out of the senior citizen party, resume & tie, hummus, dress like it's the fourth of July, domo arigato mr. roboto, there sure is a lot of extra space to sprawl out in trucks, journal exhibit, tightest jeansest, cute old man at starbucks, hot plans were born to be broken, how do I look? and most controversial of the entire evening...the ambulance driver jumping out (while a lady was flat lining) to yell at us!!!!

5 comments:

BabyMcNiece said...

Just FYI - it really looks like you went to J-town with this homeless man. He could almost pass for a hipster that works for Vogue. Homeless man/ hipsters: they look very similiar these days.

hub of the house said...

thanks for clearing this up mia...to reiterate, I didn't actually go to Shō-tokyo with a homeless man, I just hung out with a lot while I was there.

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bret said...

What about flightless birds? And the soulful sounds of the Early Morning Diplomats, with their smash hit, "It's Got Body"!

Danielle said...

"we" meaning you and the transient?