Things to do in LA: Little Tokyo

I hear it all the time in the press- LA is a culture-void urban sprawl city full of self-aggrandizing waiter-slash-actors-slash-debutantes who exploit each other while fake-baking their tans and eating sushi. And to that I have to say, Yeah, but we've got good sushi.

And for those who live outside that whole Hollywood scene there's a whole lot more to see and do and experience. For instance, Little Tokyo.

Little Tokyo is a neighborhood near Alameda and First Street in Downtown LA. Within a few blocks you can find countless sushi restaurants, the Japanese-American Cultural Center, the Japanese Village, and the Geffen Contemporary Museum at the MOCA.

Lisa and I made it down there on Saturday for some lunch and a visit to the Geffen MOCA. And Guess what- the traffic wasn't so bad. Parking was pretty darn easy. There were lots of big sidewalks to get around and take in the ambiance. Plenty of signs up in a language I can't read and restaurants galore. And the restaurants only have chopsticks - how's that for culture?! Okay, so they'll give you a fork if you ask for it, but still- chopsticks!


First Street, Little Tokyo

Although Little Tokyo is more than one street, First Street is a great place to start. You can walk from the Village to the Cultural Center to the Geffen MOCA in minutes without fear of getting run over by a city bus.


Mural, Little Tokyo



Japanese Village Plaza

The Japanese Village Plaza provides a walkway away from the city streets. The first time I came here was at night and I thought I had walked into some secret city within a city. It's lit up with Japanese Lanterns and a few of the restaurants stay open late. During the day there's a lot more people here. While we were here on Saturday a group of teens were here dressed up as their favorite Japanese comic characters for what looked like a birthday party. They looked like they wanted people to take pictures of them really bad so I decided to not post any out of principle. That'd be way too LA.


Japanese Lanterns



Cuban food in Little Tokyo

And as strange as it sounds, there's a popular Cuban restaurant right here in the heart of Little Tokyo. I've even here, good Cuban sandwiches.


Joy Mart, Restaurant in the Japanese Village

We stopped for lunch here at Joy Mart. I hear this place has great sushi, although I'm not a sushi eater myself. In fact, I just don't do fish period. I know, I know, I need to get over that, I'm working on it.


+1 loves some wholesome food



I'm getting pretty good with chopsticks



Lunch at Joy Mart



Really big birdhouse??



+1 in the Japanese Village



Enjoying frozen yogurt and mochii in front of the Japanese-American Cultural Center

For dessert we decided to skip the Pinkberry and headed into an Italian frozen yogurt shop which, surprise, turned out to be a Pinkberry copy in disguise. Seriously, the interior was a perfect match, even the layout of the toppings was identical. Since when does Italian frozen yogurt come in acai berry flavor (a Brazilian fruit) with mochii (something like a Japanese marshmallow).


Former location of a Buddhist Temple (since moved)



Geffen Contemporary

Hiding back here in an unassuming building, is the Geffen Contemporary museum. The exhibit right now is split between the museum's private collection of conceptual art from California and the Kippenberger exhibit that's showing at the other MOCA exhibit as well.

If you're not familiar with conceptual art then you should go check out the exhibit for yourself before I sway your judgment either way. If you already know, then you'll understand if I don't immediately laud applause to the different exhibits. Point of view exercises aside, a lot of this stuff is really devoid of meaning to a broad audience. I guess I just couldn't connect the dots to my own life experience. And I don't like images of naked people; call me archaic but I feel like the emphasis on sex life in modern art in suffocating the human experience. I like to believe we're more than just animal impulses.

But don't let me sour you on the Geffen! It's worth checking out, a real asset to the city.


Geffen Contemporary



Conceptual Art in California



Inside the Geffen



Reading Room

...and I loved the reading room. What a fun spot to relax in during your visit to the museum.


Cool bike rack

...and a bike rack designed to look like a bike chain, I love it!


Is that black Jesus?


Saturday's outing turned out to be a fun escape from my never-ending school projects and work-stress. We ended up grabbing lunch, walking around, and getting a tour of the Geffen museum all in just three hours. Not bad for a city with no soul.