Kaonashi Ga Suki

Today my boyfriend, sister, and I went to downtown LA to just walk around. After visiting Union Station and the Bradbury building, we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in Little Tokyo. Strangely enough, even though I spent 1 1/2 years living in Japan, I had never been to Little Tokyo.

Although Little Tokyo is of course, little and pales in comparison to the real Japan, I had an attack of natsukashii (nostalgia) as I walked around. It was nice to hear people speaking in Japanese again, as they walk by and . It was really cool to see food that you’d only find in Japan, not even in an Asian supermarket. I suddenly had a strong urge to go back to Japan and live there for another couple of years…but in a bigger, nicer apartment closer to Tokyo.

Sadly though, Little Tokyo is dying, compared to Chinatown. My boyfriend and I were in Chinatown the other day, and not only did it seem bigger and had more shops/restaurants than Little Tokyo, but it was more bustling. My boyfriend surmised that Chinatown has a closer knit community and thus its people support each other’s businesses, while Little Tokyo has a more touristy feeling. One other thing we wondered that might have led to Little Tokyo’s decline is the enormous structure being built nearby. Upon closer inspection, we found that it was the future site of the California Department of Public Transportation. Admittedly, I don’t know about the story behind that structure, but we wondered- did they have to knock down several Little Tokyo businesses to make room for it? Is the construction detracting tourists who may want to visit Little Tokyo? We don’t know. Then again, perhaps this new building may actually provide more business for Little Tokyo because its employees may want to check out the Japanese restaurants during their lunch breaks.

We first went to this 3 level, plaza type area. This was one of the first places that bore evidence of Little Tokyo’s decline. There were few people and few businesses there. Some shops were out of business. Much to the delight of my boyfriend and me, we found that there was a Kinokuniya bookstore in this plaza. Kinokuniya was the bookstore to go to back in Japan for all your Japanese language learning needs. In fact, the LA branch had a larger selection of Japanese language books.

After the bookstore we went to another plaza type area. This part of Little Tokyo seemed a little older, and this time we found more people walking around and more shops. It was great visiting the little mom and pop grocery stores looking at the available bento (box lunches) and coolio drinks like cold milk tea and yogurt.

Since it was already about 7pm, we felt hungry and looked for a relatively authentic Japanese place to eat. We found this great little place called “Daikokuya” (”Big Black Shop“). I’m not normally a fan of ramen, but my boyfriend pointed out that this restaurant made Kyushuu style ramen, which is ramen with a thick, rich broth (a specialty of Kyushuu prefecture, I assume). Very tasty. So we checked the place out and were glad we did. For about $10, we got a HUGE bowl of noodles, broth, slices of pork, and a hard boiled egg, and a small bowl of our choice of don (beef, tempura, or some other type of meat on top of rice covered with scrambled egg and onions). My boyfriend and I opted for the katsudon, which is breaded and fried pork cutlet served on rice. While the tonkatsu wasn’t the greatest, the ramen was choo oishii (very delicious)! The broth was indeed rich and thick; a little oily, but not salty. The noodles were of a nice consistency, and the slices of pork were soft, not tough and chewy. One thing to consider though, is that this is a really small place, and there tends to be a wait. Also, since the waiters are very busy, it’s kind of tough to get their attention right away. But if you want some really good ramen, this is the place.

I wish I lived closer to downtown LA so I could visit Little Tokyo more often. Not only would I like to try out the other restaurants in the area, it feels a little like being in Japan again.