Results tagged “littletokyo”

An option for Metro's Regional Connector in downtown won't be officially chosen until sometime next year (probably summer or fall), but Little Tokyo community members are severely concerned over one of the proposals that would bring some major changes to the neighborhood. The regional connector would connect the Blue, Gold and Expo lines into a more seamless system. Trains would travel from Culver City to East LA and from Long Beach to Pasadena making Metro's rail system more efficient. Currently, the Blue Line and future Expo Line end at the 7th Metro Station and the Gold Line circumvents the eastside of downtown through Little Tokyo.

Curbed LA has heard it twice now--Metro's Gold Line Eastside Extension between downtown LA and East LA will open in August. Little Tokyo UnBlogged took a safety walk with officials around the tracks and found that people had many concerns about crossings and signage: "The other questions that came up time and again were the lack of language-appropriate signage (some of the signs that were up did have Spanish translations). Many in the group expressed concerns over how local Japanese and Korean residents, most especially seniors, would be able to read the warnings." UPDATE: Metro says no firm date has been set. Read more here.

You can see cherry blossoms in full bloom all over the Los Angeles area right now, but if you don't get your fill taking a stroll around Lake Balboa, you may want to head down to Little Tokyo today or tomorrow, because all weekend long they are celebrating via the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. Soak up the vibrant colors of the delightful blooms while stepping into the Japanese culture. Enjoy live entertainment like Ondo Dancing, martial arts demos, music and singing, fashion, awards, and much more (full main stage schedule here). There's stuff for kids to take part in, the Japanese Cultural Pavilion, crafts and goods for sale, and food.

       

If you're ever in the mood for great European street food, head to Little Tokyo. Yup, Spitz, "home of the Doner kebab" recently opened up its second location on 2nd Street amid kawaii boutiques and sushi restaurants. (It's original location is in Eagle Rock.)

       

Nostalgia brought us to the door of Thousand Cranes in Little Tokyo. There was a time in the 80s when nightfall turned downtown LA into a wasteland dotted with random nightclubs and loft parties, It was a punk rock playground, inhabited by night owls, homeless people and junkies. One oasis in the sea of cement and alleyways was the New Otani Hotel. It never ceased to amaze us that a well-tended Japanese garden even existed on a rooftop in the center of vast nothingness.

Imagine a day when the Gold Line Eastside Extension to East LA and the Expo Line to Culver City are completed (2009 and 2010, respectively). But if you're traveling from Culver City to Little Tokyo, you'll have to take the Expo Line to the Red Line to the Gold Line. Headache, right? That's what Metro's Regional Connector project is seeking to fix. One possible goal, as the conceptual graphic above shows, is to have travelers commute between Pasadena and Long Beach or East LA and Culver City with no transfer.

      

After 21 years of being a couple, George Takei and Brad Altman tied the knot at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo at their public wedding yesterday. They first made their appearance by stepping out together singing "One Singular Sensation" from "A Chorus Line" before entering a circle of yellow roses and lilies and sharing a traditional Japanese tea ceremony before being wed by a Buddhist priest. They exchanged their own vows and used Native American wedding bands proceeded by a bagpipe procession.

For a larger view of the route image, click here

We learned last year that the Tofu Festival had come to an end. Putting on the popular event demanded high resources with little financial gain. The Tokyo Service Center decided to end the annual event and concentrate on easier to do programs like the Springtime sake and food tasting event.

If you've been waiting for the hype to die down and waiting for the crowds to thin before visiting the Lawrence Weiner retrospective, you've almost waited too long. Weiner's conceptual art show at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA ends on Monday and this weekend is your last chance to get in and see As Far As the Eye Can See before all those fancy words are stripped from the walls and floors and ceilings.

In the earlier days of the frozen yogurt craze, Yogurtland sprung up in Fullerton in February 2006. It was a success and so more stores opened in Hollywood, Long Beach, Little Tokyo, Sherman Oaks and many other Southern California locations and one in Cupertino up north. They even opened a location in Greenwich Village in New York City with plans for Vegas, Hawaii and Texas.

       

Today, Metro announced that the Gold Line East Extension is 80% completed. But don't think that means you'll be riding into Little Tokyo and out to East LA by the end of this summer. Metro has always conceded that project will by done by the end of 2009, yet construction is now almost six months ahead of time. That means it could open in the summer of '09 if all goes well with the remaining 20%. Keep your fingers crossed.

This annual fundraiser is focused on the legendary Ventura County strawberry, and has lots of food, crafts, and entertainment from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Strawberry Meadows of College Park (3250 South Rose Avenue, Oxnard). Tickets: $12 Adults; $5 Youth (Ages 5-12); $8 Seniors (55+); $8 Active Military and Dependents with ID; Children 4 and under are free

What Made Milwaukee Famous finish up their Los Angeles tour playing along with Tulsa and the British Sea Power/Colourmusic bill moves over to Spaceland. On the Westside, there's only one choice to make and that is hip-hop violinist Paul Dateh at the Temple Bar (check out our interview with him including video). Over in Little Tokyo, Vosotros is having a record release party at LAND for their new album featuring 12 bands. You can get the music free on iTunes via their podcast (search "vosotros the lazy susan" and click on the image)

Remember the good old days, when you would just end up at a random artspace downtown sometime after midnight? People would be walking around wearing bowler hats and bunny suits while loud noise/music/artistic expression screeched out from the next room. So you would wander into the next room and find someone bellydancing or putting on a burlesque show. And you would think to yourself, "Oh my God! Who are these people? How did I get here? and how am I getting home?" A few hours later, you would find yourself in some Little Tokyo hole-in-the-wall drunkenly slurping up noodles.

Anyone living downtown in an old converted warehouse is familiar with the specific brand of glee the comes with learning that the big empty retail space on the groundfloor of your building or across the street from your front door has finally been filled. In a downtown that is still growing and adding services for the ever-expanding resident population, any new service is met with excitement. As in: Will it be a Trader Joe's?

Sometimes, the most fun in life comes in surprises. Last night, that surprise came in the form of a random marching band appearing out of nowhere at the corner of 5th and Spring playing a hybrid of New Klezmer Afro-Brazilian Tango during last night's Downtown Art Walk. We followed the free-jazz, experimental, all-genres-equal Killsonic for about an hour throughout Gallery Row intruding upon art galleries and people's peace and quiet. At one point, we found ourselves with the band of around 20 musicians on a city DASH shuttle. What a trip... in more ways than one.

Have you had enough of $5 coffee? $99 burgers? $125 martinis? I know I am -- doesn't anybody in this city want to find the cheapest drinks, meals, and booze? Los Angeles Magazine comes through this month with a feature on great deals and bargain finds on everything from martinis to furniture to underpants. We went straight for the food section, of course -- and here are our top food bargain picks from the February issue. What are your picks for best foodie bargains in the city?

While much of LA stayed home watching movies Saturday night, the real action was in Historic Filipinotown, where a sold out crowd of 2,000+ ventured out into a meteorological maelstrom to watch the L.A. Derby Dolls season-opening bout.

I should hate Pinkberry for a million different reasons: what it does to neighborhoods, the mom & pops it shuts down in its wake, its fake-yogurty ingredients that are likely very, very bad for me and its off-putting, sour flavor that foodies abhor and I, strangely, adore. I know and I agree and I held out as long as I could.

A Bloody Aria, a film from Korea about a professor, his pretty student and a possible murder, opens tonight for a one-week engagement in Little Tokyo. It’s been compared to Deliverance, but with a dark sense of humor. (We wonder if there’s any pig squealing in this one?)

An opinion piece in today's LA Times raises the issue of what seems to be the rampant Pinkberry-fication of many of our local neighborhoods, using recent food and retail closings and openings in the popular Larchmont Village as an example of how major-chain development affects the unique vibe of a given area.

What better way to get 2008 started than with some cheap booze at some happening city spots? Here's a few more we managed to dig up this week -- send your secret spots and recommendations my way at carrie@laist.com. Yes, some of these are later than the usual after-work happy hour, but I know you L.A. kids -- you can't be bothered to go out before at least 9pm, so enjoy some after-hours drink deals just the same!

So maybe you holed up inside last night with a hot toddy and are thinking, "rain be damned! I'm going out tonight!" Okay, fine. If you make it out earlier, you can celebrate the Japanese New Year, or you can lay low until the evening hours and then get yourself so theatre. Or you could just stay home and keep drinking. We'll never tell...

An archival photograph depicts LA's Little Tokyo neighborhood in 1942, which was when Japanese Americans were forced to leave their homes and businesses and sent to internment camps. President Franklin Roosevelt signed Excutive Order No. 9066 in February 1942, which explained that these relocations were necessary because "the successful prosecution of the war requires every possible protection against espionage and against sabotage to national-defense material, national-defense premises, and national-defense utilities." Because of the December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor attacks, the Japanese were named the enemy. Following the evacuations of Little Tokyo in 1942, the area was populated by African Americans who called the neighborhood Bronzeville. Much of the redevelopment of Little Tokyo as we now know it began in the 1970s and 1980s.

I have said it before and I'll say it again, the best designers on Project Runway this season are from Los Angeles. In my holiday wish, I see Rami Kashou, Sweet P, and Kit Pistol in the final three and visions of their collections on the runway in the finale.