downtown day

This is going to be a long, picture-filled post, because Saturday was one long, awesome day. It started out pretty great - I got to talk to a good friend on the phone, Jesse showed up from taking the dog out with fresh lilacs, and I got new clothes from my favorite shop on Main Street. But the day just kept getting better. By the end of it all, we had gone to a festival in Little Tokyo, had a great Japanese dinner, saw an excellent dance performance, AND ended up with front row seats for the second half of a Patty Griffin concert for FREE. It reminded me once again why I love living in Los Angeles.

Jesse and I started the afternoon off by going to Little Tokyo for the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was definitely fun to finally see Little Tokyo, but the festival itself was not exactly what we expected. First of all, there were no cherry blossoms (??). Secondly, we were pretty excited to eat some good Japanese festival food, but there was only one stand selling Japanese food - the rest included Hawaiian, Jamaican, and American foods. The whole thing was pretty random and kind of humorous. But oddly familiar at the same time. There were some nice exhibitors, and we both talked to some really friendly people. There was one exhibit on the internment of Japanese Americans in WWII, and Jesse got a personalized tour by someone who had experienced it. I hope to go back to Little Tokyo at some point to explore it further, especially the Japanese American National Museum.

The J-Pop stage! There was also a martial arts tent.

Making okonomiyaki - one of our favorite Japanese dishes.

The finished product - a cabbage-egg pancake complete with fish flakes on top.

Jesse eating a yakisoba dog from Dogzilla. We really wanted yakisoba, and this was the only way we could get it. :)

Plastic food displays - we missed you!

Walking around Little Tokyo felt a little bit like being in Japan.

There were some pretty great shops with Japanese products. This one reminded us of hyaku-en shops that we visited all the time when we lived there (where everything is 100 yen, or approximately $1).

Since we hadn't gotten enough Japanese food at the festival, we decided to go to a Japanese restaurant that I had read really good things about, called R23. It was in an interesting part of downtown that looked a little sketchy, but I don't think actually was sketchy. The restaurant was in a nice gallery space (I want the blue and white ceramic art, but I am sure I can't afford it) and the food lived up to our expectations. My favorite was the hamachi sushi.

Jesse with the shrimp and vegetable tempura.

The sushi chefs at work behind the counter. (The place is empty because we were there right when they opened for an early dinner.)

The art was nice, and the corrugated cardboard chairs were interesting, and surprisingly comfortable.

One of several graffiti artists busy at work when we walked to the restaurant (which is why I think the area was fake-sketchy).

After dinner we headed over to the Ahmanson Theatre for the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago performance. I was pretty excited last week to discover that they were going to be in town. I wish I could say I had heard of them, but I watched a couple of youtube videos and knew their style was exactly what we like. We couldn't take any pictures, but we really loved all three of the dances that were performed. They were modern, yet based in classical ballet techniques. The dancers were amazing. Jesse and I had seen one other dance performance of a similar style in Tokyo, but I would have to say that these dancers were even better. It was definitely worth going, and I would recommend them.

The dance performances finished up around 10pm. Jesse and I were headed to get a little dessert but decided to stop by the Wiltern Theatre first. We knew that Patty Griffin was going to be there, and were a little disappointed that we weren't able to go since we were already planning on going to the dance performance. But we knew from experience that sometimes the main acts don't go on until quite late, so we thought we would just stop by and see what was left and if we could still get tickets (my brilliant husband's idea). The woman taking tickets at the door was so nice and she ended up getting us tickets for free! Someone had not picked up their will call tickets for the front row, and Patty Griffin had already been on for almost an hour. She played for another 45 minutes, and we watched it all from front and center. What a voice! I almost wished we had made it for the whole thing, but to be able to go to both events, and one for free, was pretty great. It probably made me enjoy it all the more.


Definitely a memorable day! I now have all sorts of ideas of other things I want to do in LA, and I really love that feeling. I feel very grateful to live somewhere that offers so much.