Trip to LA: Little Tokyo

This is Japanese stuff from Little Tokyo. A few days ago, Chad and I ventured there in search of mystery, zen, and Sanrio kitsch. We found all of this and much more, as you can see. Here we have (from left, clockwise):

• a box of chocolate mushrooms
  
• a magical bear toy
  
• gyoza
  
• grapefruit and mango super chunky juice
  
• two bags of heart shaped gummies
  
• the Hi-Tec ultra-customizable pen
  
• donut stickers
  
• lucky cat postcard for my precious niece
  
• Hi-Chew plastic Japanese Starbursts

The first thing we did in Little Tokyo was, well, park. But then we ate. Here we are at a Japanese buffet where we ate miso soup, udon, tempura, teriyaki, sushi, curry, and Japanese jello. After this, we walked to the ice cream shop and had Japanese ice cream: mochi. Japanese jello might not differ much from American jello, but the ice cream is odd. How does one explain an oddity? It's like a chewy scoop of ice cream coated in a powdered sugar marshmallow.

With stuffed bellies, we began our window shopping. It is in the windows that we discovered even more things to eat. Most restaurants have elaborate window displays featuring plastic versions of the real delights inside. Here you can see a fine spread of nigiri, sashimi, and fried eel balls guarded by magical tinfoil swans.

Here is a picture from the Japanese grocery store, Mitsuwa. They sold just about everything you could imagine, except for pineapple wafer cookies. Here you can see a selection of sea bounty including a giant octopus tentacle. It is covered with plastic, so I dared myself to touch it. It was quite firm, and the suction cups were even firmer. I touched a bunch of other gross things protected by their plastic bags -- pickled radish, dried mushroom powder, shrimp flavored candy, fermenting seaweed, coarsely chopped squid.

Being surrounded by exotic food was exciting and fun. But being surrounded by Japanese books made me feel like I was actually in another country. How disorienting! What does this book say? I don't know! What is this item for? I couldn't tell you! What does this signage say? Who can say? After a few hours at 株式会社紀伊國屋書店 Kinokuniya, I was completely immersed in my own little Japanese world, learning about Japanese art and lunch box food and knitting techniques. In addition, I found a really cool pen.

The Hi-Tec pen from Pilot begins as a shell. This is the pen casing. Next, you choose 3 ink colors, available in 3 levels of fineness. You can put the ink inside the case and 会社概要!!! You have a totally customized pen that you can write purple letters with one day and green the next. The day after that is orange.

In Little Tokyo I also became a Taiko Master or 太鼓の達人. This Japanese game is the most insane game I've ever played. After you put your token in, the machine comes to life --obnoxious, high-pitched, It's-a-Small-World type life. Two drumsticks teach you how to play the giant drum properly; red mini drums mean hit it hard, blue mini drums mean hit it on the rim, sparkly drums mean hit it a whole bunch of times. After a 5 minute tutorial in Japanese, you get to choose a song and playing level. Then rainbows and witch doctors appear to cheer or boo you on. It is instantaneously habit forming and awesome.