Why did I go to L.A? Simple, I won some tickets for the premiere of “Conan in Armenia” and with that said, me and my buddies went down to the “Warner Bros. Studios” to see the premiere and see Conan and the band and the premiere of his trip with his hot assistant to Armenia and it was a very fun, educational and emotional “remote” that one of my favorite Talk-show host has ever done.
And after exiting the “Warner Bros. Studios” in Burbank and with a rather cold climate, we were still deciding on where to go for dinner as the place we wanted to go eat was already closed up and we were still looking for a place that served Japanese food and well, we went to Little Tokyo.
Built in 1942, Little Tokyo serves as a center to the Japanese immigrants that came to the US in search of the “American Dream” and well it is seen in this part of the city. Actually, it is one of three official Japan Towns in the US which are also in California (San Francisco and San Jose).
Little Tokyo includes a Shopping Mall, Heritage Center, Shinto Temple, Watchtower, Little Tokyo Hotel, Miyako Hotel, and plenty of Japanese cuisine with Sushi and Ramen places and also for the most fans of Anime and Manga there are also many shops that sell items for those who love these.
At approximately 8:00 or 9:00 pm we arrived at Little Tokyo and parked in the parking lot in the Shopping Mall and from I was introduced by my buddies to the many shops and the cool places from around the Mall, including the famously mentioned (by my buddies) “Kool’s Clothing Shop” and so on.
We saw many places and we went to the place we checked out on the internet which was “Daikokuya Ramen” which is exactly in front of the “Miyako Hotel”.
How to describe the feel of Daikokuya? The place looked really nice and the waitresses were cute and the place was really clean. The decoration was mainly vintage with many signs for “Curry”, “Kikkoman” and Vitamin drinks and of some old Japanese gangster movies.
We went there and the first thing we had to do was a “Waiting List” and we waited outside on the cold avenue but filled with laughter and good quirky jokes by my great companions and I really didn’t mind. After waiting for some people to leave the “mini-waiting bench” we proceeded to sit there and I myself read some of the manga that they had there as they had “One Piece” and “Naruto” in its original Japanese version.
And then we proceeded to be taken to our table and we saw the menu and it looked really delicious as we all ordered our Miso Ramen with an additional dish in which I ordered Takoyaki and an additional Bamboo Shoots for my Ramen as I discarded the Egg in my Ramen.
And for drinks I had a “Ramuné” and they had a “Coke” and a “Sapporo”.
The place felt familiar and also I feel as if I had gone back in time as if I went inside some of my favorite Japanese movies from the era of Akira Kurosawa and I actually heard a song that was from 1961 and that was actually popular upon its arrival on USA in 1963 and that song was “Ue o Muite Arukou (I Shall Look up while walking)” or “Sukiyaki” as it was known in the USA, by Kyu Sakamoto.
We stayed there for a long time and laughing up by some stories we were telling and after that we looked at the hour and we saw that there was no one left inside the restaurant aside from the waitresses and the chefs. We totally bailed out as soon as we saw no one left but us and the staff.
The night was cool and the lights of the city didn’t seem to fade out as we were leaving the city and with that I, yet again, fell in love with Los Angeles.
Thank you for that night and I hope to return yet again to see “Conan” and to visit again Little Tokyo.
El Rincón de Yayo 