Little Tokyo

Whenever we go to Little Tokyo, it's almost always one of the highlights of my month. G, C, and I went last Saturday, and I decided to take a few pictures.

Our first stop was Curry House for lunch.





...okay, so I didn't actually take this one; the picture I took of my lunch didn't come out, so I found this one online. (Though, judging from the color of the meat, I'm thinking this is actually a picture of the pork katsu and not the chicken katsu I had. But they look the same on the outside, so whatever.) I opted for spice level "hot", because Japanese curry is pretty mild and "hot" is just enough to make your tongue tingle. Add a big mound of white rice (which I mixed up with the curry sauce) and a Coke and I was in heaven. So. Effin'. GOOD.







Posters in Weller Court.





Also in Weller Court, this is a tribute to Ellison S. Onizuka, the Japanese-American astronaut who was killed in the 1986 Challenger explosion. The street is also named after him.





I have no idea who this is supposed to be, because some asshat stole the plaque from the base.





Mmmm...plastic food...





Crosswalk.

Unfortunately, you aren't allowed to take photographs in Anime Jungle, or I would have taken one of the figurine of a very scantily clad, underaged, lollipop-licking girl inside a box with a big "USED" sticker slapped on the side. I don't even want to think about how that figurine was used, but I imagine it was awfully sticky when it was traded in. Chris Hansen would like a word with the original owner.





I usually buy several of the "phonebook" (so called because of their size) manga magazines, but none of them had any decent freebies this month. My credit card did not escape unscathed, though! Here's what I bought, not including the plum rice balls or pistachio macaron that quickly made their way into mah belleh.





Daruma calendar and cute keychain.





The Japanese equivalent of Cat Fancy. Not that I can read any of the articles, but who cares? Look at the kittyhead! I mainly bought this to share with my work wife J, who loves cats so much she makes me look like a bitchass hater. Seriously.





My glorious haul of delicious junk food. In the back of the picture, we have eight bags of Calbee jyaga bata potato chips. Jyaga bata is a popular Japanese street food: a peeled baked potato on a stick, drenched in butter and sprinkled with paprika. The chips are basically the greatest fucking thing in the history of ever, but unfortunately they're a seasonal item and only sold in winter, so we buy out the store whenever we see them.

In the front of the picture, we have a bag of watermelon candy, a bag of Kirby gumballs, and a can of Cola Up, which I bought thinking it was just a can of soda. Well, see that spoon on the label? Neither did I. It turns out this is actually "cola jelly", and it was like drinking half-melted gummy cola bottles. I took one sip and the rest went straight into the sink.

Anyway, that's my Little Tokyo travelogue. Hope to see you there someday!