Posts tagged ‘Little Tokyo’

Little Tokyo Love

This video caused me to go temporarily insane.

That video, my friends is one of the many reasons to love life.  Oooooh, I want to cuddle that intelligent Beluga!!!  If you’ve already seen it before, too bad!  I always forward links or videos to friends, thinking I’m really cutting edge, + they’re always like, “Seriously Shelli, I’ve seen that a million times.” or “What, do you live under a rock?”.  I’ve been compared to a coma patient that has just woken up.  It’s true.  I should get out more, but I don’t.  And I don’t plan to!

I love living in Little Tokyo!  Why would I go anywhere else?  Everything I want is within walking distance.  Uuuuuugh, I’m going to miss living here.  I walked to my optometrist this morning, Dr. Kurata.  Do you like my new frames? 

I had a hard time taking a picture with my IPhone.  Or maybe I’m trying to emulate a pirate minus the eye patch.  My frames are by Ic! Berlin.  German, but of course.  Remember: Japanese or German products only need apply.  http://www.ic-berlin.de/

Everything I need is in Little Tokyo!  My hair stylist + friend Kayo cut Jeff’s hair before he left for Canada.  Kayo is a scientist of hair – a real genius!  Most of my friends + family go to see her.  She usually cuts + colors at Umberto Salon in Beverly Hills, but works in Little Tokyo 2 days a week because she loves styling hair so much.  I’m not going to forward a link, because she’s already so booked by word of mouth, that it’s difficult to get an appointment with her! Recognize!!!

Shin-Sen-Gumi just opened up down the street!  I used to drive all the way down to Gardena to eat at the location there.  This ramen shop is great because you can choose your toppings, how firm you want you noodles to be cooked, how oily your broth, etc.  It’s the ultimate in ramen customization!!!! Plus, they serve Spam!!!!!!!!  The protein of Asia.  What’s not to love?

The waiters enthusiastically SCREAM in Japanese: “WELCOME!!!”, “2 AT TABLE 5!!!”. “TABLE 3 IS CLEARED!!!”, “THANKYOUVERYMUCH!!!!!!!”.  It’s a little jarring + hard to hold a conversation with all the yelling, but at least they’re consistent.  I still relish in their militancy very much.  It flows through my blood…

Today as I was getting my mail, my condo manager Shin-san motioned me into the common room.  He said, “Look at all these things, take whatever you want!  If people don’t take these things, I’m just going to throw them in the trash!”.  Shin-san is not much of an environmentalist.  There were various, not so memorable tchotchkes that were up for grabs.  My condo complex houses many elderly Japanese, + lately they have been unfortunately moving to nursing homes or passing away.

But, look at what I found!  Beautiful Kokeshi dolls!  The one on the left does not appear very old, but the two on the right I have to do more research on.  They look old, yo!!!

Look at the intricacy of the painting!  One of them has “Hakone Onsen” hand written on the botttom in calligraphy.  Onsen is Japanese for “hot springs”.  I’ll have to bring these to the “Antiques Roadshow” (aka Jeff’s favorite show), y’all!!!!  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/

They’re so simple + beautiful.  Aaaaaah, Japanese aesthetic, how I love you so……

For some reason, Megumi was very intrigued by these dolls.  Which kind of creeeeeped me out a little….

Yet another reason to miss Little Tokyo.  The MOCA Geffen Contemporary is one block west of my condo.  I have a membership + can just stroll on down there whenever I want.

Right now they are exhibiting: “Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981”.  Go see it, because it’s very in depth + really expresses the raw art, photography + music scene that was happening in California during that time period. People were very jaded + angry back then, y’all!   http://www.moca.org/black_sun/ Again, this is in collaboration with fabulous Pacific Standard Time .  http://www.pacificstandardtime.org/    Check out my past blog, “Eames to the Nth Degree” for more on Pacific Standard Time.

Well, don’t look to this blog if you need tips + advice for moving, because this ain’t it!!!  I managed to box up a bunch of stuff.  The problem is, I don’t have a tenant yet + I’m not sure of when I’m moving out, so my drive to really get packing is like zero.  That’s how I found that Beluga video on youtube.  It’s called procrastination, people.  This makes it hard for me to know what + how much to box up, because I’m not sure of what I’ll need to keep around to live on without feeling like a complete bachelorette. 

Don’t get impressed, because 3/4 of these boxes are empty!!! Hah!!!

As the night progressed + my IPod played on, I managed to get a good amount of boxes packed up.  There’s nothing like some Bruce Springsteen, Roxy Music + Selena to push things along.

I did the fishy face because I was tired + at a loss.  Plus, I’m not very photogenic.  I wish Jeff was here. 😦