Little Tokyo

Los Angeles, California Travel Guide

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Little Tokyo

Area: Downtown Los Angeles

Overview: Tokyo is at your fingertips in Los Angeles. Well, at least Little Tokyo is. Little Tokyo, or J-Town, is located in the northern part of Downtown Los Angeles right in the center. It’s comprised of a few blocks, with 1st Street at the north border, 3rd Street at the south, the Los Angeles River to the east and Los Angeles Street to the west.

The opposite of Chinatown L.A., Little Tokyo, which has its beginnings in Los Angeles before the turn of the twentieth century, is a cleaner, less frantic and more contemporary. Shopping opportunities abound from boutique shops to retails shops. Quaint and cute eateries are everywhere, and Little Tokyo’s boundaries include some serious cultural outfits such as the MOCA and the Japanese American National Museum.

Central to the national historic district of Little Tokyo is the Japanese Village Plaza, a compact, beautiful and intriguing pedestrian only plaza off of 1st St. An extremely popular place to visit by the young and urban and older Japanese Americans and locals alike, the Japanese Village Plaza commences in grand style at the north end off 1st St with the sky-reaching Yagura Tower, a replica of a fire lookout tower in Japan. In the village plaza are several shopping opportunities where you’ll find handicrafts, candles, Japanese dolls, traditional and contemporary clothing and much more from places like Anime Jungle and Blooming Art. There are almost a dozen eateries, among which are Mikawaya Mochi, which serves some of the best mochi ice cream in a variety of flavors, and Yamakazi Bakery, where you can watch exotic pastries and deserts being made. As you go along the walkway, stop at the central courtyard with a stylized water fountain and relax.

The sense of culture and history pervades Little Tokyo. A few yards away from the Yagura Tower is the Koyasan Buddhist Temple, one of several Buddhist temples. Across the street on the north side of 1st Street are the MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art), the exhibits of which are housed in the Geffen Contemporary Museum and the Japanese American National Museum, which exhibits the history of Japanese Americans. North of the MOCA, the Go For Broke Monument commemorates the Japanese American soldiers during World War II. On the sidewalk of the north side of 1st Street, you’ll see the history of Little Tokyo engraved. At the northeast corner of 1st and San Pedro St is America’s first and largest Asian American theatre organization, East West Players, located in the David Henry Hwang Theater at the Union Center for the Arts and founded in the mid 1960s.

Accessibility: Little Tokyo of Los Angeles is wheelchair accessible and can be visited within a day’s time, unless you hit up the museums.

Getting There: www.metro.net, www.ladottransit.com