On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
?BillinGlendaleCA
After my visit to Chinatown, I made the short drive to Little Tokyo which near LA City Hall. Japanese habitation of this part of downtown Los Angeles dates back to the early 20th century and the area is still the cultural home for the Japanese-American population of the LA basin. Most of the shots were taken in the Japanese Village Plaza, a small shopping/restaurant area between 1st and 2nd Streets. One photo was taken looking at the buildings on 1st Street(most of which date from the late 19th century) and one was taken along 2nd street of the Angel City Brewery sign. I’m quite happy with the picture of the interior of the tower in the Japanese Village Plaza which I’ve shot during daylight hours, but not at night.
Much like Chinatown, J-Town has lanterns across the plaza, but more signs are lit.
Looking north towards 1st Street.
A sculpture in the center of the Plaza.
The tower at the north of the Plaza along 1st Street.
The historic buildings along the north side of 1st Street with LA City Hall in the background.
Looking south down the Plaza from 1st Street, the roped off area is for outdoor dining.
There’s a market on the south end of the Plaza.
Angel City Brewing along 2nd Street at the beginning of the Art’s District which extends to the LA River.
eclare
The lanterns look magical. Great photos!
Elizabelle
Yes. Am a sucker for lanterns. J-Town looks beautiful at night. Now I want some Japanese food. Alas. (Japanese breakfasts are wonderful.)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@eclare: The key is not over-exposing the lanterns.
@Elizabelle: I liked it better than Chinatown, more businesses had their signs on. So you’d prefer a Japanese breakfast to the fruit loop pizzia?
Wag
Beautiful photos. The second lantern photo is magical.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Wag: Thanks, just like with a night cityscape, the key is not blowing out the signs.
cope
These are wonderful images. You should have waited until The Company That Makes The Streets Look Like It Just Rained* had come through for just that extra bit of ambience.
*Mad Magazine, circa 1966.
Benw
@Elizabelle: my first trip to Japan I stayed in a very Japanese hotel that served the most wonderful breakfast. The last morning, the hostess proudly served my fellow white people and me thick slices of flavorless white bread, toasted, with butter and whole milk. She was so happy! I took mine to be polite, and was grousing to the table that I wanted the traditional breakfast and was stunned when they said they were relieved to skip it. White people are weird, man. I could eat Japanese breakfast forever. Anyway, cool pics, Bill!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@cope: Being that this is LA, those companies do exist here. Waiting for the real stuff can be a problem, though it’s supposed to rain a bit late this morning, doesn’t help much with night shots though.
@Benw: On my one visit to Tokyo, our last morning before departing we had the choice of a Japanese or American breakfast. I chose the Japanese breakfast, it was OK, but I prefer a Korean breakfast, much more spicey.
UncleEbeneezer
This is making me want ramen. You were right by Hakata Ramen Shinsen-Gumi which is our favorite ramen joint in all of Los Angeles. The broth is amazing and the atmosphere is a very celebratory, communal one with the staff cheering for every new guest and other notable events.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@UncleEbeneezer: I get the frozen ramen at Costco, a bit pricey, but quite good. I add some sliced jalapenos to give it an extra kick.
ETA: I only go out for sit down meals about 4 times a year(birthdays, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day), crazy restaurants require wearing pants. What’s with that?
Steve from Mendocino
Like that first photo. It hangs together pretty well. It seem a little dark to me, though. Is there any detail recoverable in that big black hole in the center bottom? All in all, the colors are fun in your night time downtown series.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steve from Mendocino: I’m intentionally underexposing to preserve the highlights and leave the shadows dark for a moody look. I’m also shooting handheld at a high ISO, so shadows are going to be noisey if I push them too much. I’ve been following a photographer in Seoul who’s doing some really nice work using this philosophy, I linked to his work in my last post on Chinatown.
Slight rant…I just took the group for an evening shoot of downtown, the tendency among photographers to overexpose to bring out shadows is pervasive and they tend to lose the color in the highlights(I see this in astrophotography too, especially with star trails).
ETA: The dark area is a planter.
Desargues
Thank you for these photos! I love Little Tokyo very much. I know the Shabu Shabu eatery very well. Right next to it on the left there is (was?) a great little store, where a lady who loves the Beatles sells cute little things from Japan and also endearingly weird Japanese-made Beatles paraphernalia. Very cute.
Also, great idea to take a shot of the red tower from inside it. Never seen that before. Great stuff.
burnspbesq
Little Tokyo just isn’t the same now that S.K. Uyeda Department Store (the first Japanese-owned business to open after folks were allowed to return to LA from Manzanar and other concentration camps) is no longer there.
UncleEbeneezer
@?BillinGlendaleCA: We’ve made ramen at home numerous times using dash miso or instant mix with some decent noodles (usually fresh or frozen from H-mart) but ramen, like pho, is one of those things that we’ve determined we’d much rather have someone else make for us because 1.) they are better at it (their broths are far superior to instant mixes) and 2.) our tiny kitchen makes it really hard to do meals that involve coordinating lots of sides or toppings. We have almost no counter space :(
You don’t have to wear pants for Shinsengumi. I usually wear shorts since I’m always warm. It’s pretty casual.
In non-Covid times we usually only go out for stuff like ramen/pho or to places like Lucky Baldwins/Hermasillo (HP Brewery).
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Desargues: Glad you like the Red Tower shot, it’s one my favorites. I used to go to Little Tokyo alot when I worked in downtown.
@burnspbesq: It’s changed a lot, especially the last few years with quite a few new residential buildings. I think that more stores will move to the area since the population there(and downtown in general) is increasing. There also a new subway stop opening next year or the year after in Little Tokyo which will bring more folk there.
@UncleEbeneezer: Hmmm, Lucky Baldwinds, think I know that place. The ramen I have isn’t a mix, it’s the whole thing, frozen(chicken, vegies, noodles). You add a bit of water and nuke it. I do have the pho mix, but I add a bunch of stuff to it(roast beef, green onions and jalapenos).
J R in WV
Great stuff, Billin… perhaps you could use a tripod, and two exposures, one for the bright parts and one for the dim parts?
I almost never use a tripod, I will hold the camera against a post or tree or building if it’s really dim… but I doubt that would work for multiple exposures.
Dan B
Years ago we stayed with a friend I knew from Chicago Gay Liberation. He’d moved to LA “Because I (he) needed sunshine in the morning to wake up.” His place was between Little Tokyo, Skid Row, and a few blocks from the older part of downtown that was full of galleries and quirky Hollywood themed and just weird restaurants. It was all in a few blocks although it was unnerving walking through the crowds of desperate people in skid row to get to old downtown. It’s all level except for the had funicular to get to the new forest of skyscrapers.
Who says no one walks in LA?
Yutsano
Oh ye gods do I love me some Little Tokyo! I had a wonderful meal with a good friend at that Mitsuru café way back in November 2017.
I also have a fun story*. A different friend and I were walking around Little Tokyo. I think we were in that Tokyo Exchange but not sure. At the same time, there was a tour bus** of Japanese tourists that just got dropped off.
We were on our way out when an elderly couple was walking in. The husband was walking in as I was walking out. I said, “Domo sumimasen” (excuse me) as I was passing him. He said “Sumimasen ne” (a different form of excuse me) and we passed. My friend had gone out before me.
“Hey, did you see his wife?”
Me: “No, why?”
“Her jaw was dropped so hard!”
I just laughed.
*I may have told this story before. But it’s worth telling again.
**typing that just feels quaint right now.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@J R in WV: Thanks, I’m trying a style that a photographer from Seoul uses for his photos and the point of this is to NOT use a tripod or bracket…let the darks be dark and expose for the brights. I looked at the first photo, I was posting on the local photography group FB page, and the planter is much lighter in Lightroom, converting it to jpg darkens it a bit.
One of the problems with tripods, and I regularly use them for night shots is that it ID’s you to rent-a-cops as a “professional” and then the “get permission from management” or “get a permit” that becomes a problem.
@Dan B:
That would be Angels Flight.
@Yutsano: A Japanese-American friend in college had the opposite problem. Quite a few Japanese tourist would visit UCLA when we were in school and they would always stop and ask her for directions since she looked Japanese, she didn’t speak a word of Japanese, she was from San Jose.