yakihito

Shinsengumi Ramen

The Los Angeles area has a pretty big Japanese population. We're all familiar with Little Tokyo, the area downtown where expatriates gathered starting at the beginning of the 20th century. But now the majority of the population is in the South Bay, in Torrance and Gardena. The other day I headed down to Gardena to try the ramen at one of the branches of Shinsengumi, after a recommendation by a friend who grew up down here.

Shinsengumi Hakata Ramen serves, as you would expect, Hakata-style ramen, otherwise known as tonkotsu ramen. I'm no tonkotsu expert (at least not yet, I'll be in Kyushu in a month and will be eating lots of it) but I really enjoyed the pork-bone soup here. Normally I don't even bother with the broth when eating ramen, I just eat the noodles and leave the soup to be thrown out. But not this time. I kept on slurping even after I was full. Of course, the mentaiko (spicy fish eggs) I put in the broth didn't hurt.

But no smell. Rupan777, regular commenter here and the proprietor of Gaijinzoku, told me a good indicator of tasty tonkotsu is the nasty smell of boiling pork bones permeating the restaurant. So here's the exciting part: if the soup here was this good without the smell, I can only imagine how good the soup will be in Hakata itself with the smell. Put me on that plane now!

If you're in the LA area and don't mind driving down to the South Bay, definitely check out Shinsengumi Hakata Ramen. Just be sure and turn right when you get off the 110, and not left into Compton.

Family Mart in America

One of the big conbini chains in Japan is Family Mart. Like 7-11 and Lawson, Family Mart has pretty much anything and everything you could want. I actually really miss Japanese convenient stores. I'm hooked on conbini onigiri and all the drinks. So I was excited to learn that Family Mart has been opening stores in Los Angeles. Called Famima!!, they're pretty much just American versions of their Japanese counterparts.

In Japan, you get your bento and oden. In America, you get your corn dogs and sandwiches. But like in Japan, the quality is quite a bit higher than your typical 7-11 mystery meat dog.

Here's what I picked up:

Wasabi snacks, onigiri, and Volvic water, which is actually French but is ubiquitous in Japan. Ah, sweet comfort.

Also different was the music playing over the loud speakers. In LA you get ranchero music.

Fujiya In The Barrio

In an interesting aside to my recent Peko-chan story, there just happens to be a Japanese grocery store a few blocks from the place where I'm staying in LA called Fujiya. It's not related to the Fujiya in Japan, of which Peko-chan is the mascot, but it is an interesting coincidence.

What makes it even more interesting is the area in which I'm staying is pretty much the barrio, complete with copious taquerias, panaderias, and gang graffiti. It's called Virgil Village and it's just below Silver Lake and Echo Park. However, this area used to be all Japanese. So said the owners of Fujiya Market when I voiced my surprise at their location.

"We've somehow managed to survive," they said, even though all the other Japanese businesses—indeed, all the other Japanese people—have moved away, likely to Torrance and Gardena.

I made sure not to mention Peko-chan, though.

Study Or Sing: Oita Is Hardcore

My buddy Rupan777 over at Gaijinzoku forwarded me a story from the Mainichi Daily News about a professor at Oita University—the school where I'll soon be studying—who's gotten himself into some pretty hot water.

A male professor at Oita University has been reprimanded for beating a colleague and making students sing during class, the school has announced.

The professor, who is in his 60s and teaches at the school's Faculty of Engineering, received an official warning after he beat the head of his subordinate teacher in March last year and repeatedly told other colleagues to quit.

On July 10, 2006, the professor uttered profanities when he returned examination papers to about 60 students in a classroom at the university in Oita Prefecture. He even forced students with bad grades to stand still in the classroom and ordered them to sing.

The professor then made all the students stand up in the classroom and ordered them to repeatedly say in a loud voice, "Students are obliged to study."

I wonder how he feels about gaijin?

Peko-Chan's Fall From Grace

Ten or so years ago, an innocent girl named Peko-chan was spirited away from in front of the Fuji-ya store in Takadanobaba, Tokyo, a place that she called home. She was taken against her will to America, where she suffered all sorts of indignities. She was taken to Burning Man and San Francisco's Folsom Street Fair, where she was paraded about in a laundry cart.

Now she languishes in a Hollywood kitchen, draped in a Guantanamo Bay T-shirt and hand-cuffed to 24 DVD. She misses her home and family terribly. If anyone can help, please contact this website.

The Japanese government is now cracking down on people who participate in this variant of white slavery. But for this girl, the nightmare may never end.

No Country for Tommy Lee Jones

American celebrities have long appeared in commercials in Japan, even when they refuse to do advertisements in the West. Tommy Lee Jones, the venerable star of No Country for Old Men and Men In Black, pushes Boss Coffee in Japan, appearing as the character Alien Jones. In the latest he's in Akihabara and at a maid cafe.

The look on his face while the maid shouts "Moe!" is priceless. I don't think he even had to act. That was just his natural, WTF face.

Hotel Tomo

I recently moved out of my place in the Bay Area. I'm now hanging in Los Angeles but there was a few days there where I needed a place to stay. As it was my birthday, I decided to splurge and stay in a hotel. I chose the Hotel Tomo, a boutique-ish hotel in San Francisco's Japan Town that's actually a Best Western. A pretty cool Best Western.

The rooms are nice. Every room has a mural by Heisuke Kitazawa, a Japanese artist. The rooms also have a widescreen TV (that I had to keep setting to 4:3 to watch regular TV so it wasn't all stretched out), fun colors and a nice big desk.

I liked the lobby, although I didn't hang out there much. I really wanted to lie down on that bed thing but there were always lots of staff milling around the lobby and working and stuff.

That video screen column in the background ran anime and Godzilla movies 24/7. Well, I assume it was 24/7. I didn't get up at 4am to check or anything.

I was staying on the first floor. Outside my sliding glass door (which wouldn't open) were two geodesic domes. I asked the guy in the lobby if I could see the domes but it turned into a big deal so I said it was OK. Apparently they're for meetings and luncheons and stuff.

Just across the way is this:

Not Japan but a reasonable facsimile.

All in all, I'd stay at the Hotel Tomo again, although I'd request to not be on the first floor. The cafe, Mums, is on the first floor and it can get kinda noisy. Then again, having that kind of access to the bar is nice too.