mitsuwa
july 12, 2002
over in little tokyo there's this place that used to be the yaohan plaza but now it's called mitsuwa marketplace. inside, it houses a selection of restaurants, giftshops and a bookstore. i used to spend quite a bit of time here ever since i was a teenager and onward but the shopping center has slowly year after year spiral downwards. where there once used to be a whole second floor of japanese goods is now closed off to the public. where there once was a bowling alley, is now a dojo for some LA Aikido. and i can't begin to tell you how many businesses have opened and closed and have been resurrected to something else. but yet, i still go there. it holds a lot of memories for me. in the center of the plaza though is this giant structure that's one of those clockwork things. i don't know how to explain it but with the use of a ball, it triggers other events etc. sorry my mind is drawing a blank right now. it used to work and run a long time ago but now it just sits there quiet and nearly dead. and those are japanese mons (crests) on the side of the structure there. but i still frequent this place to check out the japanese magazines and such and to sometimes partake in a meal there.
one of the places i eat at is called issenjoki. it's on the 3rd floor of the shopping center and has been there ever since i can recall and it's run by the same old japanese lady. i like the interior because the walls are painted this very unique green yellow and the tables and interior accents are all in this dark brown black wood. i feel like i'm in some olden japanese dining hall. and outside of the window there you can see the top of the above structure.
if i could tell you how many hours i've spent in this bookstore or rather how much money i've dumped here for magazines, it would astound you. this is one of a few asahiya bookstores in LA and they have a good selection of magazines, books and music cds. on the weekends, this is the busiest store in the whole shopping center. the reason i like this store above kinokuniya bookstore is because they don't wrap up all the magazines in plastic and they let you look through them before you buy them. isn't that how it should be? but then again if the local borders and barnes and noble did that to their magazines, it would save alot of headache from cleanup after people always rudely disperse of them all over the store.
ok, i know you're all missing out on those food photos for the past 10+ days. so let me show you what we had on july 4th. nope, not your typical burgers and hot dogs eh? my dad's birthday landed on july 4th this year, according to the lunar calendar (which i really can never understand why chinese parents MUST adhere to since we can never remember when their birthday is year after year. for those of you not familiar with this, if you go by the chinese lunar calendar for your birthday, the date of it changes from year to year = a big pain in the ass), so we ate in and my mom whipped up a ginger scallion crab dish, a better than i've tasted at any restaurant lobster dish, winter melon soup and ong-choi with shrimp paste. and we got a roast duck from a local chinese bbqerie. i tell you, there's always something about mom's cooking that just can't be beat. of course it doesn't hurt that my mom won a few cooking contests back in HK either. ;)
anyway, should have more updates in the next few days. there's quite of bit of stuff happening and there have been a lot of other things that are taking precedence over my "online life". i know, *gasp*, how can that be? but hopefully things will be kind of back to normal soon. and i owe a ton of email. sorry for the lag in writing back.
