Those who dreams, but never pursue are called dreamers.
And successful people are the dreamers that tried.
And successful people are the dreamers that tried.
- Van Pelt
So, last Saturday morning, I drove to the usual gas station with my radio station tuned to K-Earth 101. At the end of what seems like a lengthy advertisements, the disc jockey reported about events that are happening around Los Angeles area. One of it happened to be the Cherry Blossom festival in Little Tokyo on the weekend. At that moment, I thought to myself, I have to go see this.
The original plan was to go the festival immediately afterward with my camera. After calling my friend up, he agreed to go with me in the late afternoon. The afternoon came and went, and we both did not go to Little Tokyo. My friend was tied up with things to do, and it was 5 PM by the time we were done. Back up plan, Sunday.
Two P.M., Sunday, we both were standing in front of the Metrolink train station in Pasadena. The $1.25 per train ticket was a bargain comparing to driving a car to Little Tokyo. The distant is about 15 mile one way, and the minimum parking fee is $5.00.
Train: $2.50 per person x 2 person = $5.00 total
Car: ($3.60 per gallon; 30 miles/gallon; about 30 miles) + $5.00 parking = $8.60 total
Little Tokyo is about half a mile away from the Union Station. It occupied a small area between 1st Street and 3rd Street, and the festival was setup on San Pedro street, next to Little Tokyo Mall. Comparing to Chinese New Year festival in San Gabriel, this festival is quite small, but interesting nonetheless. There were three stages for performances: martial arts stage, music stage, and main stage. The booths on the roads included food booths, business booths, and small gift shops. However, the performances were quite an interesting sight. Many of the traditional Japanese performance were done by non-Asian, much less Japanese (take a look at the pictures below). In the plaza, there were additional independent performers that draw quite a crowd. Me and my friend spent few hours around Little Tokyo getting back on the train.
Little Tokyo:
Left - Samurai practitioner; Right - Traditional performance
Left - Takoyaki store. Six pieces for $6!!; Right - Hawaiian dance
Chinatown view from the train:
Link:
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