Little Tokyo

This Thursday, I met a couple of girls I met through meet-up to go and watch Fiddler on the Roof which was touring in Riverside. It was pretty good and the theatre was really pretty inside, with Spanish tiling on the inside as well as the outside. The real star of the day though was the food we got beforehand. Lorraine had told me about it before and wanted to go again, so we went to go and get southern style soul food at Messi's Soul Kitchen. I got a plate with collard greens, red beans and rice, mac and cheese and yams, which were so sweet and must have been cooked with sugar.  

We spent Friday evening in the hot tub with some friends which was cute. It's still too cold for the pool though.

Saturday was our big adventure day. We got the train into LA from Riverside early in the morning. It took about an hour and a half and the walk from Union Station to our destination was only another few minutes walk from there. 

Union Station

We arrived in Little Tokyo just before 11am and immediately found a place for breakfast. I had a matcha latte and a red bean roti. The roti was a sweet bun filled with red bean paste (which tastes a little like sweet potato) and topped with a crispy green pistachio paste crust. Mitchell had the snowball version which was flavoured with sweet cream. 

After that we went to go and find a little garden. It was very pretty, but the gate was locked, so we could only see it from over the side of a fence. What we could see was very nice, with small paths, cherry trees and small streams.

After this, we went to look around the shops in the area. There were lots and lots, selling everything from tea sets all the way from Japan, cute stationary sets, anime merch and lots more! They were all small independent shops in this area and very popular with students. 

After a look around the shops, we went to the Japanese American National Museum. Their main exhibit told the story of the Japanese communities in the US. It started with the farm labourers in Hawaii in the late 19th century, through to their roles, treatment and discrimination during world war 2, and subsequent rights movements in the 70s. 

Suitcases of the early settlers

Barracks where Japanese Americans were held during WWII

Culture trip done, we headed back to the little town and looked in a small shopping centre which had more interesting Japanese items and a street food cafe where Mitchell got a fried mozzarella stick. 

On the way back we also stopped for some steamed buns, stuffed with mushrooms. They were very soft and fresh. They town was a lot busier than it had been in the morning, and it was fun to sit and people watch for a while. 

We also checked out some of the shops which hadn't been open yet that morning. They had a whole shop just with gumball machines where you could get the little funko pops and a shop filled with small crane machines. We took a couple of goes, but didn't manage to win me a kiwi shaped kiwi toy.

Our last stop was a mochi shop which has been open in this location since 1903! They make them fresh every day and have a lot of flavours on offer. We asked for some of their most popular ones and got two different strawberry ones, a raspberry/seaweed combo and a green one which was maybe matcha. Mochi are little sweet chewy balls made from rice flour and stuffed with red bean paste. 

After picking these up, we headed back to the train station and just made our train in time. The next one wasn't for a few hours, so we really wanted this one! A very fun day out, and more to see than I thought there would be. There were so many sushi restaurants and other food places that we didn't try, but because it's so easy to get to, we can't wait to bring visitors to experience it again with us. 

On Sunday we headed out for a small hike to see the outcome of all the rains recently. This trail was only a thirty minute drive away - very close compared to some of the others we've done, but it's best done in the spring. It was another warm and sunny day and when we arrived in the small car park in the afternoon it was still full. 

We started out and the path was very clear. Almost immediately we had views of the city of Rancho Cucomonga below us, and the hills were green all over. There were a few bushes with flowers on, but no wildflowers in this area. We walked uphill for about an hour before we reached the top of the trail.

 As we approached, we could hear water and see a line of trees down in the valley. At the top there was a stream filled with water which fell over the rocks below. 

We took some pictures, and then followed the stream up a little further. Just around the corner was a another, even bigger, waterfall which had so much water in it. I haven't seen so much water since we went to Oregon! We stopped here for a snack before making our way back down. 

Hike done, and sun setting, we made our way back to the car for some well deserved dinner.

Next week is our last weekend out before the wedding! You may think we'd be taking it easy, but no! We're off for a mini adventure! 

See you next time,

Emily and Mitchell

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