Downtown Date Night - Little Tokyo

Dan decided it was high time to surprise me with a trip downtown with a day packed with adventure and mystery. I had no idea what the plan was other than that it involved taking the metro downtown and that it would be all day, therefore involving food! Yum and fun!

We recently discovered the LA metro on an excursion to Angel City Brewery. We didn't want to drink and drive or pay exorbitant taxi costs and stumbled upon the well kempt, fast, and cost efficient metro! I never thought we would actually going downtown, but quickly discovered this to be an enjoyable adventure.

Anyway, back to date night. We hopped on the metro and ended up at Union Station. While that could have lead to a very different type of adventure, we walked away from the train station. I have a very apt sense of direction and quickly noticed we were headed in the direction of Angel City Brewery, but I decided to keep quite in hopes that we were indeed headed that way, and didn't want to ruin anything.

Turned out I was partially correct. We took a right, right before the brewery, and headed to the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo. Before I even realized that the building was part of a museum I started snapping photos excited about the cool looking building in front of me. Obviously, I didn't shoot too many photos inside the museum (actually I didn't take any photos) but still thoroughly enjoyed it. They had an exhibit on the interment of Japanese-Americans during WWII, a look at Asian Americans in comics, and history on Asian immigration to America and Asian culture in America. Fascinating!

After the museum, we ended up at Angel City Brewery for a few drinks before dinner. I knew it! Dan even surprised me by asking me to teach him dominoes. Talk about an awesome husband!

We headed back into Little Tokyo for some Japanese curry, which I honestly do not know if I've had before. It was very different than Indian curry, less spicy and more like a gravy. Unfortunately, the only vegan version they had was the mild curry, but I think that might have been the best way to have my first experience as having it too spicy could overwhelm the flavors.

After our satisfying meal I was content to head home, but no, there was more. We browsed the local bookstore, well the English section, and the discount store, always fun and then headed to the top of the three storied outdoor shopping center.

Finally the beans were spilled. He was taking me to a jazz club called the blue whale! We hadn't been to a jazz club since we were in Kobenhavn in 2011, so this was quite the treat for me.

And without a doubt, the blue whale was awesome! The seats were cushioned ottomans and we grabbed some against the wall, the better to lean against my dear. The style and design was impressive, as well as their cocktails. The ceiling had quotes by famous musicians about music, the walls were wood paneled, and the setup was really interesting to look at. And that doesn't even begin to cover the music.

Unfortunately, since I had no idea where we were going and the bar itself was so amazing, I didn't want to use flash and didn't have a tripod. That meant my pictures came out with more character than I would have originally planned on, but I had fun with them anyway. Perhaps they even came out better than if I had my tripod with me.

What was wonderful about the whole experience is that when the show ended and it was almost one o'clock in the morning, the train was still running! Much more convenient than BART's last train at midnight. Who would have thought I would ever approve of Los Angeles' public transit over the Bay Area?

I hope to see us going again sometime in the not so distant future.