Handmade L.A. Day

When we arrived into Santa Monica a couple of days ago, we took a deep breath, looked at the vast map in front of us, and then plunged into the endless grid of LA streets. We knew where we wanted to end up: my friend Asami’s apartment in Koreatown, near downtown LA. It’s only twenty miles, you know, and we had already ridden 35 that morning in less than three hours. No big deal. We’ve since learned that we took perhaps the worst route possible, but I have little confidence that any other route would have been drastically better.

The extent to which LA is designed with the personal automobile in mind is beyond belief. Later that night, Asami explained to us how hard it is for anyone to exist in LA without a car. Public transport is awkward and sparse, bike routes are few and far between, and there are very few walkable neighbourhoods like the ones we saw in Portland and San Francisco.

Our approach the city had to take a different tack. Our habit so far in cities has been to hop on our bikes and go exploring. It was clear from the outset that this wasn’t going to work out here. So yesterday, we told Asami that we should do things that she liked to do and we would simply follow along.

We started our day at Echo Park’s hipster coffee destination, Intelligentsia. Prerequisites for working there seemed to be an as of yet unattempted hairstyle and/or a hand screen printed tee shirt. The lattes were legitimately awesome, as was the people watching. From there, we made our requisite city stop at a Goodwill. Asami bought a colander.

Lunch time rolled around and we headed down to Little Tokyo. There were probably 20 people ahead of us in the line for the little noodle place. We were really hungry, but decided to wait it out. The steaming bowls of noodle soup with pork and egg and green onions made it all worth it. As we slurped away, we reflected on how anyone would ever know where to go/what to do in LA without a) a car or b) someone to tell your where to go. The small Japanese restaurant was in the middle of a block with absolutely nothing else going on around it. There is close to a zero percent chance that you would just happen to be strolling past. And yet, Asami says that if you tell someone you went to Daikoku, chances are they would know what you were talking about.

With our bellies really full, we set out for the fashion district. The Unique LA independent design and craft show was a particularly delightful surprise. In a city known for its neon and glamour, we spent three hours talking to artists about their art which lay before us on tables or hung behind them on the walls. From handmade stuffed robots and photographs of bicycles to silkscreened tee-shirts with stories and purses made of old books, the gathering reminded me that there are communities for everything almost everywhere.

To finish off our day in true LA style, the three of us went to the movies (at a theatre, I might add, with assigned seating and a restaurant in the lobby). Today we woke up to a day that looks very much like Seattle looked when we were there a couple of months ago. Except for the palm trees. Alex is seeing a physio about his knee and I am making do with a latte sans all the hipster love I got used to yesterday.

mer/LA