Old school arcades are a rare find these days (Dave and Busters does not count) which is why it was a big deal in the Southern California geek world when EightyTwo announced that they were opening a barcade. On their opening weekend, I was invited to a birthday party of a friend’s friend. Normally, I would hide in my cave to avoid social anxiety but this time, I happily accepted the invite so I could waste many quarters!
This past Sunday I ventured into Little Tokyo to take part in the Tomo Neko Maid Cafe event benefiting The Trevor Project which provides suicide prevention and crisis intervention services to teenagers for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. This is Tomo Neko Production’s third year partnering with a different charitable organization to help raise awareness through a leisurely atmosphere filled with Cosplay, video games, entertainment, and Japanese food held at the Japanese American National Museum for the first time. This isn’t your grandma’s type of charity function.
Nisei Week is a festival held in Little Tokyo: a Japanese enclave in Los Angeles – to celebrate and promote Japanese-American culture. Its name comes from”2nd generation” a reference to the 1st generation of American born Japanese that the festival once centered around.
The festival has since extended its duration from one week to one month and from Japanese celebrating their own culture to Japanese celebrating and sharing their culture with people of all backgrounds.
Nisei Week brings out the best of the community and it’s always really cool to see people enjoying the festivities. The festival offers a large variety of entertainment from gyoza-eating contests to taiko drum performances. I’ve dragged my local friends out to the festival every year and this year was no different.
WHERE? 2nd Street Jazz @ Little Tokyo, Los Angeles
WHEN? Friday, Feb. 13 @ 9PM-ish
WHY? Listen to some good muzak.
Visit the Judo Chop Myspace page for more information on the bands performing.
Personally, I’m there to see Jean Paul Yamamoto in action at around 11pm.
