The journey from LA to Tokyo has been pretty interesting. Growing up in LA is a trip, and as anyone else from there knows, you might have had totally different experiences depending what part your from.
There’s a lot of neighborhood pride out there for sure, which gave rise to all those bumperstickers that look like the European ones. Like: “SP” for San Pedro, “T” for Torrance, etc.
What part did I grow up in? I ain’t gonna give you my address or anything, but I’ll tell you I lived most of my days in the South Bay. All the LA locals reading this already know where the South Bay is, but for those who don’t, I fill you in.
On a map of LA, it’s basically, all the cities south of Los Angeles International Airport/South Central, and west of Long Beach.
You can find almost anything in the South Bay, from nice beaches to oil refineries and chemical plants. There’s a lot of cultural variety too. Brown, Black, Yellow, White, Purple….whatever, everybody’s living there together. I like that mix, and it’s one of the things I miss now that I’m in Japan.
Out here, 99% of the population is Japanese, so it’s a totally different world from LA for damn sure. That’s probably one of the biggest culture shocks I encountered out here.
