Chinatown, Los Angeles.

Okay so Little Cambodia and Little Saigon those were nice visits. I spend all week in J-Town (it's probably officially called "Little Tokyo" but my family has never called it that) and totally take it for granted. I sit at work and daydream about hopping the Red Line to Thaitown for curries. Or the Gold Line to Boyle Heights for Mexican. On a desperate day I think about taking the Gold to Chinatown for dim sum. If there were a quicker way to get to Monterey Park/Alhambra/San Gabriel from my office for dim sum I'd rather do that of course--where the real Chinese food is.

There are a lot of ethnic Chinese around, but still I feel like the food is really catering to a non-Chinese palate. That doesn't mean I don't like going. Chinatown is great. It's historical. There are still things left to discover by walking around.

I saw quite a few other people doing exactly what I was doing. Taking photos kind of aimlessly. If I were in a chattier mood I might have asked them what their Flickr names were or something. I got little nods of acknowledgment from them like "Yeah, I know what you're doing here, I understand, but my camera is better than yours." When I realized we were all probably taking the exact same hanging lanterns photos I decided to pack it up and leave.