Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
There’s another meeting of the team. Dinner after the game at Johnnie’s pastrami wasn’t enough, so now, it’s a meeting at Cinehous to watch game tape. Is it about watching tape, or is it about hanging out one last time? Yes, it’s been talked about that some members of the team are leaving, and no one really wants to go “home”. So, maybe one more last meeting will happen with the team tonight. Then hopefully there’s one after that and then after that. I ate one of these, and I was in pain last night. The first half was amazing. The pastrami is great, but the second half was a major burning feeling all the way down. I don’t eat meat all too often, but pastrami is a killer. I stayed up until super late, to help digest it! Let’s talk about Johnnie’s for a bit. This spot in LA and I go far back in time. First off, it’s not on Sawtelle, but it’s on Sawtelle Blvd’s big brother Sepulveda, which at least in West LA, they run parallel on each side of the 405 freeway. When my mother was busy working at her restaurant (which was daily), and dinner came, my dad either cooked or we went out. Sometimes it was Norm’s, (they actually did decent meals back then) or it was Johnnie’s! My father used to take me here maybe once every two weeks! Why? I have no idea. I guess safety in terms of healthy food and what not wasn’t a big thing in the 70′s and early 80′s. It was close by, and maybe it was just tasty and he enjoyed it. The tables inside have table top juke boxes like you see in old movies (Happy Day’s didn’t have these). The pickles are still the same and who knows, they probably have some of the same brine from 50 years ago, and the pastrami is still great. Today, it’s funny how both of us can’t eat pastrami sandwiches. I pushed my luck last night in a moment of being one with the meat eaters on the team. If my dad ate it, he’d have a heart attack.
Continue reading
Sawtelle week story. GR lost in the first round of the playoff tournament. 17-15. Tough times all around here. We’ll be back for winter ball. There wasn’t much we could do but let the game take us. We started down a few runs, then went up a few runs, then it see sawed until they went ahead on last time. We had a chance for a last at bat, but went down 1-2-3. Not the best way to end a 9-3 season, but it could have been worse. There’s nothing to celebrate, even though we still get a trophy for a second place finish. I think this will be our 5th GR trophy for 2nd place.
Continue reading
I guess it’s Sawtelle week here. Instead of just responding to each comment consecutively, which I don’t think I can do in Blogger, I figure why not, these comments are nice. I’ll post them up as a regular blog entry. Thanks for reading and commenting. Today, the shop really is closed. Although they’re in there cleaning, I saw people walk by and peer through the windows to see what was going on. One day too late… Meanwhile, look for something to come out in the Rafu Shimpo paper written by Japanese school friend and writer there, Audrey Shiomi. That’s Henry and Jack helping someone take something away. My camera adjusted for the background light, so it’s a bit dark, but on the other hand, you can almost see through the woman’s skirt. Bad camera… eric wang said…that’s sad – yamaguchi was certainly a fixture for me everytime i walked down sawtelle. i had no idea it was closing, but that is as it’s meant to be, i guess. it’ll be missed. i’ve got to find my “year of the cock” t-shirt. eric – keep up the observations about sawtelle. it’s interesting to see the wikipedia entry on sawtelle as well. also, what the hell happened to the invader that was hanging outside of GR? Yes, it’s definitely a fixture! Yes, for some, everyday is “year of the cock.” But really, they did have the old school “year of the boar” shirts and stuff in there until the last day. The Space Invader placed Invader as part of his Invasion outside of GR was taken down by the same someone who’s been removing them around LA. This person has gone around and basically broken them off. I doubt he/she is able to remove them without breaking them into pieces! -en 10:56 PMPirikara said…I have to admit, very few Yamaguchi items remain at home. But that’s only cause I ate ‘em all. =P As you move onto the adult world you tend to forget those childhood institutions that made life fun. It’s only when it disappears when you realize how much it affects you. *sniff* True. Which candy did you like best? I got into the jolly rancher sticks they always stocked. They also had flavored candy canes. But not canes… they were sticks with that old school swirl design. What were those called? -en 11:17 AMlej said…Oh My God! I could cry too.I’ve been there a couple of times to buy a rice cooker and Japanese gifts.I hope it is replaced some a nice and Japanesey! Quick survey .. what do you think Sawtelle could use? Me..hmm Japanese style arcade with lots of puri club machines!!!! I’m not sure what’s going in there, but I’ve heard that it might be already sold to some non Japanese person. I’ve heard Persian, but that’s only a rumor. I have no idea. Sawtelle? I have a lot ideas. How about a movie theater although the Nuart is up the street, they could use a...
Continue reading
See what old Sawtelle looked like. Well, not really, it’s just a hand drawn out map of what was there before. I wonder what the block south looked like. We also got a few comments on the site too. Naramura Realty is where GR1 is at now, Ben Jewelers is where GR2 is at, gr/eats must be an Ikkanda auto service. I remember Ben Jewelers from way back and Naramura Realty was always something else, before we took it over it was Tim’s printing and was a huge mess. The sign remained the same until we took it over. I wanted to keep the old Naramura Realty up there, but oh well. It just wasn’t cool enough. People do say we made it look like we built the whole thing, so at least we retained the original look and didn’t ruin it.
Continue reading
Yamaguchi is a general store that practically made Sawtelle Blvd. Growing up in the area, I have distinct memories of being in the store and strolling through the aisles. My mom would buy me fragrant erasers which I’d take to school to amaze the non-Japanese American kids. On top of that, I’d get cool Japanese pencils, Japanese super hero pencil cases which even had pencil sharpeners and secret compartments built in, Japanese ruled notebooks for hiragana, katakana, and kanji practice, my “Year of the Cock” t-shirt, and Mazinga and Raideen robot toys. This is Deluxe Raideen purchased from Yamaguchi. If it were in mint condition in the original box, it’d be worth over $500. But know this: “There are many like it, but this one is mine.” As I got “older,” in later elementary school, Yamaguchi was the destination to buy candy and a soda either before or after Japanese school which was conveniently around the corner. The shortened name was “Yama’s” as in, “Do you want to go to Yama’s?” It was almost a writ of passage to leave the campus which is really just a small lot with a few classrooms. We’d walk either before or after class that one block to make a purchase without ours parents scrutiny. Picking out candies or erasers, we’d then get a handful of change, which at least for me, would make me feel good about buying something. It became almost a daily trip, and was an important part of the day. A lot of us might say that going to Japanese school was a waste, “I wish we studied more” in retrospect, but part of my memory of the school, is it’s indelible and unbreakable link it had with Yamaguchi’s. Going to school wasn’t a waste of time, as long as I got to visit my favorite shop. It was definitely part of “growing up” which to me meant joining the economic force of the real world and perhaps spending my first bits of saved money. In the middle years, my 20′s. I’ll admit, I visited very little. I thought I outgrew the shop. My memories of the store still remained from my juvenile days. Erasers, toys, construction paper, candy, ice-cream, and soda. But maybe five years ago, I discovered Yamaguchi’s carried Dickies pants for the gardners! I went in maybe twice and bought years worth of unpleated and denim Dickies. If I bought 8 pairs, I got the 9th free, which explains why a lot of you might think I’m wearing the same pants over and over. Before I was born, I’m sure this shop was already a community fixture. Yet today the sign reads, “After over 60 years in business, we’ll be soon closing our doors. It has been our pleasure to serve 4 generations of loyal customers and friends. We thank you for your loyalty and patronage these many years. Henry and Jack Yamaguchi.” I can only guess that in later 40s and 50s, this was the place...
Continue reading