Little Tokyo Los Angeles

Alice Uchi slowly pushed a near-empty shopping cart down the near-empty aisles flanked by near-empty shelves in what had been the first and largest modern Japanese supermarket in Little Tokyo. "I feel lost. Sad," the retired Los Angeles registered nurse said glumly. Uchi was catching the tail end of Mitsuwa Marketplace's 50% fire sale before it prepares Sunday to shut its doors, marking an emotional transition for many in Little Tokyo.

Hongsun Kim has heard it all. When the number of Koreans began multiplying in Little Tokyo Towers a few years ago, complaints about them from Japanese residents quickly began to surface, the Los Angeles social worker said. "They smell of garlic." "They don't follow the rules." "They're going to take over." Then, from the Koreans: "The Japanese are snooty." "They don't greet you in the elevator." "They disdain Korean culture." "They're trying to push us out."

When Little Tokyo Lofts opened in downtown a few years ago, they were billed as the antidote to suburban living. Press materials lured buyers to the former Westinghouse industrial building by promising luxury lofts in an about-to-be-gentrified "vibrant neighborhood" -- which just happened to be at the edge of skid row. And buyers bought the condos, near the corner of 5th and San Pedro streets, hoping that the upscale amenities that had surfaced in other parts of town would follow them there.

If you build it, they will come. The L.A. City Council's approval Tuesday of a long-awaited gymnasium in Little Tokyo has stoked those widespread hopes that the project will bring the scattered Japanese American community back to its historic heart, which is being rapidly transformed by a multicultural wave of new residents and businesses.

For three decades, the Linda Lea theater sat empty and boarded up on the edge of Little Tokyo, with the image of a kimono-clad woman looking down like a ghost from the marquee. In its heyday, the theater was among the nation's premier exhibitors of Japanese movies. But as downtown L.A. declined, so did the Linda Lea. Crews completed demolition of the theater this week, and the act marks both an end and a beginning.

Enjoying chili rice, Asian hip-hop and traditional martial arts, Japanese Americans threw a daylong party in Little Tokyo on Saturday to reassert their cultural identity and rebuild cohesion amid the powerful forces of assimilation and gentrification. In demographic trends familiar to other established ethnic groups, Japanese Americans, known as Nikkei, are increasingly intermarrying, moving to the suburbs and loosening their ethnic affiliations.

Long before Disneyland's nighttime electrical parade, well before the Rose Parade's dazzling flowered creations, even before America itself was established, the good people of a faraway village in Japan first crafted what would become their nation's most famous float. The simple bamboo and paper contraptions created 350 years ago have morphed into colossal visages of fierce samurai illuminated by hundreds of light bulbs.

Two landmarks of Los Angeles' Japanese American community were sold this month as downtown's economic boom swept through Little Tokyo, raising concerns about what the effect will be on the closely knit ethnic neighborhood. In the last two weeks, the high-rise New Otani Hotel & Garden and the popular outdoor Japanese Village Plaza were acquired in separate transactions. Elsewhere in the neighborhood, millions of dollars' worth of real estate development is taking place.

Federal agents seized marijuana and cash Thursday night from a medical marijuana dispensary in the loft district near Little Tokyo, officials said. Twenty agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration raided the Arts District Healing Center in the 600 block of East 1st Street. DEA spokesman Jose Martinez said the agents searched the two-story building for 3 1/4 hours. There were no arrests.

A small Buddhist congregation in Little Tokyo will be allowed to pursue a property lawsuit against an umbrella Buddhist organization, a state appeals panel has ruled. The decision by a panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles came in a lawsuit filed by Jodo Shu Betsuin against Jodoshu North America Buddhist Missions, which oversees the Buddhist denomination's operations in North America. The Sept. 25 ruling reversed a trial court's decision for summary judgment in the case.