CC Dives into Origami, Mochi during Japanese Family Festival

CC at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo

It's amazing what a drive downtown can do. On Saturday, the Japanese American National Museum hosted a free Natsumatsuri family festival to celebrate summer, and CC and I were there.

We've visited the museum several times, and it's always amazing to watch my daughter to explore another culture—albeit one that's very recognizable to her. At the festival, there were fan-making stations, origami stations, Japanese mariachi (we missed that, unfortunately!), among other cool crafts.

We even ran into L.A. Story reader Crystal and her daughter Maisie!

CC enjoyed making an origami frog and decorating her own Japanese fan, but what I loved was immersing ourselves in such a different part of town. Of course that's what this blog is all about, and it was such a great reminder of why I started it—because L.A. is an amazing place for families. There's so much to see and do, and one activity on one weekend can be completely different from one on the next weekend.

Japanese Village Plaza

After we hung out at the museum for awhile, we headed over to the Japanese Village Plaza across the street for mochi.

If you've ever grabbed the box of Mikawaya's frozen mochi at Trader Joe's, you have to head down to the company's storefront in Little Tokyo. There's ice cream mochi for $1 in so many different flavors and mochilato (gelato in mochi form) for $1.25 each. I indulged in Kona coffee mochi, while CC opted for the mint chocolate and chocolate hazelnut varieties.

We were having dinner with friends that night, so I picked up some colorful (room-temperature) mochi.

Mochi!

While CC preferred the frozen variety, I loved having a Japanese treat to take back home. And it only took a drive downtown to feel as if we were miles—and an entire culture—away.