Create meetup in Los Angeleschevron_right
Select a place on the map to change the location.
I want to meet
Verified required?
explore Los Angeles Guides
bar_chart Trends in Los Angeles
Where to find young Japanese people in LA?
honestly you gotta hit up the izakayas in Sawtelle Japantown not Little Tokyo. Little Tokyo is more touristy and older crowd but Sawtelle has a younger vibe with UCLA kids and people working in tech/media. Try Tsujita or Hide for late night food, you'll overhear Japanese being spoken at the tables next to you pretty often.
fwiw the Japanese grocery stores like Mitsuwa on Venice and Nijiya in Little Tokyo are good spots too. Not just for shopping but they have bulletin boards with local events and sometimes meetups that aren't the super traditional stuff. The food court at Mitsuwa on weekends has a mix of ages eating and chatting.
also check out the Japan Foundation in Little Tokyo. They do movie screenings and casual conversation nights that are way less formal than language exchange stuff. I've seen people in their 20s-30s there just hanging out and speaking Japanese naturally.
There's a pretty active group of young Japanese folks who do Sunday soccer pickup games at Rancho Cienega Park in the morning. You don't have to be good, just show up and someone will wave you in. Afterward they usually grab brunch somewhere nearby and it's super casual, nobody's doing the formal introduction thing.
You should try the anime convention circuit. Anime Expo is the big one in July but there are smaller ones like Anime Pasadena and Anime Los Angeles that draw a younger Japanese and Japanese-American crowd. People are there to have fun, not do cultural stuff, and you'll hear plenty of casual Japanese in the artist alley and at afterparties.
There's also a solid group of young Japanese professionals and creatives who hang around the galleries in Arts District and Chinatown on First Friday. Places like the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA sometimes have openings where you'll find Japanese artists and their friends just chatting normally. I've run into people from Tokyo working in fashion and design there who speak exactly the way you're describing.
If you want the most low-effort option, the karaoke bars in Little Tokyo on a Friday night. Max Karaoke on 2nd Street specifically. Weeknights are older crowds but weekends bring out the younger Japanese crowd who treat it like they would in Shibuya. You can just get a booth near the lobby and you'll hear groups coming and going.
How can I find mobile hot dog vendors for a private event?
honestly the SGV has a ton of licensed cart operators who mostly do private stuff now. look up "hot dog cart catering San Gabriel Valley" on Yelp and you'll get a handful that are fully permitted, which matters if your venue needs a health permit on file. expect around $400 to $700 for a few hours plus a per person minimum, usually 50 or so. the ones based in Alhambra and Rosemead tend to be cheaper than Pasadena because they're not paying that rent.
fwiw the county health dept keeps a public list of permitted mobile food operators, its searchable by city on the LA County Public Health site. filter for "pushcart" or "MFF" and you'll get vendors cleared for SGV zip codes, which saves you the headache of a venue asking for paperwork later. also worth checking with the Old Town Monrovia or Alhambra farmers market folks, the carts there are usually booked solid but they know who's free and they'll pass along names. just dont wait till the last week, good ones book out 2 to 3 weeks in teh summer.
You could try hitting up the folks who set up outside Home Depot or the DMV in El Monte on weekends, a lot of those carts are owner operated and they'll do private gigs if you ask. Just walk up and grab a card, they usually have one taped to the cart.