Hi,

Does San Diego have an area where Japanese shops and restaurants are clustered together or are they pretty much scattered throughout the city?

I'm pretty sure the answer is "No". The Japanese-American community (such as it is) in SD is basically fully assimilated into the city.

LA, in contrast, has a small section called Little Tokyo. But you can find Japanese restaurants throughout the area. You will find several Japanese supermarkets/dry goods stores in the South Bay, especially Torrance.

In addition to Torrance in the South Bay area of LA, a neighboring town of Gardena has Japanese restaurants/shops along Redondo Beach Blvd. As for San Diego - sorry. I guess SD was not a place where immigrants settled.

I only visited San Diego once and for a short time. If San Diego has a Japantown, I did not know about it.

pattynyc, you're right-- forgot about Gardena. Those large Japanese communities seem to be fed mostly by representatives of the auto industry brought in from Japan (Toyota, Honda and Nissan all have US headquarters in the South Bay, as I recall). The Japanese-American communities in LA (and San Diego, for that matter) are definitely more assimilated into the areas. It seems there WAS a small Japanese neighborhood in San Diego, but it pretty much disappeared after the war (and the shameful dislocation of citizens of Japanese heritage into internment camps).

Interesting post... LA has several asian areas. Near downtown is Koreatown, there is Thai Town on the east side of Hollywood. Chinese in Torrance, Little Saigon in Westminster, and Little Cambodia just north of downtown Long Beach.