“Shogun Santa” greets guests in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo neighborhood

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - On Sunday, "Shogun Santa" greeted visitors in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of Los Angeles, Calif., according to KCBS.

Children of all ages who visited Japanese Village Plaza over the weekend were able to provide their wish lists, take a photo and get a treat, according to KCBS.

In a press release, "Shogun Santa" was billed as the only known Asian Santa in Los Angeles.

"But there was a need for businesses to come down into the Los Angeles area. So this engineer got together that, you know, this is what I'm gonna do. And the symbol is, you know, just have fun, enjoy yourself. And people started coming down. In fact, uh, a couple days, no yesterday, somebody came in and showed me a picture and said, see this picture. That's when I was little and this is four years ago. And that's you. So people come down like every year and even, uh, I think they, they had, uh, one of the organizations was telling me yesterday that even during the COVID J town, Little Tokyo was quite busy because you know, it was outdoors. People came in, there was a lot of activities. It's almost like an amusement park in the middle of Los Angeles. And it was accessible.

You know, we're here, we're steady. And some of the people come down because they know that if they seen it on CBS, you know, they come on down, they go, oh, well this is something to do next year, the next year after that, because Shogun Santa will always be here. And that's one good thing. And personally, from my point of view, people ask, you know, why did you do this? Why did you come out all the way down here? It's because when I look at the parents, getting their children to smile and laugh, that to me is priceless."

"Shogun Santa"