Vancouver is as beauty as ever since my last visit here which was about 2 years ago. Not much changes around Vancouver Airport… well… not that I noticed of at least. Since it’s an international airport, it’s always busy.

Gotta love the gas price in Vancouver. It was ranging from$1.44 to $1.50 per liter while I was there. Sucks for those who live in Vancouver and I guess I should not complain about the gas price here in Toronto ^^;;.

Took a picture of typical street in Vancouver area while waiting for the bus to come. One big different that I notice compare to Toronto is the trees; There are a lot of trees on left and right even on busy streets. This kind of view is quite rare in GTA (Greater Toronto Area), correct me if I am wrong though ^^;;.

A house on the same street where I was waiting for the bus. Beautiful eh ?

Metrotown is the main/biggest shopping center/mall in Vancouver. It’s very easy to get to because all you need to do is to get on the sky train and get of at Metrotown Station. It is simple enough, eh ? ^^

A small fountain just outside the entrance to Metrotown and look at the 2 dolphin statues ^^

The food court inside Metrotown. They changed the inside here and there since the last time I went here.

Riding a bus on my way back to my friend’s place where I was staying. The transportation system in Vancouver is handled and managed by Translink. Back when I was living in Vancouver in 2001, they had a really bad strike which was going for 1 or 2 months if I am not mistaken. Back then there were no bus running but luckily sky train was still running and it was free ^^;;. It sucked for those who needed to take a bus to work/school though.

Inside the Sky Train which is part of Translink. As you see, some of the passengers were sleeping including me ^^. Transportation in Vancouver can be really pricey depending on where you are going because it’s divided by zone. Click here for the vancouver translink map

During summer time, they have a night market in Richmond area. You can find a lot of food booths, small shops and even gold fish scooping booth ^^. My friends who I met through FFXI and I went to the night market. It’s really packed and never seen that many people on the same place in Vancouver because even downtown is not this busy.

This is where I bought Takoyaki and the opposite booth of this one was selling something similar to Taiyaki. We had to wait for more less 20 mins before we got our Takoyakis. Sorry no pics for Takoyaki and Taiyaki because I ate them all before I realized that I should have taken some pictures ^^;;.

A lot booths are selling clothing and handbags. Mind you that those are bootlegs stuff.

Burrard Street is located in downtown Vancouver and on this street, you can find a lot of expensive branded store , for example, Louis Vutton. It is similar to Bloor Street in Toronto ^^. You can go this street by taking the sky train and get off at Burrard station. In addition, there are a lot of expensive hotels on this street.

If you walk along Burrard Street, you will see another street called Robson which also has a lot of well known brand stores. Btw, this place is not something that an otaku would go lol because most anime merchandise and figures store are located in Richmond area. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to go there :(.

Below is St. Patrick Church in Main Street where my friend’s wedding ceremony was held. Attending my friend’s wedding is one of my main purpose visiting Vancouver aside from meeting my friends who I met through FFXI.

Sutton Hotel where the wedding reception was held in the evening.

The food at the wedding was good and delicious.

The wedding cake ^^

One week is really a short trip and I don’t have time to explore everything in Vancouver and I had been to most of the famous tourists places because I was living there for 2 years.

For first timer in Vancouver, 2 weeks would be the minimum if you want to visit the majority of the tourist spots like Stanley park, Grouse mountain, University of British Columbia, known for UBC,  (believe me, it’s worth a visit), Museum of Anthropology at UBC, Richmond area for all your anime goodies, Steam clock in downtown Vancouver, Burrard and Robson street, Night market in Richmond during summer, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, Vancouver Aquarium and many more. Those are just some places that I remembered on top of my head. In addition, if you don’t mind driving, you can rent a car and go to Victoria and/or Whistler (a Ski resort).