Saku's AFK Corner » Toronto

Sakura Trees at High Park, Toronto

Saku — Sun, 16 May 2010 02:09:13 +0000

It was a cloudy day today but I took my chance to go to High Park to take some pictures of the Sakura trees. I am late again this year since a lot of them already fell on the ground which is most likely due to humid, rainy and windy weather and all these weird weather in Toronto area from previous weeks.

When I arrived at High Park, it was not as busy as I thought it would be. Maybe the cloudy weather does have its affect so I had the freedom to take pictures from any different angles. I hope you guys enjoy the pictures .

All About Toronto, Eh? Part 2

Saku — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:42:00 +0000

Another post of my “All about Toronto, eh?” series after my first post 2-3 months ago. I am glad that I did not enforce myself to make this series into a weekly thing since my 2nd post of this series happened after 2 months ^^;;. This time, it features my recent adventure in Toronto area such as Erindale Park near University of Toronto Mississauga , my new place, Chinatown downtown Toronto and Summerlicious event.

Aoi Sora (青い空 )

A small river running across Erindale Park. The river is clean and clear so you can swim there if you would like to.

Found this little fella when I was walking by the river. I think this species of spider is the one that can walk/move freely on water surface. A quick google search did the trick in finding the species name for this spider. They are commonly known as fishing spiders, dock spiders, wharf spiders or raft spiders. Its genus name is called Dolomedes and most of dolomedes species is semi-aquatic with some exceptions (source: wiki). Thankfully, my girlfriend didn’t see this spider, otherwise, this little fella would have been dead. I can safely assume that most common spider predator is my girlfriend’s feet ^^;;.

I was trying to get a close up picture but that’s as far as I can go without scaring it away. Curse my 18-55mm stock lens ^^;;. Nikon 105mm micro lens is beyond my budget (price is around $900); I can only dream, I guess.

Not sure what this caterpillar was doing by the river but doesn’t it live on trees usually and eat leaves ? ^^

On the way back to my car as we were about to leave the park and couldn’t resist to take another pictures.

Blue sky is blue. A nice sunny weather that’s proven to be scarce in this year summer in Toronto. We have a lot of rainy days this summer and not to mention that they usually accompany by lightning and thunderstorm.

I love this view. A combination of blue sky and green grass and a lot of families are enjoying themselves.

My friends’ back got taken in the picture. If they are the only people there, the picture will look even better ^^

This is a scenery from my condo. I just got back home from work and decided to take some pictures from my balcony.

I can see the Nestle building from outside.

Sunset

I was not sure what this is. I assume it’s some kind of aircraft but who knows ^^;;. It may be a UFO ? ;p

At Sheppard-Yonge subway on a Sunday morning. I was going to downtown for lunch with bunch of friends.

Everyone is a drug abuser including myself apparently ^^;;

Interior of Toronto Transit Commision (TTC) subway. They could use a better seat than the one it uses right now

Dundas Square

Yonge – Dundas intersection. It’s arguably the busiest intersection in Toronto area.

Yonge street facing the north side.

The one and only “scramble” intersection in Toronto. A type of intersection that allows pedestrian to across diagonally in addition to the usual horizontal and vertical one. This “scramble” intersection is often seen in Japan.

For example, Shibuya crossing in Tokyo below.

Riding a TTC street car to go to Chinatown at Dundas / Spadina intersection.

Arrived at the centre of downtown Chinatown – Spadina and Dundas intersection.

Took my time when crossing the street by taking a picture ^^;

A typical grocery store / marketplace in Chinatown

A Pho restaurant where I was having lunch.

The menu.

Apparently this place has won few awards and recognitions and not to mention, it’s featured in local newspapers.

Cheap chinese bakery store at Chinatown. Most items are 2/3 for $1.00

I was grabbing some of these Deep Fried Curry Beef bun.

And of course, I couldn’t forget to get some of these custard pineapple bun ^^

These butter rolls also caught my attention ^^;;

Lastly, my favourite among others is egg tart.

Waiting in the line to pay for my breads

Tea Shop 168 in Chinatown.

I stopped by at nearby foot mart looking for some snacks ^^

Green-powered taxi/cab. It’s good for getting around Chinatown I guess but no idea how much it costs.

The well-known Art Gallery of Ontario is located near Dundas-University intersection. Even if you are not into art, it’s a must place to visit when you are in Toronto.

Toronto Police Department building at Dundas

Walking along Dundas as I was on my way back to Dundas subway station.

My gf and I went to a Japanese restaurant called EDO since they had a Summer special menu which is called Summerlicious. A lot of restaurants join this annual event in Toronto to promote their menu in order to attract customers. I think it’s really a good deal considering how much fine dining usually costs. Below is Seared Salmon Carpaccio, Ponzu Aspic and I think I finished it within 1 minute lol.

Sushi and Sashimi.

Shrimp and vegetable tempura

Tempura banana deluxe.

One thing about this type of restaurant is that the food is always in a small quantity = not filling enough for me ^^;;, however, the taste was really good though ^^

All About Toronto, Eh? Part 1

Saku — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:28:54 +0000

Inspired by Danny Choo and his Tokyo Photo Walk series , I have decided to start my own series. There is no specific day/week/month to post unfortunately because I don’t want to burden myself and make blogging in to a work. As for title, I chose Toronto since it is the city where I currently live in and as for the ‘Eh’ part, it’s a trademark for Canadians to end their sentence with ‘Eh’ (not everyone speaks like though). More info can be found on Wikipedia. For first post in this series, it includes photos from recent visit to High Park and some bits and pieces about myself.

For those who live in countries with 4 seasons, summer is one of the season that we all really look forward to ( If you look forward to winter, please do tell us why ^^). It is the case for me as someone who has been living in Canada for almost 9 years and it will be 9 years exactly on July 28th. Time sure does fly, doesn’t it ?. Whenever I have a chance, I always try to go outside and enjoy as many outdoor activities as I can. At the same time, I try avoid just sitting at home in front of my computer all day (it happened a lot when I was playing FFXI hardcore). It is not that I don’t like, in fact, I love it. I mean who does not like sitting in front of their computer watching anime while enjoying cold/warm beverages depending on the season.

Many events/festivals are being held in Toronto during summer and it is a way for us to enjoy the sunshine and meeting other people. In case, you have not noticed I have a new category called Toronto as my way to show about the city I live in. Most of my readers/lurkers probably expect something more japan-related but unfortunately, I don’t live there ^^;; nor I am planning to live there. I think my heart is set to live in Canada since I stepped my foot at Vancouver International Airport 9 years ago.

Paid another visit to High Park for the second time after my first one. Clearly one visit is not enough to explore the whole park. It makes me wonder which one is bigger? Stanley Park in Vancouver or High Park ?. In High Park, there is a designate area where you can let your dogs off-leash and the area is marked with yellow colour in the above picture.

I found this unique car on my way to the picnic area. The sun flower matches with the summer season. For those who drive, do you decorate the body of your car with anime characters ? I have been wanting to do it after seeing Danny’s post about itasha but at the same time, I worry that someone will vandalize my car ^^;;;. It’s going to cost around $200 depending on the details.

Plenty of parking spaces are available in High Park if you drive, although, I would not recommend because you will be missing out the view. If you have a bicycle, you can take your bicycle with you riding the subway and get off on High Park subway station.

Further deep inside the park, there is a small zoo where you can find various animals (probably around 10-15 animals).

A male peacock shows off its feathers trying to attract the female one.

It is quite amazing that that I found new things in this park. We have a kangaroo in Canada ^^.

“What are you looking at?”. The mountain goat and I were having a starring contest. I wish I have a better lens than 18-55mm for zooming in.

The smell is awesome near the bison btw ^^. It was a sarcasm in case anyone missed it. Does anyone ever try a bison meat ? heard that they are pretty good and healthier than beef.

This is my first time seeing a Llama. They don’t look like an intelligent animal.

I couldn’t recall what this animal is called. It looks like a mix between beaver and mouse. Do you have any animals or plants that represent or becomes a symbol of your country?

If you are tired after walking around the park, you can take a train for $2/person ^^;;

Seeing a view like above makes me feel that I am not in the middle of a city.

Inside the park, there are many small paths here and there so if you feel little bit more adventurous , small paths will give you better view in my opinion.

Check out my other High Park photos

Sakura Trees at High Park

Saku — Sat, 23 May 2009 11:27:46 +0000

We had a long weekend here in Canada called Victoria Day where we celebrate Queen Victoria birthday. A long weekend / day off is hard to come by here in Canada so I took a full advantage of my long weekend and spent some time with my family + do some photoshoot. I found out about Sakura tree in High Park from googling around and we decided to pay a visit after several cancellations due to weather (Sigh… stupid rainy weather).

We went to High Park, a largest park in Toronto area. My sole purpose is to see the Sakura Tree and hopefully take some pictures with my figure. I brought along my Saber Lion nendoroid and recently acquired Horo by GSC to spend some time for photoshoot. To go to High Park, you have 2 options of either taking the subway to High Park subway station or drive there. We opted to ride the subway. If anyone happens to visit Toronto, I will gladly take you guys to High Park ^^.

The park itself is enormous and it took us approximately 15 to 20 minutes walk to get to the Sakura tree area which is located far inside the park but the views along the road are quite nice. As most of you may already know , Sakura tree only blooms for approximately 1 week of Spring so the best time to watch sakura tree would be the first week of end of April or May. I realized that I was little bit too late but was still hoping there were still some of them left.

The Sakura trees that we have in High Park are from many varieties which include Yoshino Sakura trees (Prunus x yedoensis), Akebono Sakura trees (Prunus x yedoensis ‘Akebono’) and Kwanzan ‘Fugenzo’ Sakura trees (Prunus serrulata ‘Fugenzo’). All of them seemed to bloom early and well known to have white flowers with pale pink near the stem.

Above is our proudly Maple Leaf tree and a national symbol of Canada.

Sakura tree in High Park is a symbol of friendship between Japan and Canada. Japan consulate general in Toronto gave Sakura tree to Toronto Major at that time and planted them there. There is a carved stone in the middle of Sakura tree area with little bit of history.

After a long walk, we managed to find 3-4 Sakura tree in one of the area (there are 2 areas where you can watch sakura tree if you look at the map above). We only went to one of the area (bottom left area) which happens to be the larger one in HIgh Parks

At this point, taking some photos of my Horo figure is somewhat impossible because i have to somewhat hang the figure on three and I don’t want to damage the tree branches due to the figure weight. My only option to take some photos of my Saber Lion nendoroid which is tiny enough so I can put it anywhere by the tree. It was quite windy and freezing when we were there due to nearby lake I was guessing.

Browse more photos can be found using the slideshow below:

The 25th of October

Saku — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:45:24 +0000

Image via Gelbooru

25th of October is a special day for me and yes, today is my bday. It’s kinda weird to post about my own bday but I would like to congratulate Len Vesper @ ~fuwa who happened to have the same bday as me and also one of my cousin back home ^^.

I found out about Len’s bday just recently when he had a live chat. Len, Blowfish , Rin and I were chit chatting about random stuff. It’s great to see what otaku collections that other people have

Anyways I hope you guys have a nice weekend and I am posting from my friend’s laptop in Windsor. I am having a great time here and hoping to get drunk tonight ^^

Cheers ^^