Saku's AFK Corner » Vancouver

Vancouver Trip

Saku — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:45:03 +0000

As some of you may already know and I previously mentioned in my twitter/facebook/blog, I went for a trip to vancouver for my friends’ wedding since I was chosen as one of my friend’s groomsmen and at the same, I got myself a vacation from work so it’s all working out perfectly. I was hoping to meet up with LightingSabre + Chun who lives in Vancouver but unfortunately, I didn’t have time even though I was staying there for a week ^^;;. I know both the groom and the bride through this online gaming called FFXI and they both met each other through the same game ^^, unique and unusual, eh ? ^^. Anyways, enjoy the pictures ^^. Note that this post may NSFW (Not Safe For Work). Proceed at your own risk as you have been warned.

Bits and pieces of history about Vancouver International Airport

Vancouver International Airport (YVR) has been around since 1910 at least. It’s quite old. In comparison, Pearson Airport in Toronto was built 1937 (back then was called Malton Airport) according to Wikipedia.

I arrived around 9am in the morning and was starving because it was technically 12pm in Toronto so it’s lunch time for me. I went to the food court to get some food and coffee. Caffeine was needed to keep me awake since I didn’t get that much sleep.

Now, this is something very unusual that I found. Tim Hortons stores are all across Canada, however, each stores in a province are differ from one to the others. Tim Hortons in Toronto does not provide/use a cup holder while the ones in Vancouver do ^^.

Since I wouldn’t be picked until around 11am, I browsed around the Internet since YVR provides free wifi access. I checked my usual forum and found the detail for the groom’s stag party. It sounded like a lot of fun especially Phase 3 ^^

After I am done browsing the Internet, I strolled around to nearby stores at the airport. Vancouver has this fever called ‘Winter Olympic’ because everywhere I see is either selling winter Olympic merchandise or showing ads/banners about the upcoming Winter Olympics.

A random gift shop

A japanese restaurant called Hanami. It’s pretty pricey ^^;;

Sushi, sashimi, etc are on display. They look delicious.

A book store located right beside the japanese restaurant.

Want to change your style of clothing ? Why don’t you go with “Mountain Style” ^^?

A big statue just across the food court.

It seems to have a lot of historical and spiritual meaning.

The groom bought this Dutch-Wife (DW) doll to pull a prank on me because all of them knows that I am into Anime and other stuff. I was laughing so hard when I saw this lol.

They even wrote ‘I Love U Saku’ on it lol.

Arrived at the Grouse Mountain on the stag party day. Getting ready to do zip-lining soon.

Needed to purchase an admission ticket to go up.

Information about Grouse Mountain.

Buying our admission ticket. Adult ticket is $37.95 which is pretty pricey however, in comparison, CN Tower in Toronto costs $32.99 for the full-tower experience so the price is about right for this kind of attraction.

Unfortunately, we had to cancel our plan for zip lining because the maximum weight is 250 lbs while one of my friend is 275 lbs ^^;;.

The guy at the counter felt bad about us since we had to cancel our zip-lining plan and he gave us free admission tickets ^^

We were riding the skyride to the top and the view was really great. You can see pretty much the whole Vancouver from the top and it’s an experience that you can’t get in Toronto area.

The pictures are little bit blurry due to the dirty window and my own reflection ^^;;.

This is one of my favourite photos.

The staff, acted as a tour guide, explained to us about Grouse Mountain.

Fraser River

Vancouver in 1898 as seen from Grouse Mountain.

Since we didn’t get to do zip-lining, we hanged out at the local restaurant at the top of Grouse Mountain.

Saw this wolf when we were about go back from Grouse Mountain.

It refused to look at my camera ^^;;

There was a black one and it’s too far from where I was standing. My camera zoom cannot reach close enough ^^;;

‘

From Grouse Mountain, we went to this Samba Brazilian Steak House at 1122 Alberni St, Downtown Vancouver for dinner. I’ve never been to a Brazilian Steak House before but I can tell you that it was really great. The meat was really delicious and yummy. One of my friends told me that if the staffs speak Portuguese then you know that the taste is great and authentic.

I guess the same applies for a Japanese restaurant in this case because I know in Toronto, there are a lot of All-You-Can-Eat sushi restaurants owned by Chinese/Koreans where one would go for quantity instead of quality (like myself) ^^;;.

I definitely want to go here again when I visit Vancouver ^^

The day of the wedding is finally here. Being one of the groomsmen, I got to ride in a limo (never experience once in my life ^^;;).

We went to pick up the bride’s maids, groom and bride for a photoshoot.

This mural is used as the background for the photo session.

The wedding reception was held at the Grouse Mountain. At the same time, there was Mario’s Galaxy Gala held at the other part of the restaurant. Not sure what event was about though.

The dinner table at the wedding reception. Very nicely and neatly arranged ^^.

The main dinner table for the groom, bride, groom’s men and bride’s maid.

While I was waiting for the ceremony, took couple shots from Grouse Mountain.

I love this view ^^.

Another my favourite shot of Vancouver at night.

The groom knew how to treat the groom’s men. He bought us and bunch of friends a cigar for each of us. That was probably the 2nd time in my life, I’ve ever smoked a cigar. The first time was the day before the wedding ^^.

After the wedding, I had some free time so my friend took me to Yaohan Centre in Richmond. She needed to go to the Japanese book store there. I saw this poster at one of the store. I only know 2 of them. I believe top right is Shibasaki Kou and bottom left is Nakama Yukie . Does anyone know the other two ?

Kamen Rider ^^

We finally arrived at the Japanese book store

After we got back from Yaohan Centre, my friend cooked us an awesome dinner.

I felt so sleepy after I ate this and it was incredibly delicious. Well consider it took about 8 hours to slowly cook it so it’s worth the time.

After dinner, TJ, the groom, was supposed to have his bday next week but we decided to celebrate it then since all of us were here. lol30 ^^

Most of my friends are gamers by nature since all of us met through FFXI so we all are pretty geeky and nerdy, however, it’s about to get even more geekier because another friend of mine brought along Dungeon and Dragons (a fantasy role playing game).

I never played it before but it’s so much fun. Instead of the usual RPG that we play on consoles/computers, you are free to use your own imagination. For example, if you want to lay traps for the monsters using a rope or you want to spit at the monster to try to blind them, you can certainly do that by just simply rolling a dice and see if it actually works/hits.

A Week in Vancouver

Saku — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:42:38 +0000

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).