After saying our "See you next year"s in Ontario, Tara and I headed to Vancouver to catch up with our siblings and friends. Vancouver is a beautiful city, and always has an interesting range of things to do. The air is clean and crisp, and it just feels like a healthy place to be.
Ali, Luke, and Meaghan at sunset. This park by the bay is DIRECTLY across the street from Meaghan and Luke's apartment. Talk about a nice location!
On my first night in town we caught up with Kevin. He was having a wild house party/music festival in his basement apartment! We listened to some great music, met a lot of cool people, and had some laughs. I hope they got the mustard out of the floor though!
Kevin performs in his living room/concert hall. Rock on!
Alice? Don't be late!
Ok…which one of us is Tweedle Dum?
GO GO public transportation!
What's this, you ask? It's a Japadog. Yes, Vancouver is home to a bizarre fusion restaurant that combines traditional American food (the hotdog) with Japanese toppings, such as seaweed, or soba noodles. In this picture you can see the tasty nori-dog (sprinkled with strips of seaweed paper).
Japadog gets the peace-sign of approval. The peace sign is ubiquitous in Japanese photographs. Why? I haven't quite figured that out yet. It may have something to do with the fact that the Japanese word for "2" is pronounced "nee." Saying "nee" while your picture is being taken, is similar to the English "CHEESE" - stretching one's face into a broad smile. The Japanese photographer will count 1 - 2, and snap the photograph on '2'. Anyway, that's just a theory… I have also heard many Japanese photographers say 'cheese' while taking a picture, but unfortunately 'cheese' in Japanese is pronounced 'cheeZU,' thus forming an awkwardly unattractive face with the lips pushed outward.
While in the Japadog shop, I had the chance to practice a bit of Japanese, much to the shock of the staff there. Ohhh, my Japanese feels rusty! I better get some more practice in before we have to rely on it for survival again.
P-p-p-p-pixelated whale. Thank you, Mr. Douglas Coupland for this modern take on a traditional symbol of West Coast Canada.
The two baby whales also shown in this picture, are actually Meaghan and Tara. I know! You never would have guessed, because they play the part so well.
Well, that's a quick summary of some of the good times in Vancouver. On the day before flying to Japan, we made one more road trip to SEATTLE. Pictures and video of that excursion coming soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment