China Town in Montreal

I'm on summer vacations this week and it was my birthday last Friday (July 22nd) so I've been busy enjoying my time off! I've taken tons of pictures but I haven't been home all week so I can't re-size them and post them up on here just yet.

In the mean time, here's a little post on a trip I took a few weeks ago...

D. and I took a road trip to Montreal not so long ago. We were going to the Jean-Talon market but made a quick stop at the China town there before heading out to the market.

Random pics of our walk in Montreal's little China town~

Plastic food menu in the window of an Asian restaurant!

Great place to go if you want to find random Anime toys / figures / items. Also tons of Hello Kitty stuff of course. Lots of Asian type souvenirs and food markets. But nothing very gyaru-ish. :(

'Was still fun to walk around and feel like I was in another country~


Do you have a China Town in your city?

Quebec March 2011 : Part 2

Part 2 of Quebec city in March. A little heavier on the image front.

Showcasing the main event, the reason we traveled to Quebec city in the middle of winter...

Red Bull Crashed Ice!!
This is actually the end of the course... Hehe...

This is the start of it!

It's a pretty crazy sport event! Basically, a bunch of guys and gals go down the course on hockey skates... Twists and turns, and more twists and turns. It's super fast!

It goes on and on and on...

All of it, right smack in the middle of Old Quebec city.

As we walked around the course going down, there were a few test runs.
I got up close and personal :D

And then around 5pm we headed out to the Crash Zone!

Crash Zone was like a VIP area. Buy tickets to have access, alcohol, music, dance floor, etc. And of course, super close to the course itself that went right through the Crash zone.

As it got dark, big screens lit up and advertised other Red Bull extreme sport events. Snowboarding, downhill bikes, motorcycles, cars, etc, etc.
Also covered on backstage with the athletes taking part of the race and interviews.
Everything to pump up the crowd!

And then at 7pm the event started. There were a few people in front of us. But this is where I'm glad I'm a little taller than 50% of the population here :)

It started with a few guys going by with the different flags of countries participating.
(This is also around the time my battery started dying. You can imagine how much I was annoyed. It was fully charged and within an hour it was dead. I guess it was my camera's way of telling me she didn't like the cold...)

Japan!!
Then I stopped taking pictures because the camera was dying.
And also it's really hard to take good pictures with big puffy mittens...
And without the mittens my fingers were frozen within a matter of seconds.

All it all it was a great event! I enjoyed it quite a bit and would definitely go back. But next time, definitely dress warmer!!

Chateau Frontenac from the hotel room after the event.
I seriously need a new camera...

What do you think of this sport event? Extreme enough for you? Would you attend such an event?

Quebec March 2011 : Part 1

Last March, I went out of town for a weekend. We drove 5 hours to Quebec city, the capital of the province of Quebec. Quebec has always been a city part of my life, I had gone often in the past, but always in the summer (I was there last year, you can check on my posts back from August '10). I had never gone in the winter!

We were going there for a sport event taking place on March 19. We left Ottawa on the 18 and came back on the 20th.

Every picture I've taken was taken on the 19 itself. Since the sport event was in the evening, we walked around town and explored at our leisure during the day.

It was sunny and beautiful, but also pretty cold! Winter in Quebec is not like winter in Ottawa, even though it's just 5 hours away. It was at least 7 to 10 degrees less than where I live. So when we left home on the 18, it was -5C in Ottawa, then it was at least -12C in Quebec. Doesn't sound like much, but with the wind it could get pretty chilly~

Enough with the blah blah. Pictures for everyone!

The view from our hotel room on the morning of the 19th. I think it was 8 or 9am.
I was a little annoyed... the window was dirty... makes for crappy pictures. Bleh.

We staid at the Hilton in Old Quebec city. I'd never been to a Hilton, super pleasant experience.
Minus the dirty window...

Going down town to walk and find a place for breakfast.

Breakfast!

This is the best picture to describe Old Quebec city.
It's like going back in time. It's the way it was built and designed in the old days.
400 years ago!!

Hello Kitty store we stumbled on, totally random.

Chateau Frontenac.
Now the city's most expensive hotel.

Old Castle from back in the days. It's massive~

Part 2 coming up~ Stay tuned!

What do you think of Quebec city from these few pictures? Think you'd travel there even in the winter with the cold temperatures?

1 year "anniversary"

I don't know if I would call it an anniversary but today makes 1 year since I saw Hamasaki Ayumi live in concert.

On this day, exactly 1 year ago, I sat in the Yoyogi Arena in Tokyo, waiting excitedly, for the music to start. And when it did, I jumped to my feet and screamed at the top of my lung!!!

It was amazing. Truly a dream come true!

For memories, the pictures I took before the show.

(I attended Arena Tour ~NEXT LEVEL~ 2009 on October 21st and 22nd 2009.)









"Ayu cars" that were parked around the arena before and after the show.









Pictures from the show. (We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, these are from press. Taken from http://loveayumi.com/)

All in all, it was an amazing show! I loved it! If I could I would go see her in concert at least once a year. But Japan's a bit far and expensive... :)