Welcome To Rain City

After a good 12 hours or so on the road, we finally made it to Vancouver! While I do have many posts from this trip on the way, I thought I’d take this moment and show a little bit of everything to get things started.

During our first morning in town, I found myself driving through the George Massey Tunnel which goes under the Fraser River…

…where I eventually found myself at the International Buddhists Temple!

This temple is unlike any I’ve ever been to before. The entire area is very beautiful.

On a side note, this temple is apparently the most authentic structure based on the Chinese Imperial style in North America.

The design is based on the Forbidden City located in Beijing, China, with golden tiled roofs, flared eaves, as well as two courtyards.

It was quite nice to be able to in the gardens of the temple. Unfortunately, the calm relaxed atmosphere wouldn’t last.

After all, we were in Richmond! Next stop, Aberdeen Centre!

The people over at Gacha Hobbies always have interesting things to see and buy!

From the ever so popular Lego Minifigures…

…to Hello Kitty in car form…

…to imported games!

How could I resist a charm of my favourite brand of chips?

Cube Inc is probably the only store I know of that does strictly consignment.

There were some pretty interesting things to see inside, such as the Garfield Fuji instax Mini 7s seen above, as well as this Hello Kitty versoin of the Instax 210!

In addition to the cameras, they also had different various of the films that they use, such as Rainbow, Dalmation, Winnie The Pooh (JP), Hamicat…

…and even Mini Mouse!

Cards galore. Rare Bicycles, Tally-Ho’s, card clips, you name it!

What better way to boil water than to use your very own Hello Kitty tea kettle?

How could I visit Aberdeen and not go to Daiso?!

For those that aren’t familiar, Daiso is a Japanese two dollar store, and they carry just about everything!

Quite the interesting looking cups…

…and they had different animals available too!

I know some people try to organize their food into the shape of a face, but why not just do it with these mini frying pans instead?!

Back out into the mall we stumbled across some Japanese toilets. These fabulous thrones come equipped with heated seats, sound effects as well as music, a cleaner, and a lid (and seat!) that can open and close automatically. Just what will they think of next?

Another thing I love about Aberdeen Centre is the food court!

Takoyaki hotdog anyone? Stay tuned for a separate post on my food adventures around the Vancouver area!

In the food court there is also an arcade filled with all our favourite machines. DDR, Gundam, Princess Photos, and of course, MT3DX! It was probably a good thing I left before I fueled my addiction…

Moving on, I now found myself at Metropolis At Metrotown in Burnaby (often referred to as just “Metrotown”)!

This is British Columbia’s largest shopping center. They even have a Samsung store!

This one particular store has been here for as long as I can remember!

Sneakerbox is quite the cool place, filled with the latest kicks, snapbacks, clothing, and accessories.

Yeah I’d rock that.

I haven’t seen a Sweet Factory since the last time I was in the States!

After a quick stroll outside Metrotown…

…we were at Crystal Mall! While pretty much everything was already closed when I got there, I was there for a different reason. Find out why in a future post coming soon!

On a few occasions we found ourselves out and about Vancouver’s busy downtown.

It’s quite the place to be with so much ground on all around you.

My sister insisted that I took a take a picture of the Sephora in Pacific Centre…

Even though the sun was coming down quickly, we took our time…

…as downtown Vancouver looks incredible when it’s lit up!

Speaking of lit up, here you can see the Science World At TELUS World Of Science at night! It’s neat how Telus makes each one of these science centers unique in its own way.

On a completely unrelated note, I couldn’t help but snap a picture of this very pretty looking escalator leading up to a Safeway. Damn!

I’m going to finish off this post with this picture I snapped while driving over Granville Bridge. Turns out the Honda Celebration Of Light was going on, and how often do you get to drive on a bridge with fireworks going off next to you?! Stay tuned for more!