This winter we decided to go to Vancouver for Masa’s birthday. We got up early to go to the airport. A summary of what we did today:
- We flew to Vancouver (3 hr flight)
- We had noodles for lunch
- We went to Granville Island
- We walked around downtown
- We went to the Vancouver waterfront Christmas market
- We ate at Miku restaurant
Part 1: A 2 mile walk
When we got there, we had about 40 minutes to spare before the flight would start boarding. My boyfriend had the amazing idea to go to the airport lounge which was 3 terminals away. He said it would only be a 5 minute walk. You can probably infer how much time we actually spent walking. I don’t know why I even bother listening to him anymore. I was wearing my winter coat and a sweater and a Uniqlo heattech shirt underneath because I knew that in a few hours after landing in Vancouver, it was supposed to be just above freezing temperature.
After 5 minutes, we were still in a tunnel underneath some part of the airport. I began to sweat as we walked through the non-air-conditioned tunnel. Masa said it was just 5 more minutes ahead. After the next 5 minutes had passed, I noticed there were signs pointing us to terminals 4 or 5. We were supposed to go to the international terminal to go to the Amex lounge. I fell victim to the sunk cost fallacy. My shirt drenched in sweat could not be more drenched than drenched. We walked for almost 10 more minutes until we were able to get into the airport lounge. I was so thirsty that I kept on chugging water. I also managed to grab a mini yogurt parfait. Masa said the breakfast sausage was average. We both used the bathroom and realized that we only had 10 minutes before the plane started boarding.
We continued the trek back, and hoped that it would take us under 18 minutes this time. Masa started rolling both our suitcases so that I might have a chance to get less sweaty. After we were back in the long tunnel, I was parched again and I wished I had drank more water. The lounge did not have water to go. We started to walk faster and faster because we did not want to run out of overhead space for our carry-ons. Things like this is why I hate travelling. For 35 minutes of walking, this was not worth it at all. I checked and we had actually walked 1.8 miles at 6:30 AM in the morning.
We made it to the gate after the next boarding group was called. A high class passenger came up behind us and snarkily told us we were in the lanes for zones 1 and 2, even though we were technically zone 3. He needed to chill tf out. What was the purpose of his comment? Was he hoping I’d do a 90 degree bow and apologize profusely while I scuttle to the back of the zone 4 line? What’s the term for a male Karen? Ordinarily I would have been sorry I inconvenienced him for 0.05 seconds, but now I’m glad he was annoyed.
We got on the plane and I cranked up the AC and directed it down the collar of my sweater. I always sit middle seat when I travel with my boyfriend because he gets cranky sitting middle seat.
Part 2: We are in Vancouver now
We left the airport after a bunch of forms and stuff, and then we got in the Uber to the hotel. We did an early check in to the Shangri-La hotel, and dropped off all our stuff. They gave us a 3 category upgrade! We ended up with a room that had a nice balcony view of the downtown area, and a spacious sitting area next to the bed. When we first entered the room, it almost felt like we were on a ship because the room entrance was lined with shiny dark polished wood.
We left the hotel to go to lunch. We decided on going to Kokoro Tokyo Mazesoba, which was just a few blocks away. We chose this because they made their own noodles in house, and it was a mix between soba and udon. When we got the bowls, they were delightfully chewy. We mixed the egg yolk into the bowls before eating. I ordered the salmon avocado bowl and Masa ordered the pork belly bowl, the house favorite.
After lunch, we decided to walk around the downtown area. I thought the buildings were so gorgeous. It was nothing like downtown LA, where everything is either a glass condo building, a testament to Brutalism, or a garagefront single-story building. Most people wore coats, hats, mittens, and scarves but to be honest it wasn’t very cold. We passed by the art gallery which seemed to be a central square that the Vancouverites could hang out in. There were so many tall buildings, but the streets seemed so narrow and empty. The sidewalks were full of people walking around, but it still felt disproportional to the number of skyscrapers and the number of attractions in the area.
We decided to walk south, and hit Granville island if we could. We passed by a snowy field and we were delighted to see that there was still snow on the ground.
We kicked the snow around for a while. Then we continued on our way. It was getting too confusing to figure out how to get onto the island so we just Ubered the rest of the way once we reached the waterfront on the south side.
Part 3: Granville Island
Once we got to Granville island, I asked Masa to walk in front of me so I could film him walking alone. I was planning to make a moody video of him walking by himself later. We came across a beautiful pond that had frozen over. It even had a small wooden bridge crossing it. Lots of people were walking around and shopping in the artisanal shops in the row of stores that were along the Granville island main pedestrian walkway. We stopped into a shop that sold sake that was brewed onsite. I got matcha ice cream made of rice lees and Masa got a bottle of apple sake. We continued our walk around the island and finally came to the Granville public market. It was so crowded in there. It was really interesting! Lots of merchants were selling so many different things. Fish, fruit, pasta, readymade food, innovative new candy bars, coffee, kitchen utensils, etc. I bought some chocolates for my mom.
When we left the public market, we continued walking around the edge of the island. Then we ubered back to the main downtown area. We had no big plans, but we did manage to get a reservation for Miku restaurant. Apparently they are the pioneers of aburi sushi in Canada. We had time to kill before the reservation so we walked around in downtown some more.
We went back to the art gallery square and I noticed that there was another smaller building that had a display in front of it. There was a roped off area that was sort of a memorial to the indigenous Canadian children that were massacred and never accounted for until now. Hundreds of children’s toys and items were arranged on the steps of the building. It was really saddening to see the sheer mass of toys that represented the children this incident involved. It seems like because of this, Canada is trying to make things right with the indigenous community, at least in my limited understanding of it. I saw that a lot of artistic influences in the city infrastructure paid tribute to the indigenous artists that lived there, and the city had dedicated time and space to give more details on the indigenous community, mostly through informational signage.
We kept on walking through downtown and stopped at the Lululemon. Lululemon is from Vancouver I think. Then we explored our hotel. It was a beautiful boutique hotel, but the facilities were quite small. The hot tub could only fit 3-4 people comfortably so we skipped it.
Part 4: Vancouver Christmas Market
A few hours before dinner, we came across the Vancouver Christmas market. We paid the entrance fee and saw the most gorgeous light displays. There were rows and rows of Christmas merchants. They sold German wine, apple cider, traditional eastern European ornaments, alpaca wool clothing, and much more. At the front, there was a neon lit carousel. There were walkways lined with the small merchant huts on both sides, and then a massive windmill in the middle. I think it is called a Weihnachtspyramide. There was a live band playing in the middle layer! And the lowest layer, at ground level, they were selling gluhwein. This appeared to be the most popular drink. Right under the windmill, there was a fountain with glowing “ice blocks”. On the other side there was a large area with beautiful string lights where people were talking and eating. We got gluhwein and apple cider, but didn’t try any of the food because we were about to eat at Miku. We transformed our entrance ticket fee into a season pass so that we could visit again and try all the food later.
Part 4: Dinner
We walked just 2 blocks along the bay to Miku. I believe it’s Michelin rated Japanese food that incorporates elements of French and Italian cuisine. We were seated at a booth with gorgeous views of the water and the skyline of the city that was across the bay. To start, we ordered togarashi brussel sprout chips and enoki miso soup. We had to remind ourselves we essentially had a 25% discount because of the exchange rate. So a $5 miso soup was reasonable to us.
The next dish that came out was the squid ink lobster tempura with risotto. This was probably the best dish of the meal. We enjoyed how crispy the tempura was even though it was sunken into the risotto. We also loved how flavorful the squid ink tempura was. The tempura’s savory flavor really complemented the mellowness of the lobster inside.
Our next dish was the surf and turf roll, the salmon aburi sushi, and the spicy tuna aburi sushi. The sushi seemed to melt in our mouths the flavor pairings with the fish were fantastic. The salmon aburi sushi was my favorite. The Miku sauce on top was rich and flavorful, and seemed almost too oily until I tasted the miniature slice of jalapeno that cut right through it. We ended up ordering another order of salmon aburi sushi! Later our waiter told us that she had a table once that ordered 48 pieces of this salmon aburi sushi all in one go.
The next orders that came out were the shrimp aburi sushi and the saba (mackerel) aburi sushi. They were both great but nothing really compared to the salmon or the surf and turf roll. The surf and turf roll had lobster, shrimp, salmon, yellowtail, and a thin layer of raw beef on the outside of the roll. Masa thought the beef flavor was too beef-y but I thought the whole bite was a very lovely variety of a bunch of different flavors.
Lastly, we ordered the matcha cake dessert. They wrote “Happy birthday” on it and it was also really great. Luckily it was small, since we were just about stuffed.
Finally we walked back to the hotel and relaxed before settling in for the night.