Started off finding a proper brunch place before the flight - this time WestJet didn't randomly cancel our flight since they did it twice last time (I'm thinking they didn't have enough people last time for the earlier flights so it was cancelled? To this day I don't know why...) Anyway - the brunch place we originally wanted to go to was closed (curse you, Google)! So we went to this place next door which was super lively but the meat lover's skillet I got had mostly potatoes and very little meat so it was a little disappointing...
When we landed we went to Steveston again and had some amazing lamb shank done greek style, but I didn't bring my camera with me. After that, we headed to SFU where Summerfest was winding down. (SummerFest was one of the events I planned to vend at but later I picked Minicomi over it - more on that later!) Anyways - the first few days we mostly hung around Aberdeen Centre a lot, lol. I passed by this cool pink-interior shop full of crane games.
A cute panda display at Aberdeen! I went to Daiso many times and stocked up on some craft supplies. There was an even bigger paper mache panda exhibit at Metrotown. Basically went to a lot of malls this time around!!
Visited Chinatown of course... and right in the middle of it was this cute place called Bestie that reminded me of WVRST back home but more quaint, intimate and less loud and communal. We stopped here for a quick lunch.
I had pork bratwurst, fries with curried ketchup and house salad. I LOVED my meal - the salad was amazing with beets and apples, but the star of the show was that curried ketchup, which was served warm. In hindsight I should've asked if they sold it by the bottle because I think all ketchup should taste like that! And this is coming from a person who normally doesn't like ketchup all that much.
A few doors away was Blim, a cool store that sells one of a kind, vintage and remake apparel and accessories. I had been stalking them on Instagram and I got some items I had been eyeing for a while! Really cute store and very friendly owner!
What really amazed me was that there was a Chinese garden right in the middle of Chinatown, and it was free to go inside. There was also a museum and another part of the garden to explore, but I think you needed to get tickets.
I'm glad that such a place exists, it was calming and relaxing to walk through here in the middle of the busy city.
Saw some really big koi fish in this pond. I guess I also got lucky because during this entire trip, the weather was absolutely gorgeous, all blue sky and clean air. Nothing like the heat and humidity we have back home!
Overall it was very peaceful and I'm so thankful I got to come here.
The only dessert place I visited on this entire trip - Soft Peaks. It was worth the trip! Extremely creamy and milky soft serve. I got the matcha and red bean one but I would've liked it just by itself. It was the perfect way to cool off mid-afternoon after walking around Gastown.
Next we went downtown by the water to take in the view and visit "The Drop", which is that pointy thing on that building. After I saw this animated Japanese commercial promoting travel in Canada and it featured Grandville island (which I visited last year when I went to Vancouver) and this blue drop, I wanted to see it for myself too!
Went to G-Men Ramen for lunch on another day and I think I had their shio ramen combo which came with a little mini spicy tuna don with a quail egg in it. It was tasty!
We went to eat at Hi-Genki, a restaurant located inside a Japanese old folks home. They served huge potions of yoshoku (Western style Japanese cuisine). I had their croquette curry and I certainly couldn't finish my portion!
And finally, one of the last meals we had was at Rajio. I really wanted to eat kushiage/kushikatsu since watching Simon & Martina's video and seeing as I haven't been to Toronto's newly opened kushikatsu restaurant yet - I wanted to experience authentic kushiage and boy did this hit the spot! Everything was so yummy and not at all greasy - my favourites being the deep fried cheese and mochi, but honestly everything was good and a lot cheaper compared to the prices in Toronto.
We ordered some pressed sushi with saba (mackerel) cured with Hokkaido kelp as well to take a break from the fried stuff which was also really good and washed it all down with some homemade ginger ale. Some alcohol would've been great but since (I think) Minicomi was the very next day I decided against it.
There's some other pictures here and there that I captured with my phone so they're all on my instagram for those interested! That's all for my Vancouver trip this time around, I guess the major difference was that this time I took a lot less photos since I was re-visiting certain places and only documented certain things that were different from my first trip. That, and I made an effort to dress up more and took a smaller purse with me so I didn't have room for my camera. But overall I had a great trip! Thank you for reading & until next time!!
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