On Sunday, I got to check out the annual Pride Parade along Beach Avenue in Downtown Vancouver.

This was the 7th time I attended the Pride parade, and as usual, it was quite a spectacle. There wasn’t really anything that new, and the crowd seemed to be even a bit bigger than usual (someone told me there was an estimated 600,000 people there), making it almost impossible to see much, but it was still interesting to get a glimse of some of the crazy floats going by. 

The TD Canada Trust float. Click to enlarge.

Oasis float - any float that has a girl dancing in a bikini is a winner

You know an event is really big whenever Batman and Spiderman make a guest appearance

I think this blue man was in The Watchmen

The Pride Parade, 2010

If you happened to miss the Pride Parade this year, don’t worry, because it will be back again next year, and you’ll get to see all the same things again. The Pride parade usually takes place on the first Sunday of August, the day after the Celebration of Light fireworks competition.

For more information about the Pride Parade, it’s history, and it’s meaning, you can check out the official site at www.vancouverpride.ca

It’s that time of the year again, when people from all over the Metro Vancouver area swarm into the downtown core and Kitsilano area to feast their eyes on the most exciting fireworks show in Western Canada. 

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this annual fireworks competition, this is actually a musical fireworks show that takes place during a timespan of around 25 minutes. So if you are looking for a non-stop barrage of fireworks in the sky with no purpose, you might be disappointed. This is a more artistic kind of fireworks show with slow moments that build up to exciting moments, and each show has a theme. 

Celebration of Light fireworks show at English Bay

The Celebration of Light competition takes place on four separate days, with 3 and sometimes 4 different countries competing with their own special arrangements and themes. It always begins on a Wednesday, and then is followed by another show on Saturday, and then Wednesday and Saturday again. When only 3 countries compete, the final Saturday show will be what is called the Finale night when the other countries use a portion of their presentation to form another full 25 minute fireworks show. 

This year, we are lucky, because 4 different countries are competing. The reason I say that is because I have never really been a fan of the Finale show. The individual shows are usually pretty good, but when they try to mix up the themes into a finale, it just never seems to work. In fact, I’m not even interested in watching any more finale shows. Since 4 countries are competing this  year, though, there will be a full presentation from that country on day 4, and if it is the same as other years when there were 4 countries competiting, that will be followed by a short finale with an especially large amount of fireworks going off at once. 

This year, the competing countries for the Celebration of Light fireworks show are:
(copied from the official Celebration of Light website) 

U.S.A.

Spain

Mexico

China

One more thing I should mention is that if you want to get some drinks with your friends after the fireworks show, it’s extremely difficult to find a place. Most of the restaurants in the Davie Street area, for example, have people standing in the entrances blocking people from entering. You might get lucky, but your best bet is to go to a place that is a bit out of the way from the columns of crowds emptying out of the downtown area.

For more information about the Celebration of Light firworks event, you can check out the offical website here.

Out of all the many great seafood restaurants that specialize in oysters in Vancouver, one of my favorite places to go is a place in Yaletown called Rodney’s Oyster House.

It’s not the easiest place to find. Located on Hamilton Street south of Davie, it has a really small sign that isn’t really outstanding if you are looking in that direction from Davie Street. In fact, during my first 2 years in Vancouver, I continually failed to notice it during my many trips to Yaletown.

Rodney's Oyster House on the east side of Hamilton, between Davie and Drake

I was really impressed with the interior design the first time I entered it. It doesn’t look at all like any of the modern restaurants like Earls, Moxies, Cactus Club, and Joeys. In constast, it has a simple, old-fashioned looking interior with a lot of white. It reminded me of the interior of a ship, actually, which helped me to enjoy the seafood even more.

I was there with 4 other people at the time, and we decided to sample pretty well everything there. There wasn’t much to choose from there, so it was pretty easy to decide. They just have a simple menu with few selections.

The dinner menu at Rodney's Oyster House (click to enlarge)

The first thing we ordered was a selection of fine, fresh oysters.

Fresh oysters

Oyster closeup. If you love oysters, your mouth must be watering now.

Following that, we ordered the Oysters Rockerfellah, Pan Fried Oysters, and Shrimp Cocktail. This was, by far, my favorite moment of our dinner party.

A tray of seafood delights. Can you imagine how delicious this was? (click to enlarge)

And then, we couldn’t call it a night until sampling one of their fine desserts. I ordered the Banana Creme Brule.

Banana Creme Brule - the most unique of their 3 desserts

And that was it for our evening dinner. By the time we left, it was night time, and we were all stuffed to the max with a full selection of various items from their menu and plenty of beer. Before heading home for the night, I took one more picture of how the restaurant looks from outside at night.

Outside Rodney's Oyster House at night

After seeing my photos of Rodney’s Oyster House and all the amazing kinds of seafood you can get there, you are probably already making plans to go and check it out for yourself. If that is the case, and if you want more information about the restaurant and its menus, I recommend checking out the Rodney’s Oyster House website.

Among all the spectacular cuisines that you can enjoy in Vancouver, one of the easier things to find, and something that I have to go out and eat around once a week, is a nice bowl of ramen.

There are several ramen restaurants located in the downtown area of Vancouver. I haven’t tried all of them yet, mainly because the ones I have tried were so good, I ended up just going back to those. One of my favorite ones to go to is the one called Benkei (pronounced ben.kay) Noodle Shop.

Benkei Noodle Shop on Thurlow between Robson and Alberni.

There are several Benkei restaurants located throughout the city, including the following:

• 747 Thurlow Street (between Robson and Alberni)
• 1741 Robson Street
• 3217 West Broadway
• 43 East 5th Avenue

The interior of Benkei Noodle Shop on Thurlow Street.

Another interior shot at the Thurlow Benkei

They make 5 different kinds of ramen at Benkai Noodle Shop. You can find your traditional Japanese flavours such as Shio, Miso, Shoyu, and Akaoni, and also one with a local twist called the Shiro (recently renamed to Peko).

The ramen menu. Click to enlarge.

My favorite ramen is the one they now call Peko (was Shiro just 3 weeks ago). It has a white creamy soup base with a garlic flavour, and besides the nice portion of ramen noodles inside, also has corn, spinach, and slices of BBQ chicken inside. The flavour of the soup is a bit similar to clam or corn chowder.

This is my favourite. It used to be called Shiro, but is now called Peko on the menu.

Miso ramen

My Japanese friends in Vancouver often tell me that the Peko ramen that I like the most is not real ramen. I guess they feel as though some rule has been broken in messing around with their basic ramen flavours, and it can’t technically be called ramen because of the soup base and what is inside it. Someone even said it is more like spaghetti than ramen. Well, they might call the Peko ramen “not real ramen,” but I call it “the best damn ramen I’ve ever had.” Highly recommended.

When you are paying for your ramen, you will also be given a Benkei Noodle Shop service card, which contains a list of their locations, and on the back, an area for them to stamp your card. After you get that, don’t forget to bring it in with you every time you go because after your card has been stampled 10 times, you can use it to get a free ramen.

For more information about Benkei Noodle shop, its staff, menu, and locations, visit the Benkei Noodle Shop website.

Thanks to a stroke of luck, I was able to catch a glimpse of this year’s World Naked Bike Ride in Vancouver.

I actually had no idea at all that this was going to be happening on Saturday, June 12, and I was just on my way back from getting that complete waste of money AirCare checkup, when all of a sudden, the naked bike riders started riding by right through the intersection I was stopped at.

2010 World Naked Bike Ride heading down Granville at Davie

The World Naked Bike Ride is an event that started in Vancouver back in 2002 as an anti-war protest. Since then, it has blossomed into a worldwide event held in 70 cities in 25 countries around the world. It’s current purpose is supposedly a protest against oil dependency and car culture.

The ad for this year's World Naked Bike Ride, beginning at Sunset Beach at the corner of Beach Avenue and Bute Street

Personally, I think many of these people are the type who just want to be naked in public for any reason, and any message or purpose behind it is secondary. Doing stunts like this also won’t make a bit of difference in the world. There is a girl in my picture in the front with the words “Stop Oil Spill” painted in red on her leg. That’s all pretty nice, but what kind of effect is this really going to have? If the U.S. government can’t do anything about it, what kind of a difference can a naked girl on a bike make? Still, I think it’s all quite interesting and funny to see, and yet another cool event that makes Vancouver a special place.

Throughout the year, Granville Island Brewing releases a variety of seasonal brews for beer fans to enjoy, such as the Rogers Chocolate Stout, the Raspberry Wheat, and the Ginger Beer. Yesterday, they had a party to celebrate the release of this year’s Ginger Beer, and I was invited to attend.

Photo by Yang Ji Hye

I found out about this party through a website called Meetup.com. If you’re not familiar with Meetup.com, it’s a site where you can find a group for just about any interest or topic imaginable. You can choose to join some groups that interest you, and then the fun starts. At least once a month, almost every group will have what is called a meetup where you have a chance to meet new people with similar interests in different locations. Yesterday, it was time for The Vancouver Beer Meetup Group‘s meetup, and the event was the Ginger Beer party held at Granville Island Brewing on Granville Island.

There were more people there than expected. The meetup said it had space for just 25 people, but there must have been at least 50 people there. There were times when it was difficult to get to the bar to order another beer. That wasn’t so bad, though, because the people there were really easy to talk to, and I found myself getting into multiple conversations on my way to get my next beer.

Our group took over most of the space

The Ginger Beer did not disappoint. It wasn’t my favorite beer of all time, that’s for certain, but I still enjoyed it. It had a nice crisp taste, and was so light. I joked with some people saying that it tasted as though someone had mixed a can of gingerale with a lager. It actually did taste a bit like that, but better, of course.

Anyway, it was a really good party, and I was able to meet several new people. I even went out with a small group from the party to Dockside Pub after that so we could enjoy even more craft beer. I guess I drank a bit too much there, though, because I don’t remember going home.

It’s been a windy year in the Metro Vancouver area so far. I recently posted an article on here about a big windstorm we had back at the beginning of April called ” The first windstorm of 2010,” and since then, it seems we have had quite a few more, though not quite as bad as that one.

A few days ago, it was windy again, with gusts approaching 80 km/h, and a few more trees came down, but this time I got to see something different than the usual branches and limbs strewn across sidewalks. I was walking along the seawall near English Bay, checking out the large waves breaking against the rocks quite nicely, and I noticed what appeared to be a couple of kites flying around above the water. As I got closer to the bank, I could see that each kite was actually attached to a person on what looked like a surf board.

Click for high resolution image

Click for high resolution image

What they were doing was not surfing, but an activity or sport called Kiteboarding. When it’s done on water, it might also be called Kitesurfing. Wikipedia defines Kiteboarding as “a sport in which participants ride a form of surfboard or wakeboard harnessed to a large kite which is controlled by strings most commonly attached to a bar.”

Click for high resolution image

Click for high resolution image

If you feel like you want to try kiteboarding yourself, expect to invest quite a lot of money in the equipment. When I checked out the prices for the required equipment at a local store’s website, I found out that kite prices start at around $1000, and boards are usually more than $500. Of course, you would need to have some training, too.

If you’d like more information about purchasing equipment, the Airtime Boardsports site is a good place to start. Also, you can find out about lessons at the Vancouver Kiteboarding School website.

Located on the western edge of Gastown near Waterfront Station, Steamworks Brewing Company is one of the most popular restaurants in the Vancouver area, and one of my favorite places to hang out and enjoy craft beer with my friends.

The Steamworks building towers above Cordova Street near Richards

Steamworks Brewing Company first opened in 1995, and it gets its name from the famous Gastown steam line that runs through the premises. Steam is use to fire the kettles that brew the beer, and according to the Steamworks website, “the instant heat of steam allows for greater brewing finesse, and most importantly great tasting beer.”

The brewing area can be seen across from the kitchen, and on your way to the washrooms, downstairs in the pub section

As I often do when I go to a brewpub, when I was there last week, I ordered the tasters. I was lucky that they had 8 different beers available at the time, so I was able to get 8 taster glasses (sometimes they only have as few as 6, but I would say the average is around 7).

Their usual assortment of delicious beers. The dark and light ones stuck together near the menu are German beers left over from the 2010 Olympics

Here is what I got to taste during my last visit. All text in brown is part of the beer’s description taken from the Steamworks menu:

Steamworks also brews a selection of seasonal beers throughout the year. The ones I’ve tried so far are:

• Skinny Tire Hefeweizen
• Raspberry Frambozen® (my favourite)
• Sour Cherry Ale
• Great Pumpkin® Ale
• Blitzen® Christmas Ale
• Ginger beer

Since I moved to Vancouver in 2003, I’m sure I have been to Steamworks more than 100 times, and I still like to stop by for some of their delicious beer at least once every month. It’s not just the beer that is good, though; a lot of their food is also really good, and they have quite a large number of menu items to choose from. A few of my favourite menu items include the Beer Battered Halibut & Chips, the Baked Spinach & Crab Dip, the Chorizo & Chicken Quesadilla, and their awesome yam fries with balsamic glaze and pesto mayo. There is definitely something for everyone there.

One of the things that I find really cool about Steamworks is actually how huge it seems to be inside. There are so many different sections, including the Uber Lounge, the Wine Room, and the Harbour View room. I get the feeling that I can enjoy some slightly different atmospheres all in the same building. My favourite places for gathering with friends in there are the Harbour View room (great place for dinner parties) and the pub section, which are both located downstairs. Down the spiral stairs, you’ll also find a small waiting lounge, a pool table, the Wine Room, kitchen, washrooms, and the brewery itself.

Steamworks has a sister restaurant right next to it called the Transcontinental. It’s located right inside Waterfront Station, and it has a much quieter and more elegant atmosphere than Steamworks. I personally prefer Steamworks, but I have been with people who thought Transcontinental was better. One good thing about it, though, is that if you have a group that is pretty big–let’s say 6 or more–and Steamworks is full, you can usually go to Transcontinental and get right in there.

You can see the Transcontinental banners on Waterfront Station. The Steamworks building is to the right.

Transcontinental has almost all the same beers as Steamworks, and also a few others that weren’t brewed in the brewpub, but you can’t get tasters there (yet). Also, it seems that the menu items at Transcontinental are a bit more expensive. For example, Fish & Chips at Steamworks is $16.99; whereas, at Transcontinental, it’s $18.

Though the service is usually quite good, which is quite a feat considering how busy it is, Steamworks is not without its faults. One thing that really stands out for me is the time I organized a party for some of my friends to try out the new pumpkin beer they had just begun serving there. Despite the fact that I called ahead to make sure it was there, when we all got there the next day, we were told by our server that they had just run out of the pumpkin beer, and wouldn’t have any more until the next week. What made that extra bad for me, though, was that the exact same thing happened to me the year before.

Anyway, even after 7 years, Steamworks still remains one of my favourite restaurants in the Vancouver area for gathering with friends, and enjoying fine beer, good food, and a pleasant atmosphere. If I ever have friends visiting me here from other countries, Steamworks is usually one of the places I will bring them for a good dining experience in Vancouver. I’m not sure if it’s because I want to give them a good experience, or if I’m just using it as an excuse to go and try out their beer again.

It was a sad ending to the search for Japanese tourist, Hiroko Kinugasa, 68, who went missing on Thursday, April 8, after she was last seen dining at the Altitude Bistro on Grouse Mountain at around 6:30 pm. Her body was found on Grouse Mountain near a ski run on Saturday evening, just two days later.

Hiroko Kinugasa

All the facts won’t be known until an autopsy is done, but a preliminary coroner’s report stated that she appeared to have died from exposure after venturing into cold and stormy weather with no outdoor winter gear. The police are scheduled to release the details of her death after they have had a chance to review all the information with the Coroner’s office today.

Some aspects about this case appear to be a bit bizarre. The staff at the Bed and Breakfast she was staying at, for instance, said that she had planned on going snowboarding at Grouse Mountain that day, even though her return flight to Japan was scheduled for the same day. Well, all I know is that if I were planning on flying to Japan that day, I wouldn’t have had time to do anything else except wait to catch a ride to the airport, wait in line to check in, and then head into the gate for my flight. So I can’t help but ask, why did she go to Grouse Mountain? She was actually reported missing by her family that same evening after it was noticed that she had missed her flight.

Some people have drawn parallels between this incident and one that happened back in May, 2005, when an American businessman named David Koch got lost while hiking in the Grouse Mountain area. Despite a massive search that included tracking dogs and helicopters, he was found dead 12 days later, and the cause of death was deemed hypothermia. Supposedly, he was able to survive for 6 whole days out in the elements before succumbing to the cold.

David Koch

For me, this reminded me more of something that happened in Whistler in April 2008 with 25-year-old Ai Ito, also a Japanese female who was snowboarding. In her case, she had gone snowboarding alone in Whistler, and for some reason, decided to go out of bounds by herself near the 7th Heaven run on Blackcomb Mountain. Unfortunately, the consequences of her actions proved fatal, as she was somehow unable to get back out of a basin she had fallen into, and she froze to death.

Ai Ito

Ai was only reported missing 3 days later when she didn’t show up for English language classes. It was only then that the search for her began, but of course, it was way too late already. I remember this story well, and remember hoping for a happy ending for her and her family.

The Whistler Search and Rescue blog has an informative article about this tragedy, including a map that shows where she was found in respect to the ski run. Also, you can read the full story about the search for Ai Ito at Canada.com.

Hiroko, David, and Ai all appear to have been happy, adventurous people who really enjoyed living their lives, even though their lives ended way too soon. I’m sure many people have been and will continue to be affected by their stories, and they have no doubt helped others not to end up in the same kinds of life-threatening situations.

In the early afternoon today, I got a message from a friend of mine, telling me that the TV series Fringe was being filmed on location on Granville Street near Smithe. So I decided to head on over there to check it out.

When I got there at around 2:00 pm, I got to see quite an interesting set in the middle of Granville Street. The set was made up of a number of cars that had the appearance of being wrecked in some kind of an explosion. They probably just got them from a junk yard or something, but their set designers and effects specialists fixed them up really well to make it all look realistic enough for a prime time sci-fi drama.

Here are some of the pictures I was able to take while at the scene:

I've been seeing these signs quite a lot lately, including in Stanley Park where they were filming just 2 weeks ago

A wide shot of the explosion scene

Lots of scrap metal scattered around

They really went into a lot of detail

They are apparently going to have fire coming out of the hood, judging by those propane tanks set up in front

I wish I could have seen how they turned this on its side

Pretending to be a victim of the explosion

This was made to look like an entrance to a New York subway

I’m not sure which episode this set was for, but I’ll know soon enough. There are just a few episodes left this season, and this episode will be coming up soon. It should be cool to see how this scene looks in the finished product.

Fringe is an hour-long sci-fi drama that airs every Thursday at 9:00 pm on Fox. For more information about the series and the storylines, check out the Fox website.