A sequel to my dearly departed 8-year-old blog, Ä Canuck in Emperor Akihito's Court"(http://haruhiko.blogspot.com). Back home in Canada but still have those ties to Japan after 17 years' residency there.
Been a while but with all of the translation, Mr. Moriya's return and yesterday being another outing with The Anime King, there wasn't much time for blogging. As for my Skype student, he had a good business trip to Australia for the better part of a week; his fluency certainly showed it. And he didn't have to contend with hay fever over there....something that is plaguing Japan right now as it usually does this time of year.
It was a 3-week absence for The Anime King since he had his own business trip to conduct in Chicago. He was rather disappointed in the food selection although he did say the famed Deep-Dish Pizza was the one highlight. Still, he was grateful to be back in Toronto.
Our Sunday started off with a visit to Eggsmart. I actually went for a new item on the menu which was this plate of Hash Browns using Montreal corned beef and very roughly chopped onion and potatoes. I guess I could say it was a very raw version of the breakfast staple. Nothing like the stuff at Sunset Grill. It was quite good, though, and very filling. And I'm always appreciative for bottomless cups of coffee.
Had our first period of anime involving a couple of movies and some eps from the Precure franchise and then the usual bawdy episode of "Ixion". We took a brief break by heading to the nearest Second Cup. I went for the Poppy Seed Lemon Cake with a thick slap of icing on top. It was actually surprisingly light despite the appearance. The King and I spoke a bit about any future trips over to Japan. I can't see myself heading over there any earlier than Spring 2014; gotta save up the money. The Anime Bishop called up suddenly and said he would be joining us for dinner.
Came back to hear some soundtrack stuff before we watched the 2000anime of "Blood: The Last Vampire". It had that gritty animation style which reminded me of "Akira", but the voice acting was pretty subpar...frankly, almost as if this had been a high school project. So it was somewhat surprising to hear that Saya was voiced by actress Yuki Kudo from movies like "Memoirs of a Geisha". It was too bad since I think it could've come off quite well.
The Bishop arrived just in the last few minutes of "Blood". And then we were off to a place called Hot Spicy Spicy. We hadn't been there in perhaps 18 months. My first time to the place was just shortly after my exodus home. It's a larger version of the down-to-earth Chinese eateries over downtown, and the portions are quite generous. I had the Mushu Pork on Rice; nothing surpremely spectacular but it fit the bill quite nicely. The conversation between the King and the Bishop went a bit deep into electronics, not my strong suit at all so I was able to focus on dinner. However, we were able to connect a bit more when it came to headphones.
The Bishop ordered a side dish of dumplings. They were quite big so I had one of them. As soon as I took a bite, the package just shot a phaser of meat juice about a metre away. Gotta say that it's been a while I've something like that. But the Japanese gyoza aren't quite as large as these dumplings were. The three of us are still thinking about getting that big get-together of the Court for dinner sometime in the next number of weeks, but with a number of the group now fully-grounded family men, it could be difficult.
St. Patrick's Day again....or Don't-You-Dare-Drive-In-Downtown-Toronto Day. Because of the annual parade and the fact that one major long segment of the TTC is out of commission, driving downtown must be a huge migraine....even more than usual. A couple of my old friends who used to love putzing about in their cars have basically had their love leached out from them due to the horrors of navigating badly-maintained streets, chronic construction, few and pricey parking lots and incompetent drivers. Ah, and we do have those Pan Am Games in a couple of years, right?
Having the windows open in a number of the rooms here just to clear all the stale stuff out. My brother's family is popping over for dinner tonight, so I don't want my niece making any remarks since kids are very straightforward about their opinions.
Met up with The Egg and his wife for lunch out in North York yesterday. We went to the local branch of Asian Legend, one of the popular Chinese food franchises. The Anime King and I often head out to the branch near his place where we usually just nosh on some soy milk soup and perhaps some potstickers. But I was kinda surprised that we all went a bit wild on the quantity of our choices. The Egg and I were champion eaters in our day, and I can still surprise even myself at times but, I think our best days are well behind us now.
I've sorted out my tax stuff so that I can hand over the numbers to my brother since he's got some whiz-bang software. If I were still in Japan, I would've done this a month ago since the due date is actually right now there for returns. Aside from the kanji, it was never all that bad filling out the forms.
The Leafs lost another heartbreaker to the Winnipeg Jets in a shootout. But the news media isn't exactly getting too upset since losing teams in a shootout still earn a point. But that's 5 in a row for the Buds, and so I'm just wondering if recent history is gonna repeat itself, and the players will have to don disguises when they go shopping locally. In any case, I have a feeling that they're probably gonna make the playoffs by the skin of their noses.
I guess the other big news here is this looming pachyderm known as the Big Casino Debate. The casino conglomerates have been courting Toronto like really desperate bachelors, and Mayor Rob Ford has been more than happy to show them inside the house. Meanwhile, a lot of us are not feeling too good about having a bit of Las Vegas (or as my old high school History teacher used to say it, Lost Wages) or Detroit/Windsor/Vancouver/Niagara Falls plunked down in downtown. Sure, jobs may increase but at best, I think it would be a Faustian victory. There was a job fair for jobs that don't yet exist for this casino that doesn't yet exist yesterday somewhere which struck me as somewhat odd. And as it turned out, the turnout was indeed sparse and the so-called job fair was really a badly-disguised group of lobbyists trying to show the merits of having a casino. Supposedly, some of the officials who did come on out were caught off-guard themselves when confronted with the question about this "job fair". The pro-casino side is having a tough enough time of trying to convince a very skeptical city, so false advertising on this level isn't exactly going to help their cause.
I was just a minute away from having a perfect 3/15 3:15. Beware the Ides of March! Thought I'd throw that in as well.
In any case, I've gone through another muscle-aching round of translations for this week. A lot of my upper-body muscles are feeling properly sore including the one between my ears. I can't really divulge the contents of the source, only to say that it involves tourism, and tourism projects always involve very flowery language. Rather obvious thing to say, even to those not in the translation business, but it's never a straight one-to-one bilingual transliteration; there's always some detective work about what the client really wants to be said. But I can do it and I can make money out of it.
Anyways, last time I wrote an entry here, it was just before the white smoke billowed out of the world's most famous chimney, Habeas Papum and the emergence of Pope Francis I. There are probably a lot of very happy bettors in Las Vegas who went for the Argentinian....the payoffs must've been huge. There was absolutely no mention of the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio in any media site or paper; he just literally popped up from behind that curtain from nowhere. Mind you, Chris Cuomo of CNN is probably being even more obnoxious about the fact that he was the only one to have even mentioned his possibility in becoming Pope. Well, in any case, Francis is getting his honeymoon period right now and the world media is talking about how humble and pious he had been in his native Argentina. We shall see what happens after his Inauguration Mass this weekend.
Yesterday, while Pope Francis I was probably lining up to get his Big Mac Meal at the Vatican Golden Arches (again, humility), I was having lunch with Shard at Kinton Ramen downtown. I was back at the counter again which I actually do prefer instead of the Kyushu table at the front. I went for the regular Shio Ramen while Shard went for Miso. It's been interesting going out with different folks in my last three visits to Kinton. Back on Boxing Day, it was with one member of the Anime Court and Automan in which the conversation was pretty regular, while with The Wild Guy and The Banker and Egg a few weeks ago, it was more business-oriented. Yesterday, Shard, who has a deep interest in design, got into the nitty-gritty of the decor inside and outside of the restaurant. I think I have a deeper appreciation of all of the wood that was sacrificed for the place. I'm happy that Shard enjoyed his ramen and the surroundings. My bowl just had a bit of a rancid whiff of pork which was not that great but the karaage chicken was crunchy and juicy at the same time. And the two of us ended up getting recruited into the restaurant's Kinton Bowler program in which if we drain our bowls over the next 10 visits, Kinton will throw in a free plate of gyoza on our 11th visit....that is, if we don't keel over from cholesterol toxicity at the end of the year.
Of course, after such a rich lunch, we fairly waddled our way over to a Starbucks inside Sick Kids Hospital. Shard informed me of this deal with a coupon for a free Caramel or Hazelnut Macchiatto. As it turned out, it was a bit of a hoax by an uploader, but the staff there had been apprised of the ruse and yet were still smilingly willing to give out the free coffee. The other lesson I learned that is if you decide to get a coffee at a Timmies or a Starbucks during the noon hour, getting one at a hospital atrium or being near a huge atrium in an office building will usually guarantee empty seats for you.
It will be a quiet weekend. No Skype lessons and no outing with The Anime King since he is off to Chicago on a business trip. We did have our biweekly telephone conversation a couple of days ago. However, The Egg contacted me to see about dinner plans for tomorrow. Gotta follow up on that.
And by the way, if any of you are having a bad day, just think about the executives at Carnival Cruises, and you'll feel much better.
Well, just to link back to what I'd said last entry....I should've knocked on wood a bit harder. As soon as I mentioned that I would be having a slight respite from all that translating, a big assignment landed on my lap which I've finally completed for hand-in tonight. But I'd also mentioned that that textbook wouldn't get to Mr. Moriya in time?.....well, it got just there in the nick of it, miraculously enough.
However, I was able to spend some time enjoying more ramen at Kinton on Friday afternoon. As usual, I was the first one in line at about 11:10 a.m. Believe me, I don't mean to be so early but I don't really have a very good temporal sense so I always err on the side of caution. Luckily, all three of my ramen companions showed up in plenty of time. We got the Kyushu table right at the front. And as usual, it didn't take long for the place to get filled up. I could actually eat the Extra Pork Ramen with a sampling of gyoza and karaage without re-enacting one of the climactic scenes of "Alien". Then, it was up to the Second Cup across from U of T for a bit of coffee, conversation and digestion.
On Sunday, it was the usual get-together with The Anime King for a round of food and anime. Did Asian Legend for lunch and then that Chinese hot pot place on McNicoll for dinner. That hot place wasn't too bad but unfortunately, the chicken was pretty chintzy. I get far more stuff on the bones in my mother's hot pot.
Been a while. Being away all those years, I still need to be reminded that, yes, there is an actual long weekend in February now....at least for 3 provinces in this country. And I think having the Family Day Weekend is a necessity during a time of year when Xmas is long past us and Winter has outgrown its welcome.
Certainly, this past Saturday gave us a good reminder why Ol' Man Winter needs to get going. Although, the weather on that day was not quite the big storm from a couple of weeks ago, the snow and winds made for some treacherous driving on the highways...which is why I felt a little badly that my old friends, CG and The Entrepreneur with respective families in tow, came to my neck of the woods for a brief dinner at a place called Congee Star in the Don Mills and Eglinton area. When we had made the plans to meet up, there wasn't too much of a sign of the nutso weather, but still, it was very good of them to trudge on up all the way from the West End of town. It was brief....about a couple of hours since the kids were still very young, but it was good to chat for a while over har gow and brisket. I'll definitely head over to Mississauga next time since the two of them have raved about this restaurant called Spoon and Fork.
Sunday was the official Family Day for my clan. We decided on doing The Keg up on Leslie. I made reservations which was the smartest thing to do since when we got there at 6 pm, there was a ton of folks waiting to get a table....and the parking was something reminiscent of Yorkdale Plaza on Xmas Eve. I don't think I've had a Keg steak in a few years....went for the Baseball Top Sirloin. I wasn't disappointed; my steak looked like a slab of beef with a thyroid condition. Definitely not the definition of a Kobe steak. It was thick, juicy and was seasoned quite well. Just the right amount of salt and pepper...which probably means that it was still too much. Thick steak isn't exactly popular with a number of Japanese....they like their beef thin and melt-in-your-mouth, kinda like sukiyaki. I've told my old students in the past that here in the Americas, chewing a bite for several seconds before swallowing is part of the pleasure of enjoying a good steak. I don't think I saw that many shrugs in one room before.
Then on the holiday Monday was the biweekly meeting with The Anime King. We just can't seem to catch a break with The Olde York Fish N' Chips place on Laird. It was closed for Family Day and it's closed regularly on Sundays. So instead it was off to one of our regular Dim Sum places up in Scarberia. Not surprisingly, it was pretty brisk business there. Afterwards, it was the usual mix of Second Cup, Timmies and a few hours of anime before dinner at Tako Sushi nearby. It was my second time there, and I guess because of the Family Day weekend, there was a lineup there to rival that of what I'd witnessed at The Keg. The King didn't make any reservations but it was just a 10-minute wait.
Couldn't get a place at any of the teppanyaki tables like last time, so the two of us settled for a regular booth and the entrees. The King went for his steak dinner while I opted for tonkatsu. Tako Sushitonkatsu is frankly more thin wiener schnitzel than Japanese deep-fried pork cutlet....which may be why I got three flat wide slabs of the pork. Tonkatsu in Japan is pretty thick stuff with plenty of shredded cabbage; one slab for lunch is enough to keep you sated until dinner. But I'm not gonna get snobby about it since I enjoyed the dinner just the same.
The King and I had a talk about possibly getting as many of the Court together for a bigger dinner, perhaps as soon as early March. But again, a couple of our number are established family men so I have my doubts whether the entire group can get together but it'll still be nice to have a group outing that doesn't involve a Ribfest. Perhaps The Baton Rouge may be the venue.
Back in the regular work week. I actually got an assignment done for translation yesterday. And I sent the invoice to Cozy for the first of the annual financial statements. Was a bit disappointed that I didn't get too many more during the two weeks that I kept open for him, so I'm potentially gonna have to deal with both Cozy's requests and those of the translation company.
Nope, it may not be the Priestly but I'm more than happy with my Maple Donut and Double-Double.
Thursday February 14, 3:00 p.m.
Yes, it is indeed Valentine's Day. As usual, I'm on the outside looking in as those couples woo or re-woo each other with chocolates, roses and other paraphernalia (batteries not included).
In any case, I'm not talking about today. I'm more talking about Tuesday the 12th, otherwise known as the day I went for a nearly all-day session of noshing on Japanese outside of my home. The parentals were off in Niagara Falls for an overnighter, so I could go off guilt-free into the big city with a couple of old friends. The Egg, The Banker and I met in front of Santouka, the ramen place east of Yonge and Dundas. It was my 2nd trip to the place in as many weeks. The Banker is a big ramen fan, so he and I got together last year to try out Kenzo, but since then we hadn't met up for a bowl of Japanese noodles until a couple of days ago. We hope to shorten the time between ramen outings considerably. In any case, I partook in a bowl of their lovely toroniku ramen with the slices of tender-as-butter pork jowl cha-siu. Man, those slices really did melt in my mouth! Over in Japan, pig farmers pride themselves on making their future bacon taste so good that even the fat is delicious. I'm pretty much guaranteed that I will inherit those jowls into my own face if I keep on ordering that into the near future.
Afterwards, we walked west on Dundas past a couple of ramen joints: Sansotei and Kenzo. Ramen restaurants are continuing to spread like viruses all over the GTA, and I figure that there will be the eventual war of attrition among them. Kenzo was good and certainly above the average lunch of Sapporo Ichiban instant noodles but I think places like Santouka and Kinton have gone far ahead and have the lineups to show for it. And now, The Egg has told me that there is yet another similar joint in the neighbourhood there called Raijin. I'm OK with Ajisen although I don't consider the stuff there to be authentic Japanese ramen; it has its own brand of noodles which I'm fine with, and I did like their karaage teishoku back in December.
The three of us stopped off at a Timmies on University and Dundas for a couple of hours of chat. It'd been a very long time since all three of us got together, so a lot of stuff to catch up on. Knowing that I would later be having stuff at an izakaya, I figured I needed something purely Canadian in my gut.
The Banker had to take off for home, but The Egg and I decided to walk around a bit more. We dropped off at the World's Biggest Bookstore so that I could search for a new textbook for my Skype student but couldn't find it (I would later purchase it at The ESL Shop online). Had a brief look-see into the new and condensed Silver Snail before heading uptown to crash at The Egg's place for a few hours. Ended up watching a couple of repeat episodes from "Yamato 2199"; I think I'm gonna have to get my friend and The Anime King together once more since they've been on their own tracks of watching the genre.
Kingyo in Cabbagetown
At about 5:30, the two of us took off on the Yonge Line once more to head over to Kingyo in Cabbagetown. The Egg's wife was to have joined us but unfortunately she was under the weather so she had to pull out at the last minute. Aside from riding through the neighbourhood on my way to the Christmas Market in The Distillery back in December, I hadn't walked through Cabbagetown in many, many years. I lived right beside it in my childhood and used to regularly go to a clinic there but since we moved away back in the mid-70s, that was it for me. There have been quite a few changes in terms of a Starbucks and a number of modern commercial additions to the area, but my old area still seemed to have that old-fashioned, slightly seedy quality.
A pachinko machine on the wall. Genius!
The ramen boom may have been and still be the big culinary thing in Toronto, but izakayas have also been enjoying popularity in The Big Smoke as of late. I'd only been to DonDon with Sam last year but that was just for lunch. Kingyo was the big time. Unlike most izakayas in Japan, reservations and lineups are common in the Toronto variety. Fortunately, The Egg got that reservation although when we arrived, the place was still pretty empty at that time. Kingyo, which means "goldfish", had that mix of Japanese cuisine and service with Western size and urban upscale ambiance. Still, there were some tips of the hat to Japanese pop culture in terms of a pachinko machine on one side, a number of katana on another (probably created by the wondrous and fictional Hanzo Hattori), and reruns of an old Ultra Seven series on the big-screen TV. However, the cheesiness factor didn't quite register. Although most izakayas I had gone to in Japan were very much of the cheaper neighbourhood pub mode which stressed imbibing of mass quantities over noshing of decent fare, there was one place in Tokyo which resembled Kingyo (and the other Toronto izakaya, I assume) in terms of price, fare and atmosphere, and that was En, a classy upper-scale restaurant on the 11th floor of the Bic Camera building in Shibuya.
Ebi-Mayo (basically shrimp tempura in a spicy mayonnaise sauce)
Neither the Egg and I are big drinkers by any means, so we were more than happy with the homemade Ginger Ale. And yep, it was good sipping. The ginger tasted very fresh without overpowering my taste buds. We rather went nuts on the menu, although things were tempered by the fact that we were missing our third member. One of our first orders was Ebi-Mayo, a standard dish at any izakaya or ramen restaurant. The original variety is served very plainly....just shrimp tempura with dollops of the sinful Kewpie mayonnaise on the plate. Over at Kingyo, it's a bit more dolled up....there's a bit of a fiery spicy component installed into the mayo. And the combination of textures was great. The crispiness of the batter with the succulence of the shrimp dunked into the creamy mayo. Lovely, lovely.
Karaage with Special Salt and Lemon
Another must-order at any decent izakaya is the plate of karaage....Japanese-style fried chicken. It's absolutely ubiquitous everywhere in Japanese supermarkets, convenience stores, ramen joints, izakaya, etc. There's something about marinated chicken deep-fried in batter that just gets everyone there slavering away, including me. And yep, the plate we ordered of Kingyo-upgraded karaage was another plus. Six huge chunks of flavoured thigh meat in crispy and crunchy batter with some dipping salt and a lemon wedge. Flavour bombs, indeed.
Maguro Carpaccio
Of course, it wasn't all upgrades of old izakaya favourites. There were some fancy dishes that usually wouldn't appear on a regular izakaya menu. We also had a couple of plates of maguro and salmon carpaccio. We didn't order salad so it was good to have some vegetation as fiber. And the sashimi underneath soaked a bit of that vinaigrette but still retained that firm but yielding texture.
One thing about the service....it was ultra-friendly. I knew that The Eggs had been to Kingyo a couple of times previously so I had assumed that our main waitress for the evening and The Egg were quite familiar with each other, until he told me that it was the first time he had met her. He also told me that the owner was quite strict on how good the service had to be. But service in Japanese restaurants focuses far more on polite and very competent professional distance (think of a butler handling guests at a mansion); the service at Kingyo was more on the level of being a girl's new beau entering the house of the girl's eager-beaver welcoming family. It almost...but thankfully didn't...hit the overbearing level, but that's just me. Other people are far more people-loving than I am.
Matcha Brulee
And what better way to finish off a large meal than some potentially artery-hardening dessert? Mind you, I don't think my Matcha Brulee would compare to a huge slab of Black Forest Cake in the calories department, but it was a nice treat. And there was that characteristic crackling of the caramelized surface with the spoon.
It was a nice 2 hours there. A good meal at Kingyo will not be cheap but I had fully expected that I would be paying a bit more than usual. And it was a worthy repast at $65 with tax and tip. The frequency of visits there will depend on one's income tax bracket. For me, I think semi-annual trips there are quite good for me. But yep, I had a fine time there. Will need to try their Kobe steak next time, provided that my translation work becomes more lucrative.
After letting my hair go into a shag for over 3 months, I finally made the trip down to Spadina and to that barber shop, Monsieur, to get my hair cut into something more reasonable. It was my second trip down there and things worked out very well. I'm starting to get really tempted to try some of their other services such as a massage or even a shave.
The weather is quite a bit warmer when compared to Friday when the huge storm barreled in. So it was relatively pleasant at 1 degree, but boy the curbs were flooded. I was looking at lakes while trying to cross the streets. My shoes and socks were partial casualties.
Before I left for downtown, I had been watching the news concerning Pope Benedict XVI's retirement announcement. Supposedly, there hasn't been a papal resignation in almost 600 years, so the former and soon-to-be once again Cardinal Ratzinger pulled off a bold move and managed to upstage any news about the weather craziness in the States and that rogue ex-cop in California. Of course, the news media here have been playing up the possibility of having the first Canadian Pope but I think the chances are better for the Catholic World's first African Pope.
Managed to crunch through another translation assignment worth a few hours work. I told the boss that I wouldn't be available for the next couple of days. There has been some give and take among myself, CG and The Entrepreneur about getting together on Saturday for an early dinner. Most of the snags in the schedule have to do with the kids. But I think things will get settled down easily.
Well, there truly was a calm before the storm last night. There was a nice fresh coating on the ground after 9 pm, but there was nothing falling. It looked like a nice Christmas-y moment. However, this morning, the snow was coming down steadily and heavily, although traffic on my street looked pretty smooth. I even saw two TTC buses pass by within about 5 minutes of each other, which is very good on a snow day.
I took a walk outside but just around the block, since wearing heavy boots and trudging through several centimetres of the white stuff has a tendency to tucker me out fairly quickly now. Maybe someone can make a seasonal exercise regimen out of it, although I can imagine Emergency Services picking up people out of snowbanks. At least in my neck of the woods, the storm is really just a batch of really heavy snow. The winds aren't blowing all that much here, and aside from the trudging, it was a pretty nice walk. Plus, the sound-muffling qualities of freshly-fallen snow always give an eerie feel to any stroll in a quieter neighbourhood.
Speaking about Christmas, it kinda feels like I am currently in that time period. Usually when I just came for the Holidays, I had friends here in Toronto all calling or e-mailing me for that lunch or dinner somewhere in the GTA. Well, my old friend The Egg contacted me to see if I were up for something next week. I told him about my upcoming lunch with my other ramen buddy next Tuesday at Santouka, so I'm seeing if he'll be up for that. The Egg is also pretty big for Japanese food, so all these izakayas and ramen shops that have been popping up like mushrooms are manna from heaven for him. And my call from The Entrepreneur the other day and my subsequent e-mail over to CG may translate to a lunch or dinner outing in the west end of town soon. Apparently, there's some restaurant chain called Fork And Spoon that's a mutual favourite of theirs. I'm not too willing to go all the way into deepest, darkest Oakville for a meal since that's where the both of them live, but I gave a counter-proposal in the form of the chain's Etobicoke branch which would only entail a purely TTC subway and bus ride.
Newswise, of course, locally, it's been all about the snowstorm of the season, and all those cars slip-slidin' away like billiard balls. However, I've also been keeping an eye on that story in southern California where this rogue ex-cop, Christopher Dorner, has been terrorizing the LAPD with three killings and the threat of even more mayhem. It just sounds like a screenplay from a Steven Seagal movie. At this point, Dorner may be holed up in a remote wooded area which is good for the public at large. My main worry would be if he somehow evaded the dragnet and headed back into the city. With the Grammys coming up this weekend, an insane ex-cop and Navy reservist who is aiming for the cops would make things very dicey for a Hollywood high-security event like that.
It's been an enervating and energetic past few days for me. As Cozy has been a bit delayed in some of those financial statements to be translated, I've been lucky to get work from my regular gig this week, and I did get a nice healthy check to be deposited in the old account. Still, with the precision needed with this work, I could use a massage AND a nap just about now. As for the energetic part, I've gotten a couple of guest contributors for my Japanese music blog, Kayo Kyoku Plus, and they've been absolutely great with their articles. They're covering artists that I've never covered which means that I have a good chance to discover new singers. It's good talking with folks that share my admittedly niche interest, and I don't feel as much pressure to get a couple of songs up there everyday. I've had some good talks with each of them via e-mail about the wonders of kayo kyoku.
Calm before the storm? Ah, yes, Toronto and much of Southern Ontario is supposed to be socked with about 15~20 cm of the white stuff starting from tonight. So, the big news on the news channels highlights the salting trucks and the weather map. Tokyo was gonna get walloped by a second major snowstorm but it turned out to be a mostly false alarm. Some flakes did fall on The Big Sushi, but here in Toronto, we eat those flakes for a light snack. I'm just glad that I don't need to commute anymore. Although if it's as bad as they're forecasting, I think most people will be more than happy to take a sick day on a Friday.
Looks like I've got another Santouka run next Tuesday with another ramen buddy of mine. The two of us got together more than a year ago for ramen (we've gotten together a few times over the months but with his family and not for ramen) at Kenzo but nothing since then. One of my old students who's now living with his family in California recommended the toroniku ramen with pork cheeks. I did see a page devoted to that type in the menu last Friday, so hey, why not? Plenty of cholesterol to go around.
I got a call out of the blue from another old friend yesterday. Looks like he and his family had gotten bogged down by the flu over The Holidays which would explain why I didn't hear much from him for the past few months. But it sounded like he's hale and hearty again, so hopefully we can all get together for lunch or dinner in the next few weeks.....provided I can shovel out of the snow.
It looks like my Skype student will be continuing on with me. Very grateful for that but I have to find a certain textbook for him. I'll be doing my scouring via Amazon or going downtown to the various bookshops.
Yup, definitely back to a normal Winter day here. As I type this, it's about -10 C outside, compared to the heady heights of +14 C on Wednesday.
I was watching NHK News today and the sports report mostly centered on Japanese baseball training camps in Okinawa which started yesterday. Looks like everyone's happy there....perhaps the Okinawan government should even declare the opening of training a regional statutory holiday. All of the fans were there with their cameras, cellphone-type or otherwise. The one guy who seemed to be getting the focus was a strapping young lad by the name of Otani...all of 18 and although perhaps not as tall as the beanpole Yu Darvish, he still has quite the physical presence. And ambition....he has said he wants to reach the Major Leagues someday. If he's that good, he can now probably get there within a decade.
The whole spectacle reminds me of just a couple of weeks ago when the NHL strike was over, and hockey fans descended on the Leafs truncated training. And the Leafs won at home over the struggling Caps last night...and it was a come-from-behind win, too. So, it seems that the big key here is consistency and making sure that there are no more injuries on the team.
For the first time in a few weeks, I've got no translation issues to worry about. I handed in the first of the annual translations to Cozy last night and am waiting for any further comments from the regular boss. Initial reviews have been good; the editor hasn't lost that much hair this time.
Well, I'll be heading downtown for the first time this year. Will be meeting Sam for lunch. May actually pick up some Chicken Parmagiana sandwiches over at The Carousel Bakery at St. Lawrence Market later on for the parents.
Back in my Japan days, I often told students about the wacky nature of Toronto weather, and sometimes I did tend to embellish things a bit, although it wasn't by much. But I gotta say that yesterday was an exaggeration come true. Snow in the overnight hours, followed by sleet in the morning, full-blown rain in the afternoon and then fog last night. I can now honestly say that weather is indeed certifiably insane in this city. And it ain't over by a longshot. It's absolutely balmy today at +9 C, but we're getting even hotter tomorrow with a double-digit high of +12 C! Of course, Thursday will have a high of just -2....the temperature will plummet faster than Wile E. Coyote off a cliff.
I've finally got another epic translation done, and this time with more than 24 hours on the clock before deadline, so I've got a chance to give it a very decent going-over before the hand-in. And I got a good deal of practice on TRADOS. Still not too crazy about it but I feel I've got a fairly good bearing on it now. And at least, I can get a good start on Cozy's annual translation of his statements.
I received a couple of contacts from friends yesterday. One was from Sam who wanted to see if I were interested in having a Winterlicious meal with him sometime this week. Not sure if it's lunch or dinner. Winterlicious is one-half of that annual Toronto foodie festival, along with Summerlicious, that was borne from the SARS scare of a decade ago when restaurants were struggling to survive from lack of customers; so fairly high-falutin' restaurants decided to have weeklong specials at reasonable prix fixe to attract the skittish but culinarily curious hordes. It was a good way to get the food business back into the swing of things, but I wonder if it should've just stayed a one-shot injection into the arm instead of the chronic care it has become. People have been complaining that these currently healthy restaurants have been serving sub-standard fare at those fixed prices in a crazily crowded environment. I didn't bother going to any of the designated restaurants since even at prix fixe, I really couldn't see myself paying the prices they still demanded. I'm still not even sure now, but I did ask Sam what he was interested in trying out.
The other contact was the bi-weekly phone call from The Anime King. Had a good talk on the Precure franchise, since the current series in the franchise finished its run a couple of days ago. According to my friend, it was fine but nothing too awe-inspiring. But the new series starts on the ground running from this Sunday. Told him that I wasn't too sure about meeting him this coming Sunday since it's possible that my brother's family may be coming over, but I'm keeping Saturday open as an option since the two of us have wanted to head on out to The Olde York Fish N' Chips shop; it's open on Saturday but not on Sunday. It'll have to be a truncated outing with him, though, since I also have my Skype student on that night. Speaking of which, I got some souvenirs from him via the mail yesterday from his Holiday trip to Taiwan.
Met up with the Anime King yesterday for the first time this year. He'd spent the past month traveling through Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam before getting back last Saturday. He was in remarkably alert shape on Sunday considering the long voyage back home. We did the usual brunch/lunch thing at a Chinese restaurant that we'd gone to before....had the Chicken A La King with Rice; it's been a while since I had that....pretty good. The sauce was good and rich. Then, it was off to the Second Cup down on Finch for coffee. I got some nice anime goodies and that CD by the late Miki Matsubara that I'd requested.
The King took tons of photos from his trip. He spent Xmas and New Year's in Tokyo; some of the shots were of my old haunts like Asakusa, Nakano and Akihabara. Seeing them was like just being there yesterday. He also took that pilgrimage all the way to the small town of Oaraiin Ibaraki Prefecture since it is the place where the anime"Girls and Panzers" is based. The town has embraced its inner tank since the city basically had an exhibit set up in the main train station paying tribute to the show. There was even a map of Oarai pointing out which areas were animatized. The King remarked that outside of the show, there was pretty much nothing else to see there. He did have dinner at a sleepy anglerfish restaurant....the anglerfish dance is a bit of a rallying point in the series.
The anime of the day was focused on the Precure franchise since the current series will be finishing up this Sunday. It was the one that I got started on, thanks to The King. It'll be kinda sad to see the girls go, although I've already started watching some of the earlier entries such as the very first one in 2003 and the one immediately preceding the current series, "Suite Precure". You always remember your first.
Before the King got back home on Saturday, I'd sent out a summons of sorts to see which of the Anime Court would be available for dinner on Sunday, since we hadn't gotten together as a group over the Holidays (outside of The Anime Bishop and I getting together at Kinton Ramen back on Boxing Day). Well, I was happy to hear that both him and The Iconoclast were able to show up. The two of them came over to The King's house and after a bit of chit-chat, we all made our way up to Wild Wings in Markham. Kinda engorged ourselves on the chicken while the Ravens-Patriots game was playing on the screens, although I was the only one who had the least bit interest. It was good to have the group together again.
It really is feeling like a Toronto Winter again. The temps will be plummeting tonight and then we will only have a high of -12 C tomorrow and then the possibility of 5 cm of snow later on this week. Plus, the Leafs are back in town. Strike? What strike?
Well, the countdown is over.....professional hockey is back on the map as of today. I saw a bit of the Winnipeg-Ottawa game earlier this afternoon...."Hockey Night in Canada" will basically be taking over the entire CBC schedule for the rest of the day and night. It started at about 3 p.m. today, and except for a dinner break of 30 minutes, HNIC will have a total of over 12 hours of broadcast. Talk about engorging desperately starving hockey fans! Right now, the Habs-Leafs game is on in Montreal, but I'm keeping things closed off for now (although I did catch the Olympic-like torch passing amongst the former captains of the Canadiens, and about a few seconds of the actual game), since I will have Mr. Moriya in about 20 minutes for his very first lesson of the year. And I need some down time to get myself prepared for it. I'm sure there will be a bit more free talk in the first several minutes of the lesson since it's been a month since our last lesson, and he and his wife had gone off for a week in Taiwan.
Speaking of Taiwan, The Anime King should be back in town after almost a month of traveling in Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam. He should have quite a few tall tales to tell since he was hinting as much in his e-mails from Asia. He did go off to the small town of Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture since the anime "Girls And Panzers"takes place there. The Anglerfish Dance has become a small phenomenon of note for a small segment of YouTube watchers although Psy won't have to worry too much about being usurped. I should be seeing him tomorrow since he did say that he will make himself available for the first Anime-And-Foodie outing of 2013; apparently, jet lag doesn't affect him at all. I also sent out a mass e-mail to the rest of the Anime Court but only The Iconoclast has even acknowledged reading it, although he said to keep him informed of developments. Don't know what's gonna happen for sure but The King should be calling me after my lesson with my student.
Much of the day before dinner was spent on that mammoth translation assignment....not finished by any stretch of the imagination but I am over the halfway point, and I did make a lot of progress. Still, I'll be taking the day off tomorrow before getting back to the grindstone on Monday.
Anyways, maybe I'll check the telly and see if Randy Carlyle's "Defence First"philosophy is finally rubbing off on the Leafs.
I've been getting some reports and more photos of the Snow That Swallowed Tokyo via Facebook. It looks like the trains have been reporting some delays but things are moving surprisingly well. Good to hear. Still, one of my old buddies over there has been reporting that certain drivers have deigned not to switch over to chains or snow tires under the circumstances, so accidents are probably occurring. Y'know, guys....the trains are still really good there.
I read an article in "The Toronto Star" about how some people are trying to quit social networking sites such as the aforementioned FB and Twitter because they're suffering some form of fatigue or they want to show the world that, yes, they no longer want to act as if they were beholden to a digital god. And so they do so....and come sneaking back when they have those Internet withdrawal symptoms. For me, I have no problems with FB or Twitter. Facebook has been my public plaza of sorts with all the pictures and all of the FB friends showing up en masse, and since the vast majority of them are in far-flung places, it's nice to be able to keep in touch with them, even digitally. There is of course some of the personal security issues that Mark Zuckerberg seems to have some problems with, but again in my case, I don't particularly put up photos of people too much, and if any photos of me end up anywhere, I would actually take that as a compliment....as long as the site isn't some fat fetish page. For a guy who still needs to know about what's been happening in Japan (such as yesterday's storm), FB has been OK by me.
Well, I heard it first thing this morning on CP24....the National Hockey League is apparently going back into business. Saw Donald Fehr and Gary Bettmann together....on the same screen....giving a relieved, if not particularly happy, declaration that a deal has tentatively been struck between the owners and the players, so that if everything goes well (and they should), professional ice hockey could be back as early as next Tuesday.
Now, the thing is how will the fans react? Some will start singing "Happy Days Are Here Again?" and will be clawing at the doors of arenas all over North America to get into their seats; others will make a warp-speed turn-away from the players and owners in the same way as a girlfriend might do when her beau grovels up to her in apology after a major screwup. The point is what the ratio will be. In Canada, I think it'll be more of the former....hockey is just too ingrained into our psyche for us to un-forgive it for long. As for me, although a lot of my love for the sport has been leached away due to years away in Japan and, frankly, the Leafs' past season....I would just be interested in tuning into the first telecast to see how the media handles the opening. Certainly, Sportsnet and TSN were giving full court press by devoting hours to this news. Maybe the equivalent in Japan would be that match-fixing scandal in sumo a couple of years ago.
Strangely enough, several hours earlier yesterday, my friend and I were talking about that subject. I went over to his apartment's party room for a New Year's party of sorts in Mississauga. It was nice and got to talk with a few people. Realized some hard truths about myself and one other person but that's the way it goes. My friend was wondering about getting a group together for a trip to Japan sometime in the future....perhaps next year....feasibly speaking, that would be the easiest way for me to go about it. But that's all very much in the future.
Well, the Holidays are finally over. To be honest, they weren't particularly all that festive for me since most of my time is actually spent at home as a translator, in any case. Plus, I didn't put on all those Xmas albums; just a few of them and plus the J-Xmas songs I profiled on my other blog. Mind you, Toronto, and the rest of the hockey-loving nation, may get a very belated Xmas present in the form of the return of the NHL...maybe.
I'm definitely back to work. Since yesterday, I've gotten daily assignments for translation, and my old student, Swank, has been sending me drafts of her application letter to one of the universities in Tokyo for a course that she would like to study. I already got paid for that...pretty generous. It's good to have that feeling of regular work even though I don't have to leave home. The rise in TTC fares doesn't bother me too much since I only go downtown when I want to, not when I have to.
Mind you, Saturday will be a crossover trip for me. I'm heading out to the wilds of Mississauga for a New Year's party of sorts at my friend's place. It's potluck and games; I think I can handle the latter but not sure what I can bring for food.
I did mention a few entries ago in the last year that I was going to meet my old Japan buddy, The Satyr, for lunch last Saturday. And I did. The snow was coming down to the extent that any memories of the Winter That Never Was the previous year disappeared completely. Before I met up with him, I took temporary refuge in that anime/manga store just down Spadina for about 15 minutes or so. Of course, it's nothing compared to some of the emporia in Tokyo, but saw a respectable number of translated manga, CDs and figures. If I were on more secure financial ground, I would probably be investing some of my cash into these things, especially on the "Haruhi Suzumiya"series, but I'm gonna have to wait somewhat longer.
Anyways, I met The Satyr at about 12:30 in front of Kom Jug Yuen. It'd been over a year since I saw the lad with the rest of my old Movie Gang back in Tokyo. The last time was when we had that dinner at the Akasaka Hooters (deep-fried pickles....well, a work in progress). We got in, sat down and started catching up on friends and movies. It'd been a very long time since I was in ol' KJY. Another friend of mine, The Entrepreneur, and I often hit this place in the early 90s. I was happy to see that the place hasn't changed all that much. The wooden tables, the Chinese lanterns and the hanging meat at the front were all there. I guess the reunion wasn't just for The Satyr and me....it was also a re-meeting with an old culinary haunt.
We both ordered what we had wanted for years there. Meat on Rice. In The Satyr's case, it was just the char-siu on rice, but I splurged to have BBQ duck crammed in with the BBQ pork as well. Splurge, of course, is a relative term with Kom Jug Yuen. I think it just cost me $6. And there was that lovely simple soup with chicken, stock, slices of ginger and some greens. Good meal for a cold day.
The chatting continued on as we made our way around the corner and to the Second Cup on College St. just across from U of T. That place was also one of memories for us. The Satyr used to work part-time there while I went there on Saturdays with the oft-huge crowd of Language Exchange members from the JCSA. The Second Cup was the transition point between the Exchange site at the International Student Centre and the various restaurants that the Japanese/Canadian crowd headed for. The Satyr told me that he and the staff behind the counter had to get their battle gear up and ready to handle the sudden influx. It certainly wasn't that way on the 28th. For one thing, the JCSA wasn't in session over the Holidays, and for another, I heard that the even larger group now is more or less heading to the closer Starbucks. So, it was nice and quiet and empty when the two of us had another reunion with an old place. It was good seeing The Satyr. Hopefully, perhaps someday, maybe some of the others might come and visit, although Movie Buddy will probably be not one of them since he became a father for the first time last year.
At this point, I would think that The Satyr will be getting ready to head on back to Japan in a couple of more days. In a way, I envy him since he's going back to the city where I had lived a pretty happy life for many, many years. But I'm settled back into life in Toronto, enjoying a proper Winter this time around. And perhaps making more trips over to Kom Jug Yuen.
I'm not typing this as I decompress at the denouement of a New Year's Eve party. I'm at home in my PJs while the television is showing the rerun of the annual NHK Red-and-White Song Festival. My parents are taping the 4.75-hour extravaganza and don't know how to use the timer function on the VCR (yes, we still have that contraption). Therefore, I must stay awake until 2 a.m. when the show finally finishes up. The White (Men's) Team won....and pretty handily, I must say. The Red (Women's) Team had a few problems amongst its participants. I wouldn't say that singers like Ayumi Hamasaki and Mika Nakashima were solely responsible for their team losing, but they certainly didn't help with some wretchedly off-tune performances. My face automatically scrunched up at the aural horror unleashed upon me, and my brain wholly wished that the Japanese would invent an Auto-Tune microphone for these two if they are ever asked back. It was nice seeing Princess Princess getting a final chance on stage on their first, only, and final appearance at the festival.
Earlier today, I went out with The Wild Guy and his family to a mutual friend's house out on the West End for some lunch. Our host was nice to create a Chinese-themed meal....considering the spread she put out, it would've cost close to $40 if we'd had the same thing at a restaurant in Yokohama easily. I only had to pay with a contribution of Laura Secord.
I've been back in Canada now for a year and two weeks. It's been a transitional period although it hasn't had anything to do with any difficulty in settling back into life in the hometown. I've been quite comfortable here. However, over the last 12 months, I've seen myself shift out of teaching, something that I've done for a quarter of a century, and into translating and writing on a couple of blogs. What has kept things connected for me between Japan and Canada is social media. With sites such as Facebook, I have been able to keep pretty good contact with my old friends in Tokyo and Chiba, even though I can no longer meet them in person for the foreseeable future. Being back in Toronto, though, I've also experienced the realization that some of my old friends have become more distant due to family responsibilities and proximity, but other friends have become closer. Certainly, the Anime King is one such fellow and I have gotten a good grounding in what has been popular in the otaku field in my time back home....something that I probably wouldn't have had in the birthplace of anime itself due to the ever-present stigma. Being in a 'foreign' country has provided some measure of sanctuary. Strangely enough, the King is currently traveling in Japan right now and won't be back for a few more weeks.
Not sure what 2013 has in store for me. I can assume that translation will continue to be my new main source of income while people like Mr. Moriya and Swank will provide me with some wisps of my main professional life....at least for a little while. I actually did a quick proofread of the latter student's application letter a couple of nights ago. She was quite appreciative of my efforts on the sudden request....I was surprised to get a far more generous deposit in my account than I warranted. One of my old friends, whom I hadn't seen in several years, said that she would try to set me up with a friend of hers. Hmmmm....I did ask to warn her friend that I was a burgeoning otaku/geek, but of course, she didn't reply to that. Well, I'll apply the same principle in this situation that I will apply to this year: Be hopeful but not expectant. Certainly when it comes to Toronto's professional sports teams, that is also a wise approach.
I hear "Auld Lang Syne" being played on the Red-and-White right now which means that things are closing down there.
The one sure thing about the Holidays, other than gaining weight, is the intense ritual of meeting up with friends and family. Did the Kinton thing on the 26th, and today I met up with Shard for lunch at the Madison Avenue Pub. Especially on a cloudy and cold day like today with all that snow on the ground, the Mad is a great place to meet for talk, beer and lunch. As usual, the two of us talked at length about movies and the writing process.
Shard brought up something that author Stephen King had written in his book about writing. Apparently, King has no love for the adverb. As an English teacher who would defend the sanctity of the Past Perfect Tense, for even an author like King to pooh-pooh a major grammatical ingredient irked me. However, I don't think it's that King wants the adverb to be banned. He just feels that the adverb is too much of a crutch for bad watered-down writing.
Case in point: The old man with a cane walked haltingly down the street.
The old man with a cane shuffled down the street.
Now, if I ever do get around to writing that great Japanese-Canadian novel, I will use the adverb...but sparingly. There are plenty of amazing verbs out there, too.
The menu rather led me astray, though. I ordered my usual wings....the menu has been updated and re-worded. I saw the options for the chicken wings as "1 lb" and "2 lbs with fries". Well, I used my mental conversion meter of fajitas and thought that the one pound would be enough and order fries as the side item. My waitress seemed a bit nonplussed by my order since she thought I was making my decision based on the cost....which wasn't the case at all. As it turned out, my 1 lb of wings was smaller than what I'd ordered in the past. The 2 lbs was my normal order. Lesson learned. I may head back there next week for penance. But I did tell Shard that I would take him to Kinton next time since he has yet to try the ramen there.
And despite having taken my cold medicine before leaving the apartment this morning, regrettably, my nose was still running like a broken faucet all throughout our lunch. Luckily, Shard and I have known each other far too long to care really. Still, it was uncomfortable to have to reach for ragged Kleenex every thirty seconds for a nose that felt swollen inside.
Tomorrow will be a mega-outing. I'll be meeting my old friend from my Japan days, The Satyr, for lunch down at a Chinatown institution, Kom Jug Yuen. He's been back for the Holidays for about a week but his family lives quite a ways north of Toronto. And then later on, I'll be meeting up with Automan and his group for dinner. Apparently, earlier in the day, the group will be splitting into two with one team catching "The Hobbit" and the other team seeing "Les Miserables" at Silver City. I've already seen one and I have no interest in seeing the other, so I will be catching them after their viewings. As for "The Hobbit", the word on the street about this 48 FPS gimmick seems to be rather negative. I was OK with it but I won't be crying in my beer if it did get the hook.
Boxing Day is always the biggest day for those sales, and two of my dining companions were taking advantage of that fact early yesterday at Best Buy, etc. For me, it simply ain't that important. Instead, I asked around a few days back and got my two friends, The Automan and his wife, plus The Anime Bishop to come to Kinton on Baldwin St. to partake in some good ol' hearty (and heart-ripping) ramen.
Now, if you ask any ramen fanatic in Japan, and there are millions of them, he/she will say that ramen is an all-year, all-weather dish. Perhaps, but I go for the more romanticized notion that ramen was ultimately made for Winter ingestion. Ramen is still sold in the Japanese neighbourhoods via mobile carts as well as in the established restaurants. And what better way to get that Japanese flavour by partaking in a bowl of those slurpy noodles and savoury stock outside seated at a cart under that portable roof?
And so at about 11 yesterday morning, I showed up as the very first person in line at Kinton. I was a bit surprised since Kinton's reputation as one of the most popular ramen joints in town had made me think that there would already be a fairly long snake of people, but things didn't get interesting until about 11:20 when the ramen pilgrims started showing up and lining up. It almost looked like the typical scene in Sapporo at a particularly popular ramen joint. Fortunately, my buddies were prompt.
By the time Kinton opened at 11:30, it didn't take long at all for the entire place (not that the restaurant was ever all that big) to fill up to the brim....I'd probably say that the seats were filled within 5 minutes. Luckily for the four of us, we were able to get the counter seats so that we could see the cooks in action. The staff was primed and ready....before the door opened, I heard them inside doing their customary rah-rah chant for psyching themselves up for their first big day after Xmas. I've only been to Kinton twice, but I can imagine that currently, it's probably the liveliest place on Baldwin St.
The first time I went to Kinton at the end of October, I had ordered the Extra Pork Ramen with the broth set at Rich. Great stuff but I almost literally bust a gut downing that bowl. So, I played it a bit more conservatively this time around, and ordered the Shio Ramen with regular broth. One other reason was that I also wanted to try the karaage....the Japanese-style fried chicken. As you can see, it came out with a few leaves of lettuce, a wedge of lemon to spritz on the golden clumps, and a dipping sauce. Several days earlier, I'd had the karaage teishoku at Ajisen, and mentioned that the pieces there were a bit too rounded. No such problem at Kinton. Good crunch and juicy thigh meat....yep, this was about as close to the authentic karaage that I've had since I came back home to Canada. Me so happy.
The shio ramen came soon afterwards with the topping of shoulder pork, soft-boiled egg, finely chopped green onion, bean sprouts and very chopped salty pork. The broth was indeed savoury but not too salty....this wasn't a Sapporo Ichiban instant mix. The ingredients worked together to bring that salt in. This ramen plus the karaage helped to balance things out for my lunch, and drove away the cold from my bones. The hot green tea helped also in trying to break up the fat that accumulated in my body....or so I tell myself.
The Anime Bishop actually went for the big guns in the form of the Extra Pork...but with the spicy broth. He could finish it....barely. He was quite happy with it, but I'm fairly sure that he probably thought the same thing that I'd thought on my initial visit....once every couple of months is sufficient.
With tax and tip, my bill came to about $20; another reason that I won't be going to Kinton with nearly as much frequency as I used to back in Japan. As we left, there was a sizable lineup. Don't let this picture fool you, the line extended further inside like an ingrown toenail. Not sure how the folks sitting at the front end table felt, but having waiting customers breathe down your neck as you eats is also a true thing that happens at some of the smaller ramen joints in Japan.
There is a postscript to this entry, and that is the Yakitori Bar exactly at 1 Baldwin St. I believed it opened up sometime in November. There are already a few Japanese places on the street, but Kinton and the Yakitori Bar are the two specialists....just like the places back in Japan. The four of us are wondering about when to tackle this place next.
Took a look at some of the menu. The Yakitori Bar seems to follow the same hours as Kinton, although it didn't open yesterday until the evening. I have to say that I am alternately intrigued/terrified of the thought of Kimchi Poutine, but hey, that's why I'm a foodie. Gotta try new things. It might be something when The Anime King gets back from his Asia odyssey.
The weather was cold but the big snow came several hours later. Can't imagine what it must've been like on Baldwin today.
