Hello North America!

Toronto, Canada: May 26-30, 2017
After our wonderful trip in Okinawa, Caoliang and I headed back to North America. This would be sayonara to Japan for a while but definitely not forever!
So from Okinawa, we flew to Tokyo and then awaited a flight bound for Toronto but not before stoping in America. Like I’ve said in an earlier post, American passport holders are so lucky. When we were in Tokyo airport trying to get checked in for our flight to Toronto, Caoliang had run into some trouble, again. He has a Canadian residence and a ten year visa for America so we weren’t sure what the issue was. Luckily, we had ample amount of time before our flight and the airline staff was very helpful. When it came down to it, it turns out that a rule recently changed where even with his ten year visa, he had to fill out another form online before getting approval to transit in America. It must be all this political change that’s happening lately. It was a worry I had about him coming to America but luckily for us, this was a problem that we could fix quickly and still make our flight. I was honestly a bit worried I would be traveling alone, AGAIN!

Twelve plus hours later, we finally made it to Toronto with all our bags and in our AirBnB. Phew what a long day! The long flight wasn’t too terrible. We each watched a handful of movies, ate 1.5 meals and slept maybe for 3-4 hours. The apartment we had rented via AirBnB was in an area called Kensington. When we arrived it was already nightfall so it was hard to get a good feel for the place. But it was Friday night and the area we stayed was very lively. There seemed to be lots of bars and late night eateries that were still open when we got in. It was tempting to go have a drink or dance to some music but I was so buggered from the whole day of traveling and sleeping in uncomfortable places. So after going out to find some food, we headed back to the apartment to tidy up and try to sleep. The next few days were spent roaming around Toronto downtown and the area in which our apartment was. It was the weekend, so the city was very much alive. The area we stayed was right around the corner from Chinatown so it was nice to walk there and get a snack or just people watch. Chinatown in any city is an interesting place for me. Here, I got my egg tart fix as well as boba tea. Yay!

Kensington Market area was really interesting. It reminded me of a familiar place in Houston, Montrose. This neighborhood was SO hipster it was like Montrose times 10. From the people, the fashion, and the graffiti on the wall, this place just screamed hipster. It was cool to be in though. It was completely different from a place I had just been for the last few years. Here tattoos where everywhere, provocative fashion was no big deal, trash on the streets, cigarette smokers left and right, graffiti on every other wall; it really made me feel the reverse culture shock I hear many people talk about. We also got lucky enough to catch one of their neighborhood events, Pedestrian Sunday. This day, many people fill the streets of Kensington Market to hear live music, buy local goods, have Sunday brunch, or just people watch. It was interesting to see and also nice it was literally right outside our doorstep.

Honestly the first day getting in, I was in a bit of a shock. Now I was able to understand everything around me, more people looked like me, things were so dirty, and people a bit rude; it took some time to readjust. We only spent a couple days in Toronto but I think it’s just a slow process to reset yourself to a western place.

Anyways, in Toronto we did fun things like checkout the large Art Museum in which we got to see an exhibition Georgia O’Keefe as well as the Ripley’s Aquarium. We also got to eat at many different restaurants as well as walk around a lot of downtown. I had never been in Toronto before but the one word I would have to use to describe this city, or what I experienced in it anyways, is free spirited. The people seem much more liberal in their way of living, fashion, and mindsets. Could I live here? Yeah sure, with a bit of time I think Toronto would be a fun place to live.

After a few days of roaming the city, eating at different places, seeing some sights and getting all of Caoliang’s needed duties done, we were on a train to our next destination, MONTREAL!

xx

t