Went to Grouse again with Boom (Korean friend) for boarding. Probably going to be the last try this year within the Vancouver area, as I’ll be going for the final run at Whistler on April 12th Anyway Grouse was so awesome today. I left around 5:30pm and got there in just about 30 minutes. It’s probably the closest skiing resort from downtown. The weather was supposed to be kind of foggy/cloudy but when we got there all the fog somehow cleared up. Snow condition was really good, couple cm’s of “new snow” and it was all fluffy and soft awesome feel As it was so soft I wasn’t too worried about getting hurt so I went ahead to try out some crazy moves that I wasn’t dare to try out last time (it was so hard packed last time we got here ) Boom waxed my board for me and I could totally feel the difference. It’s somehow more easier to control. Not too slippery though even though I thought it would be. Overall just makes the board more maneuverable.

Since the sky was cleared up and it was still bright I was able to see really beautiful panoramic view of downtown Vancouver (was able to see Canada Place and Hyatt Hotel quite clearly), and all the beautiful snow covered trees on the other nearby mountains. Pretty breathtaking. Only bad thing about today was that it was a bit chilly, so we ended up leaving after maybe 6 runs or so. I didn’t really get tired at all, guess I’m improving? lol but I did have a really crazy fall which I landed flat on my chest It’s still hurting but nothing too serious.. Overall it was a very enjoyable night.

So I went to Aki Restaurant on Monday with Alice and Matthew. I didn’t bring my camera with me so I took some pics with Matthew’s cellphone. It took him a couple days before he sent me the pictures but anyway here they are It’s in downtown, 745 Thurlow Street, really close to Burrard. I liked the interior a lot, it had this “Japanese izakaya” feel, and the chefs were all Japanese. They had an open area where the chef grills stuff in front of you, really interesting. As soon as I stepped in I already noticed a lot of Japanese people sitting around so I kind of already knew that the food would be pretty authentic, unlike all those westernized Japanese food…

I liked the tamago appie a lot!!! Tamago is always my all time favorite, and this one came in huge! size of a brick Also had this tasty beef sukiyaki, ebi mayo (prawn + mayonnaise), chicken kidney, mixed mushrooms… Oh we ordered two of these Yaki Onigiri (grilled Japanese riceballs), they were super tasty!!! Both sizes were crispy, and had a salty miso taste. Also ordered grilled sable fish and Japanese rice cake. Both weren’t too bad. The ONLY bad one was the “shiokara squid” (salty raw squid). IT WAS SO BAD. It was extremely salty, and I mean it literally. Alice said that it was supposed to be that salty, but after one bite I was like….ewww…couldn’t take it anymore. We ordered a couple Heinekens, and were finally able to finish the dish…lol.

Finally got a chance to check out Winson’s new condo (co-worker at my last job), well he just rented it and moved in about 2 weeks ago. I personally don’t ever want to rent a place again, as all the money you “invest” in it goes to nowhere since you don’t own it yourself, but in Winson’s case I think it’s still good as he’s got this crazy good view of the Burrard Inlet / Flase Creek area. Yes, it’s in West End close to Davie St and Cardero St. Three minites walk to the beach, and many many many varieties of restaurants within minutes of walk, not bad at all IMO. I have always wanted to live in the downtown area…. but it’s just not affordable…. I heard from him that *any* condo around that area would cost over 500 grand, so people usually rent instead of buying. Anyway, congrads on moving in Winson!

We went to this Singaporian restaurant (didn’t bother memorizing the name of it) close to his place for some dinner food. Yuck, it was bad~~ and we sort of figured it as soon as we stepped in. Well as we were pretty hungry we were like whatever and just grabbed a seat. The food turned out to be pretty bad. I ordered my favorite “Laksa”, which I could say was totally below average - the coconut taste wasn’t there at all, plus the ingredients were kind of cheesy. Winson’s Singaporian fried rice was, well, just some normal fried rice with some seafood in it, looked like some of those frozen seafood anyway. We ate it all anyway since we were hungry, but I bet neither of us will pay another visit.