Hockey Morning in Canada
The Set-Up
Last month, I started volunteering at a Japanese-English language exchange club downtown. I absolutely love it because I get to practice my Japanese again and meet a ton of really fantastic people! The only thing is that since these Japanese people *are* more in love with English than normal, I haven't been able to talk as much about Japanese pop culture as I thought I would. Sure is strange when the English speaker knows more about jpop and jdramas than the Japanese speaker. Maybe I *am* a Japanophile. ^_^;
Recently, I had an exchange with Yuri, who is hands-down one of the coolest people I've ever met. I ended up inviting her and her friends to the Canucks Open Practice at GM Place on Saturday morning.
The problem was that I knew almost nothing about the Canucks!
Me: Wow, I can't wait to finally see Mark Messier live . .
Dad: *laughs*
Me: And Pavel Bure!
Dad: *laughs more*
Me: Um . . Patrick Roy?
Dad: You're in trouble, ma boy. *goes back to Craigslist*
So I spent Thursday and Friday cramming in as much Canucks info as possible but I just couldn't retain anything outside of that Sedin twins commercial. :P As a Vancouverite, I fail. Luckily, it didn't really matter since no one drilled me and everyone enjoyed the experience even after I warned them that Kimutaku was not playing today. ;)
The Pictures
Flash makes Canucks look like TRON.
I actually ended up recognizing NO ONE, not even the Sedins, because of the helmets and unmarked uniforms. From what I heard, the rest of the fans didn't seem to have the same problem as me though. :P
Ganging up on the goalie
Attack, black ninja style!
More evidence that I'm a bonafide dork: I somehow compared this stretch to sumo wrestling. :P
And then the Canucks ended the practice with a little shoot-out . . I believe Brent Sopel got the loudest pop from the fans, he was actually only one of two who managed to score.
Yuki, Me, and Yuki #2 at the back
Miki, Takato and Yuri at the front
Our mascot, Fin, shot freebies into the crowd and then it was Fin.
Anyway, it was a memorable experience: my first time seeing hockey-anything live and only my third time at GM Place and first time sitting this close. The Canucks were surprisingly focussed and didn't acknowledge the fans much during practice. Sadly, they ended up losing the game the next night. >_<
Then lunch! where . .
. . I noticed nearly everyone had a pocket dictionary so I got them to do a Nintendo DS style pose. :) Like me, Yuki didn't have one so she used a piece of paper instead. ^_^
Peace is contagious!
Cool fact: Miki and Takato work at a movie theatre and Takato also got to don the Pikachu suit for a promo! As you probably know, I had to wear a Pikachu suit too for a Nintendo tour, so everyone called us Pikachu Brothers after that. ^_^ He even got to dress up as friggin' NARUTO too but complained that the kids kept hitting him with Rasengan punches. ^_^; I told him he should've just stayed in-character and hit them back. ;)
Miki's claim to fame is that she met Odagiri Joe at some sorta press conference at the theatre, but sadly wasn't able to talk to him since she was one of the employees. ^_^
Afterwards, Yuri and Yuki had to leave for school so I brought Miki, Takato and Yuki #2 to Gastown for omiyage shopping.
The obligatory Gastown Steam Clock shot. And yes, we did end up waiting around till 3 for the little steam tune thing.
Later, Yuki #2 had to leave too and it was starting to feel like the ending of Lord of the Rings. When Miki and I left for the washroom, I called Takato "Frodo" since he was the last one left. ;)
Unfortunately, we couldn't find him when we came back out! I told Miki to follow her heart radar and we ended up walking all around Canada Place until we found out that he was waiting just a few meters outside the washroom doors and we somehow didn't see him! So much for following your heart. :P
The Ending
Meeting up with Yuri at Burrard Station for one last goodbye
Sadly, this story doesn't have a happy ending because it turned out that ALL of them were going back to Japan by Tuesday!! I was sure Yuri said she was going to be around for another 5 months. >_< I've been really depressed since the revelation . . I've honestly never met a group of people that I felt so in sync with and I only got to hang out with them for one day. :( Otherwise this was truly the most enjoyable day I've had this year; I just really wish I had more time to get to know them better. *sigh* If I could get emo for a sec, the whole city suddenly feels really empty without them here. At least Murphy's Law is still here for me. =/
No J-Pop or Wrestling this time; instead, here's a cute video of a puppy. Aww . . appears that he attacked the owner at the end, though. ^_^; I've actually been reading up on "Teacup Dogs" lately after seeing a Teacup Chihuahua downtown that was seriously the tiniest dog I'd ever seen! Near hamster-size . . I wish I had brought my camera (I'm now bringing my camera everywhere in case I spot any more unbelievably strange things.).
Quiznos ticker: I tasted A LOT of cheese in the The Philly Cheesesteak sandwich. Unfortunately, it tasted like processed cheese. :P Grade: C+
Last month, I started volunteering at a Japanese-English language exchange club downtown. I absolutely love it because I get to practice my Japanese again and meet a ton of really fantastic people! The only thing is that since these Japanese people *are* more in love with English than normal, I haven't been able to talk as much about Japanese pop culture as I thought I would. Sure is strange when the English speaker knows more about jpop and jdramas than the Japanese speaker. Maybe I *am* a Japanophile. ^_^;
Recently, I had an exchange with Yuri, who is hands-down one of the coolest people I've ever met. I ended up inviting her and her friends to the Canucks Open Practice at GM Place on Saturday morning.
The problem was that I knew almost nothing about the Canucks!
Me: Wow, I can't wait to finally see Mark Messier live . .
Dad: *laughs*
Me: And Pavel Bure!
Dad: *laughs more*
Me: Um . . Patrick Roy?
Dad: You're in trouble, ma boy. *goes back to Craigslist*
So I spent Thursday and Friday cramming in as much Canucks info as possible but I just couldn't retain anything outside of that Sedin twins commercial. :P As a Vancouverite, I fail. Luckily, it didn't really matter since no one drilled me and everyone enjoyed the experience even after I warned them that Kimutaku was not playing today. ;)
The Pictures
Flash makes Canucks look like TRON.
I actually ended up recognizing NO ONE, not even the Sedins, because of the helmets and unmarked uniforms. From what I heard, the rest of the fans didn't seem to have the same problem as me though. :P
Ganging up on the goalie
Attack, black ninja style!
More evidence that I'm a bonafide dork: I somehow compared this stretch to sumo wrestling. :P
And then the Canucks ended the practice with a little shoot-out . . I believe Brent Sopel got the loudest pop from the fans, he was actually only one of two who managed to score.
Yuki, Me, and Yuki #2 at the back
Miki, Takato and Yuri at the front
Our mascot, Fin, shot freebies into the crowd and then it was Fin.
Anyway, it was a memorable experience: my first time seeing hockey-anything live and only my third time at GM Place and first time sitting this close. The Canucks were surprisingly focussed and didn't acknowledge the fans much during practice. Sadly, they ended up losing the game the next night. >_<
Then lunch! where . .
. . I noticed nearly everyone had a pocket dictionary so I got them to do a Nintendo DS style pose. :) Like me, Yuki didn't have one so she used a piece of paper instead. ^_^
Peace is contagious!
Cool fact: Miki and Takato work at a movie theatre and Takato also got to don the Pikachu suit for a promo! As you probably know, I had to wear a Pikachu suit too for a Nintendo tour, so everyone called us Pikachu Brothers after that. ^_^ He even got to dress up as friggin' NARUTO too but complained that the kids kept hitting him with Rasengan punches. ^_^; I told him he should've just stayed in-character and hit them back. ;)
Miki's claim to fame is that she met Odagiri Joe at some sorta press conference at the theatre, but sadly wasn't able to talk to him since she was one of the employees. ^_^
Afterwards, Yuri and Yuki had to leave for school so I brought Miki, Takato and Yuki #2 to Gastown for omiyage shopping.
The obligatory Gastown Steam Clock shot. And yes, we did end up waiting around till 3 for the little steam tune thing.
Later, Yuki #2 had to leave too and it was starting to feel like the ending of Lord of the Rings. When Miki and I left for the washroom, I called Takato "Frodo" since he was the last one left. ;)
Unfortunately, we couldn't find him when we came back out! I told Miki to follow her heart radar and we ended up walking all around Canada Place until we found out that he was waiting just a few meters outside the washroom doors and we somehow didn't see him! So much for following your heart. :P
The Ending
Meeting up with Yuri at Burrard Station for one last goodbye
Sadly, this story doesn't have a happy ending because it turned out that ALL of them were going back to Japan by Tuesday!! I was sure Yuri said she was going to be around for another 5 months. >_< I've been really depressed since the revelation . . I've honestly never met a group of people that I felt so in sync with and I only got to hang out with them for one day. :( Otherwise this was truly the most enjoyable day I've had this year; I just really wish I had more time to get to know them better. *sigh* If I could get emo for a sec, the whole city suddenly feels really empty without them here. At least Murphy's Law is still here for me. =/
No J-Pop or Wrestling this time; instead, here's a cute video of a puppy. Aww . . appears that he attacked the owner at the end, though. ^_^; I've actually been reading up on "Teacup Dogs" lately after seeing a Teacup Chihuahua downtown that was seriously the tiniest dog I'd ever seen! Near hamster-size . . I wish I had brought my camera (I'm now bringing my camera everywhere in case I spot any more unbelievably strange things.).
Quiznos ticker: I tasted A LOT of cheese in the The Philly Cheesesteak sandwich. Unfortunately, it tasted like processed cheese. :P Grade: C+