Short trips around Ontario

Pictures from the two trips below can be found here

 
Pictures from a weekend camping trip to Algonquin park.



 
Day trip to Wasaga beach with a good friend from university.

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Ontario Wasaga pictures outdoors Canadian outdoors Canada Wasaga beachAlgonquin Algonquin Park camping sunset

Canoeing trip to James Bay in North Ontario

Just over a week ago me and 3 friends departed on a 7 day trip to North Ontario. We drove to Cochrane and took a train to Moose river from there. We then proceeded down the river on our canoes; paddling for 5 days, sometimes for 30 km/day and at times carrying the canoes through some very shallow waters. We canoed past Moosonee till James Bay, a bay to Hudson Bay, which in turn is the bay to the Arctic Ocean, where we braved a quick swim in the bay in some extremely cold waters. Afterwards we took the tide coming in back to Moosonee, where we took the train back to Cochrane.

Overall we paddled for nearly 120 kms, camped out in remote areas, had black bears visiting our campsites, slept in a baggage train cart and technically swam in the Arctic Ocean; in conclusion the trip was awesome.

All of the pictures from the trip can be found here


Me and Vadim on a train from Cochrane to Moose river.


View of the sunset over Moose river.

 
Canoeing teams; me with Masha and Vadim with Danila


A campsite with a view not far from Moosonee

 
Moon over Moose river


Camping in a swampy grass field 10 kms from James Bay.


Swimming technically in the Arctic Ocean, in reality though in James Bay.


Spending the night in a cargo cart of a train in Moosonee.

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Ontario North Ontario pictures outdoors Canadian outdoors Canada moose rivercanoeing sunset train moon
James Bay camping trip

Various nights out around Toronto

Pictures from the nights out below can be found here


 
A night out at Panorama, 51st floor lounge w/ a nice view of downtown Toronto


Sanya Karyakin's birthday.

 
Igor's BBQ.

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Toronto nightout pictures Panorama

Niagara Winery tour and Moon river camping

Pictures from a tour of the wineries on Niagara on the Lake.
Click here to view all the pictures from the trip.






Pictures from a camping trip to Moon river. Click here to view all the pictures from the trip.

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Canada trip Niagara Moon river camping winery winery tour

World Expo 2005

While I was in Japan I found out by coincidence about the World Expo that was going on at the time I was there. I was told about all the technology that was being presented there and so I felt compelled to pursue the unique opportunity to experience this event.

 

What was amazing about the expo was that they built an entire city just for the expo! The expo is located in Aichi and basically consists of countries presenting about themselves and in relation to the theme of the event which was on the Environement. In addition to their pavilions, each country also had a restaurant displaying the cuisine for that country.

There were also several corporations presenting at the expo, including Toyota, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Japan Rail, etc.

The expo was so interesting that we stayed there for the entire day: about 13 hrs. The only trouble was that the lineups to many places were soooo long! Unfortunately we were also prohibited from taking pictures inside some shows :( ... so there aren't as many pictures as I would've liked.

 
 
Toyota had a really good showing at the event with the futuristic personal vehicles, a performing Robot symphony and a Robot rapper, along with displays of some other technology they are working on.


 
Japan Railways showcased their new revolutionary train that is based on Maglev superconducting technology. We were shown a 3D movie on it. This train is in the testing phase and has already set the worlds fastest record of over 580 km/hr. This technology is supposed to be really safe despite the fact that the train levitates above ground at all times.



There were also some wonderful artistic presentations. This one was designed by Mamoru Oshi - director of Ghost in the Shell - and had some spectacular music with amazing visual effects.


The country exhibits were really interesting, however I didn't get a chance to visit too many of them because I spent most of my time on the corporate exhibits; at hindsight I really wish I had.

 
Canada had a really good presentation in their pavilion. It was an artistic multimedia showcase with some very nice visual displays and music; it was so impressive that I was telling myself 'I want to go there' even though I'm already from Canada :)


 
China, the site of the next World Expo in 2010, had a nice interior design in its pavilion and some videos informing about the country, however, it was rather empty and unfortunately didn't display the rich Chinese culture and traditions.


 
India on the other hand had a really wonderful pavilion that portrayed its rich culture and was very informative.

 
The expo city was really beautiful at night.


 
Other random photos from the expo.

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Japan trip Travel expo world expo expo 2005 Aichi Toyota pavilion JR pavilion Maglev JR
Canada pavilion China pavilion
India pavilion Mountain of Dreams
Mamoru Oshi Toyota robots
robotsfuture vehicle

Impression and experiences of Japan

After arriving in Japan we quickly felt welcome: w/ people nodding to us on occasion on the streets. At the same time I found that the Japanese people often went out of their way to help us find the places we were looking for; this was especially useful since the street system is rather difficult to follow and therefore finding a particular house can be very difficult.
Also the Japanese people are very polite and although bowing may seem silly at first, I quickly got into it and found that this atmosphere and these customs made interacting with other people more pleasant.

It was interesting to see how popular manga (Japanese comics) are in Japan. They are sold at every convenience store and book store. I found that a lot of people read them on the trains and in the subways. They have manga of all kinds: kids manga, violent manga, manga for adults, romance manga, porn manga and even gay manga.

There is some great food in Japan and not surprisingly a lot of restaurants; since the country is small for its large population, there is a high concentration of restaurants in many parts of the country. Some of the most common restaurants are ramen shops: they usually have a good selection of ramen soups, which are pretty cheap. There are lots of restaurants and shops which sell sushi, soba noodles, takoyaki (fried octopus balls) and a few restaurants with Okonomiaki. In Okonomiaki restaurants you get a mixture of eggs and other things like shrimp, meats and vegetables which you then cook yourself; the end product is something that looks like a big, thick omelet with a lot of stuff mixed in it and tastes pretty good.

One of the things that Japanese love are the onsen (hot bath places); these places usually have hot water pools, saunas, cold water pools and a jjacuzzi. An onsen fits a lot of people, the largest can fit about 200 or so, and the place is often busy. In the onsen itself men and women are separated and people are always naked inside. It is really relaxing at an onsen, which is probably why it is so popular.

There are a lot of internet/manga cafes in Japan, where you can surf on the internet, read manga and watch DVDs. What you may not know is that some of these manga cafes are open 24 hrs and come with private cubicles, a public shower and enough room for you to sleep and all at a cheap price. We have stayed twice at such a cafe: once sleeping on a mattress in a cubicle and another time sleeping on large comfy business chairs. These cafes come w/ a large choice of free drinks, videos, internet access, manga books and magazines ... therefore a night at such a manga cafe is a really good experience.

Japan is located in an active earthquake zone and earthquakes there have not been uncommon. In fact, we were told that the reason that there aren't so many sky scrapers in Japanese cities is because of all the earthquakes. Towards the end of the trip, I actually experienced my first earthquake in Tokyo. We were walking on the street and the ground started shaking underneath us and the street signs and traffic lights were shaking as well. It was a weird experience and rather unexpected.

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Japan trip Travel japanese food manga cafe internet cafe japanese cuisine onsen manga japanese people Okonomiaki

Photos from Japan - Part 3

Below are selected pictures from the 3rd week in Japan. Some of my other photographs can also be found atAlex Pilchin Photography


Plastic food on display outside of many Japanese restaurant. This is an ingenious method to allow you to see the selection of food dishes available at the restaurant; it is also useful when you don't know Japanese: just take a photo and point out the plate to the waitress.


Himeji Castle, largest castle in Japan. Its amazing how they took into consideration so many things when they built this castle.


Manga library in Hiroshima; it is full of manga (Japanese comics).


Checkout this miniature truck. There are a lot of miniature cars in Japan: sometime its hard to believe they are not toys.


Me in a male kimono at a ryokan in Hiroshima.


The hospital building over which the worlds first atomic bomb explode in Hiroshima.


In Hiroshima at the Peace Memorial Park; At this site every year there is a memorial held for the victims of the atomic bomb.


Japanese rice fields outside Kumamoto. There are tons of rice fields all around the country. One distinguishing character of the rice fields is that they tend to be flooded w/ water around 2 feet deep.


View of the capsules in the Capsule Hotel in Fukuoka. There nearly 500 of them in one room! but they come with a TV, radio, alarm clock, light control and air condition control. Also the actual hotels can be pretty fancy.


Ramen stands on the streets of Fukuoka. People also met to drink alcohol there.


Me and my brother in our complementary traditional Japanese summer wear (Yukata?)at a capsule hotel in Fukuoka.


Someone playing the Super Mario 1 arcade game :)


Dinner at a restaurant in Osaka w/ Mike and his local friends.


Singing at a Karaoke in Osaka with Mike and his friends.


Me on my way to the world's largest ferris wheel, located in Osaka.


View of Osaka from the ferris wheel.


A float in the Gion Matsuri festival, one of the most renowned of Japanese festivals, in Kyoto.


An old merchant district in Takayama.


Inside Takayama-jinya the oldest government building in Japan that remains from the days of the Tokugawa Shogunate (military rule) and was an operational governance building past mid 1900s.


A tea room in Takayama-jinya.

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Japan trip Travel Hiroshima A-Bomb Dome Peace Memorial Park Himeji Osaka karaoke jinya Takayama
castle Mario arcade
capsulecapsule hotel
manga library manga Kyoto
miniature cars ferris wheel Japanese tea room rice fieldFukuoka kimono plastic food ramen stand Gion Matsuri