2022 review - travel

This year my wife and I were able to travel more than the previous couple years, including 2 trips to Ontario and a long-awaited trip to Japan.

Japan

Japan announced they would finally re-open their borders to foreign travelers on October 11. We immediately bought tickets and flew into Haneda on October 27, just in time for Halloween.

We stayed in the Dogenzaka district of Shibuya in Tokyo, walking distance to Shibuya scramble. This is a lively area, and Halloween was incredible. Streets were slammed with wild costumes. We roamed the streets for hours taking it all in.

My wife has been taking Japanese lessons from a resident of Fukushima Japan, so midway through our trip we took 3 days to visit him. We spent the first night at an onsen in Nikko. The following morning on a walk we saw 3 low flying fighter jets following a provocation by North Korea. We spent the first night in Fukushima at a small izakaya with two of the teachers co-workers.

In the following days we took a trip to the coast to see the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. There were Giger counters along the freeway to show there was no concern of radiation. We visited a school that had been wiped out and was now a historical site. We also stopped at a memorial museum that detailed the timeline, mistakes made during, and the aftermath and cleanup.

TeamLAB

Pre-covid, during a trip to Japan we saw an exhibition called teamLab Borderless. It's a audio/visual installation, calming music, swirling lights. It's hard to describe the experience, but it's a must see. On this trip we found they had a new installation, and knew we had to go.

This experience was just as spectacular. It started with a brief intro outside, in Japanese. There was a TV with visual aids as they were speaking, and we come to learn that... continued in spoiler below:

we might get wet, and had to remove our socks and shoes, and rollup out pants. After securing our belongings in a locker we walked barefoot to the entrance. It's through a dimly lit all black corridor. We could hear rushing water. We turned a corner and there's a long narrow ramp, 30' long, up 5', with water rushing down. After ascending the dark ramp we entered a giant mirrored room with floor to ceiling strands of LEDs pulsing beams of light with ethereal spacey music. Another room was bathed in a solid vibrant light and filled with 6' rubber spheres. One room had us walking through 6' of milky water with swimming colorful fish projected on the surface from above.

There were more rooms after that were just as inventive.

Outside there was a fancy vegan ramen shop, Vegan Ramen UZU. It wasn't the best ramen, but overall we had great food on this trip.

Ontario

Before Japan we took a trip to Ontario to visit my family. We spent a week at my parents' friends' cottage on Lake Joseph. I stayed another week, but spent most of it working on Steam launch.

We went to Ontario a second time in 2022 over Christmas. The flight in was on December 23, during a winter storm that cancelled thousands of flights. Luckily our flight wasn't cancelled, but we weren't entirely spared. First it was delayed 4 hours, which seemed like a blessing as we'd no longer have to get up before dawn. Another 2 hour delay was announced moments before the scheduled departure. Then we ended up spending 4 hours in the plane on the runway for a variety of reasons (issue with refueling requiring a mechanic, waiting for de-icing, long line to take off). It was after 3am once we landed, followed by a tired search for a rental car (everything was closed), shuttle to the hotel I'd booked just before takeoff. We got to the hotel after 4:30am which is when bookings auto-cancel. The room was still available, it just took longer to sort out, and just after 5am we could finally sleep.

The next morning we drove from Toronto to KW. It had snowed a lot the previous week, but the roads were clear. That night we wrapped presents, and opened them the next morning. I got a flour duster and I've really wondered why I'd never bought one before - I love that thing.

After Christmas a good friend of mine from high school and I went out for a bite at Jane Bond. As fate would have it we saw some other friends from high school so we hung out together and had drinks. Later that night as things progressed we headed to Ethel's Lounge. More old friends showed up, this time from primary school, whom I hadn't seen or spoken to for decades. A seemingly typical event at Christmas time in your home town.

New Years was uneventful, stayed in with my parents and sister putting together a jigsaw puzzle and watching Schitt's Creek. My sister was doing dry-January, so after midnight I joined her in that commitment. I pretty quickly failed shortly after returning home, having forgot about it and drinking a beer. Oops. But stuck with it otherwise.

I ended up doing a dozen or so small projects for my parents while there, trying to make up for the previous trip. It was good to have something to do.

Tofino

First trip of 2022 was actually in May, a trip to Tofino with a good friend. He was on Vancouver Island for work, and was staying a few extra days. I'd left some planning to the last minute, so at about 9pm Friday night I determined the only way to catch the 9am Port Angeles-Victoria ferry would be to drive that night (the Edmonds-Mukilteo ferry didn't start early enough to give me the time needed to get to Port Angeles). So I quick booked a cheap hotel in Port Angeles, packed up my car and headed out that night at about 11pm.

The following morning I took the ferry into Victoria, picked up my friend and we started the long drive to Tofino. We first stopped at Fern Cafe and Bakery - which is now one of my favourite spots, I have to get their fried "Chickun" every time I'm in Victoria.

We also stopped at the Malahat SkyWalk - a 10 story wood and metal structure about 30mins outside Victoria. It was incredibly windy, but had great views of the Saanich Inlet and surrounding mountains. Of course we rode the long spiral slide down. We also stopped at Old Country Market, a touristy collection of shops with... goats on their roofs. It's a fun stop worth about the 15mins we spent there.

After the 4+ hour drive we arrived in Tofino; this was the first time I'd been there and it wasn't what I expected. It's very remote but felt more like a skiing town than a remove fishing village. There's a great selection of restaurants. The first morning we had breakfast at The Pointe Restaurant at the Wickaninnish Inn (steel cut oats), lunch at Bravocados (vegan hot chicken eggs benny), and dinner at Basic Goodness Pizzeria (Neapolitan pizza).

It wasn't only food, we drove to different parks in the area for short hikes, and had some campfires on the beach at sunset. One morning we watched a class of 30 from Surf Sister try surfing for their first time in the near freezing Pacific Ocean. One night we watched a guy kite landboarding across the beach.

On the way back to the Victoria airport to drop my friend off we first stopped at Fish on 5th for vegan fish and chips. It was a slab of tofu wrapped in nori, battered and fried, and to be honest, it was pretty good. Very greasy, but damn I love all fried tofu.

After that I took the Ferry back to Port Angeles, and then the long drive back to Seattle.

Bike to Port Angeles

I also biked to Port Angeles, then taking the ferry to Victoria - more here.

Portland

In April my sister flew in from Waterloo for a short trip. Our trip to Portland was the highlight.

Our first stop was at 2 galleries. Our arrival time worked out perfect, exactly how so... I forget. Regardless, we saw many great pieces, including Kehinde Wiley, and Frida Kahlo.

The next day started with coffee at Seven Virtues, including a 9/10 espresso.

Next we took a drive out to a damp forest for a short hike, including a stop at a narrow waterfall. Spring was just taking hold, so after getting back to the city, we spent the rest of the afternoon just walking through the streets and parks of Portland. Portland street sight posts are heavily decorated with quirky stickers, so at one stop into an eclectic store I bought a stack of stickers. While on our walk we'd occasionally stop at a fitting spot to place a sticker on the great city of Portland. We also made a few stops for pints.

Later that night we got pizza at Virtuous Pie, also 9/10. We followed that up with 4 donuts from Voodoo Doughnut. It nearly killed me. And absolutely worth it.

The next day we headed back to Seattle, but first we stopped at Burnside skatepark for a short session.