Our Time in Japan Comes to an End

We’re leaving Japan soon, but I have a lot of work to do related to Japan over the next couple weeks. I’ve recorded a lot of video, and there will be videos uploaded to YouTube for almost every day we’ve been here in Japan. But that’s not all. There are some other things I have planned (not related to work, that is):

1. Edit and upload all Japan vlogs.
2. Catch up on comments on this blog.
3. Star a Star Trek blog for my episode reviews.
4. Write and record science videos.
5. Read!
6. Write!
7. Resume the Read the World series.
8. Resume Worldbuilding blog posts and videos.
9. And play SimCity 4. Just because I really want to.

There are a lot of other things to do, but these are the big things. I probably forgot some things, though. They’ll come to mind!

Canada, here we come!

A Day in the Country

Today, we spent the day at our close friends’ house east of the city, and their home is surrounded by trees. We had hot dogs for dinner, and we cooked them over a fire. But I took a few pictures, since we don’t get out of the city often.

Leaves are already starting to change colour

A new trail that they created.

A young peacock that they have as a pet.

A male turkey and a chicken.

This female turkey seemed to like me.

The tree is looking at you!

Do you live in or near the country? Or do you spend most of your time in the city?

Canada Day Fireworks!

For the first time in quite a long time, I actually got to see fireworks up close. Yesterday was Canada Day, and my family went to the Canada Day festivities. During the afternoon, we enjoyed some rides, but the highlight was at 11 pm: fireworks!

I took some video of the day, including more than two minutes of fireworks. Enjoy!

If you’re Canadian, what did you do on Canada Day? If you’re American, what will you do on Independence Day? Let me know in the comments below.

Happy Canada Day! Some Canadian Authors for You

July 1st is Canada Day in Canada, and we’re celebrating Canada’s 149th birthday!Today, my family will be visiting a carnival with many rides, then later watching fireworks at night. It’ll be a busy day! It’s supposed to be very warm, too.

Have you ever read a Canadian author? I made a video all about Canadian authors. Here are five for you to check out.

Have you read any of these authors? What Canadian authors would you recommend? Let me know in the comments below!

This Is 10:40 pm

I took this picture tonight. 

Can you believe this is 10:40 pm? Edmonton is at around 53.5 degrees north. That means it’s closer to the Arctic than it is to the tropics. When I lived in Japan, I was at 35.4 degrees north. Sunset was around 7 pm at this time of year. Sunset in Edmonton is 10:06 pm. Too late?

What time does the sun set for you around the summer solstice?

Edmonton Tour: The Arts District

Time for the third part of the downtown Edmonton tour. This time, the Arts District. Edmonton is known as a cultural city with a lot of music, arts, and museums. We’ll take a look at some of the interesting architecture in this area.

But first, the amazing river valley. Downtown is situated at the top of the valley, commanding this great view down to the North Saskatchewan River.

There’s a river boat called the Edmonton Queen. You can eat on it and go on a river cruise. It was recently sold in an auction.

A look in another direction. The river is quite green.

Now, on to the Arts District. One of the cultural buildings is the Citadel Theatre. There, you can watch plays and musicals. Not only that, there’s an indoor garden. It’s always warm in there.

And here is the Francis Winspear Centre for Music, a concert hall that features the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and other musical performances.

A look back across the street, you can see the Citadel Theatre.

Here is the Stanley A. Milner Library, the main branch of the Edmonton Public Library. It’s not a very attractive building, but will soon be undergoing a major transformation. I can’t wait to see what it looks like.

Right at the heart of the Arts District is the Sir Winston Churchill Square. It’s an open square with green space, cafes, and more. Several festivals occur here every year, as well as the occasional movie.

The Square has a large open plaza for festivals.

One of the newest buildings is the Art Gallery of Alberta. It’s a unique design, isn’t it?

And then we have Edmonton City Hall. This is one of the more attractive city halls I’ve seen. It has a large glass pyramid and a wading pool right in front. In winter, you can go skating on it.

This is a war memorial in front of City Hall.

This part of City Hall contains a restaurant and changing area for the pool/skating rink.

And here’s the pool. It was closed when I was there, even though it was a very warm day.

Another feature at City Hall. Nice shady outdoor corridor.

Looking up! Like the windows?

This is the pyramid from inside.

Also under the pyramid, take a look at some of the architecture.

To finish it off, looking back at City Hall from Churchill Square, you can see some food trucks. Edmonton has a fleet of these trucks offering many different kinds of food. They’re very popular.

And that is the Arts District. I missed going to the Royal Alberta Museum, but it’s currently under construction. Next time, I’ll show you the government centre, including the Alberta Legislature.

Let me know what you thought in the comments below.

Edmonton Tour: Skyscrapers and More

I love skyscrapers. I love architecture. Here you’ll see some of downtown’s taller and older architecture. But this is only part one! There will be a couple more posts that feature some of the more beautiful architecture.

First up is MacEwan University. It’s a unique set of buildings downtown.

And here is the main entrance.

Not under construction yet, you can see an ad for the Encore Tower, which will be a forty storey condo building. Behind to the left is Fox Tower I and on the right is one of the Icon towers.

Here is the Quest Condominium building.

Here’s an older building I don’t quite remember the name of.

And this is the Neon Sign Museum. The entire museum is on the wall of that building, which is an old AGT building, now Telus.

The building in the middle is Manulife Place, now the second tallest in the city, though was the tallest for many years. To its right is Commerce Place.

Here’s a closer look. I really like these two buildings.

Here’s the Epcor Tower. It’s the current tallest in the city, though a couple under construction will be much taller.

And the always attractive Manulife Place again.

The gold towers are Scotia Place, which are going to change colour soon. They don’t make the gold glass anymore, and it’s too expensive to maintain.

And this is downtown’s famous hotel, the Fairmont MacDonald Hotel. It’s a very expensive luxury hotel. Don’t mind my finger.

This used to be a place where you could make phone calls. The payphones have been removed. Now you can get a little shelter from the rain and look at lots of posters and ads.

This is the Alberta Hotel. It was reconstructed recently. Every brick was catalogued and stored for a long time, then they rebuilt it from the records they had.

And there’s Canada Place, the federal government’s home in Edmonton. It’s actually a massive building, though not tall. It’s quite long and has the largest floor space of any building downtown.

A look down Jasper Avenue, the main street through downtown.

The Sunlife building, my old workplace. That was a long time ago.

And that is downtown. At least, those are the skyscrapers and older buildings. Next time, I’ll show you around the Arts District, a very lively area with some unique architecture.

Comments are always welcome!

Edmonton Tour: A Changing Downtown

Before I lived in Japan, I lived in Edmonton. And now I’m back. During the eleven years that I was away, a lot had changed. And the biggest changes are happening now. There are massive construction projects going on. In this first part of my Edmonton tour, I’ll show you some major construction projects downtown.

The biggest one is the ICE District. One of the centrepieces of this project is Rogers Place, the new home of the Edmonton Oilers. They’re going to start playing there this fall.

Can you imagine walking up these stairs?

A bit further west, there’s this office building. It’s pretty narrow, but from what I’ve seen of the rendering, it’s a lot of glass.

Moving back to the ICE District, here is the office for the project. Inside, there’s a model of the project, which you can see as the glowing buildings in the window. The three tallest towers will be the three tallest buildings in the city. The tallest will be the tallest building in Canada outside Toronto at 251 metres tall. It’ll be the headquarters of Stantec and above that, condominiums. Can you imagine living in the penthouse?

While walking east, I came upon the Fox towers. The one on the right is finished, while the one on the left is under construction.

This building, Ultima, was recently completed. Looks pretty tall and pretty good.

Back to the ICE District. Here is the main construction site for the Stantec tower and the hotel. Lots of cranes and a big hole in the ground.

There’s a tower that’s been topped out. It’s the City of Edmonton Tower, and will house a lot of offices for the city.

A close-up reveals a gentle curve.

I went up into a parkade across the street to get this photo. It looks much bigger in person. This is where the Stantec and hotel towers will go.

You can see the location of Rogers Place in relation to the hole.

And here’s the City of Edmonton Tower from the other side. You can see the curve here, too.

In the heart of the financial district is the Kelly-Ramsey Building. This office tower is on the site of a historic building that burned down.

Luckily, they were able to save the outside of the building, took it apart brick by brick, and then rebuilt it as part of the podium of the tower.

And that is all I managed to get. There are several other construction sites, most notably the Royal Alberta Museum.

Next time, I’ll give you a tour of the skyscrapers I saw in the early part of my walk.

Comments are appreciated!

Some Rain Would Be Nice

A lot of it, please. 

I see clouds, but I wonder if it will rain. The forecast says there’s a chance of rain tonight, but I worry it’ll be a thunderstorm. That would mean a chance of even more fires. Just rain, please. 

Fort McMurray Evacuation Plans in Edmonton

The evacuation of Fort McMurray continues, but it’s not easy. There are a lot of people who can’t make it because of a lack of gas and the traffic is moving very slowly. Here’s a video with Courtney Theriault of City TV (he’s actually a former co-worker of mine) reporting before heading up to Fort McMurray himself.

LIVE from #Edmonton, @cspotweet says 1000's from #FortMacFire arriving at Emergency Evac Centre setup overnight. https://t.co/MUMAZ5PDJ4

— CityNews Vancouver (@CitytvNews) May 4, 2016

People are coming forward to invite evacuees into their homes. Unfortunately, space is limited with such short notice.

Also unfortunately, I’m seeing some politically motivated comments about this. This is not political, so please leave it out. People are losing their homes.