About the Crown Casino Chinese New Year Festival at Southbank, Melbourne

Each year, Crown Casino holds a festival in celebration of Chinese New Year. I’ve been to the festival once before and enjoyed it so we went back again this year.

Southbank is filled with bright red hanging Chinese lanterns, hawker (street) stalls and hungry hungry people. There is also light entertainment with traditional Chinese dances and the most-loved lion dance. I love all the street food and the colourful dances!

Holding a festival for Chinese New Year at Crown Casino is perfect – since Asians love casinos and they all flock to this event. I don’t normally like Asian festivals because they’re overcrowded and dirty, but Crown Casino always makes sure that their events are classy and well organised.

 Chinese New Year Festival 2011 at Crown Casino Photos

Here’s me with Denny and my mum on Southbank.

I especially enjoy visiting the Crown Atrium (where the hotel is) to see what decorations they have in store.

About Casa Loma

My work recently held our annual Christmas Party at the Casa Loma (Spanish for Hill House), a Gothic Revival style house located in midtown Toronto. It is now a major attraction and a popular museum. It was originally a residence for financier Sir Henry Mill Pellatt and was constructed over a three-year period from 1911-1914.

In 1903 Sir Henry Pellatt purchased 25 lots from developers Kertland and Rolf. Sir Henry commissioned Canadian architect E.J. Lennox to design Casa Loma with construction beginning in 1911, starting with the massive stables, potting shed and Hunting Lodge (a.k.a. coach-house) a few hundred feet north of the main building. The Hunting Lodge is a two storey 4,380-square-foot (407 m²) house with servant’s quarters. As soon as the stable complex was completed, Sir Henry sold his summer house in Scarborough to his son and moved to the Hunting Lodge. The stables were used as a construction site for the castle (also served as the quarters for the men servants), with some of the machinery still remaining in the rooms under the stables. The house cost approximately $3.5 million and took a team of 300 workers three years to build from start to finish. Unfortunately, due to the start of World War I, construction on the house was halted. At 98 rooms, it was the largest private residence in Canada. Notable amenities included an elevator, an oven large enough to cook an ox, two vertical passages for pipe organs, central vacuum, two secret passages in Sir Henry’s ground-floor office and three bowling alleys (never completed). – Source: Wikipedia

The Casa Loma is a beautiful sight and not far from Downtown Toronto and should be seen both during the day and night. It’s close to Dupont station and is an easy walk too. It’s located at 1 Austin Terrace, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 1X8, Canada

Source: Flickr

I didn’t get a chance to take any photos inside but it was gorgeous. Luckily a coworker of mine went around to all the tables and took photos of everybody so here’s my table. Two of the guys from my team brought their gfs, two didn’t, one guy didn’t come and so we were lucky to have Kate on our table who brought her bf. =)

The food was fantastic and the service was impeccable. In all – it was a great event.

Merry Christmas everybody.

During Doors Open Toronto, I visited Osgoode Hall which is a landmark building in Toronto which houses the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Divisional Court of the Superior Court of Justice, and the Law Society of Upper Canada. It also was a Law School until 1969 when the faculty was relocated to the campus of York University.

Osgoode Hall is beautifully constructed. With stained glass and stunning architecture it is a must visit for Doors Open. During Doors Open you can visit many of the rooms in this building – the court houses, library, and meeting rooms.

Beautiful interior design!

Love the details on the poles and the arches!

Here’s me dressed as a judge at one of the court houses! Hehehe.

Lots and lots of law books!

One of the very many meeting rooms.

The Canada Life is a historic office building located at Queen and University. The building is the headquarters of Canada Life, Canada’s oldest, and at the time largest, insurance company.

The fifteenth floor Beaux Arts building stands at 285 feet (87 m), 321 feet (97.8 m) which includes the weather beacon. The building is known for its weather beacon which was installed in 1951. The way it works is that beacon flashes green for clear weather, red for cloudy, flashing red for rain, and white for snow. There are also lights affixed to the support tower indicate variations in temperature. The information is updated four times daily, seven days a week and is received from Environment Canada’s Weather Centre at Pearson International Airport.

The top fifteenth floor offers spectacular 360 degree views of Toronto and is only open to the public during the annual Doors Open Toronto event. Make sure you get there early because there’s a line to go up the elevator!

Here’s me with a model of the building! Hehehe.

Doors Open Toronto is an event that takes place every year that showcases 150 buildings of architectural, historic, cultural and/or social significance to the public. The best part of Doors Open is that admission is free! In 2010, Doors Open Toronto took place during the weekend of May 28 – 29th.

The first place that we visited was the Elgin & Winter Garden theatres and are the last surviving Edwardian (the period covering the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910) stacked theatres in the world.

Over time, the condition of the building deteriorated. At one point, the windows were broken so that birds could fly in and out and dirt and dust covered the walls and seats. It was only in 1981 that the Ontario Heritage Foundation bought the structure and began restoring the two theatres into it’s original beauty. The building was closed in 1987 to be fully restored and then reopened in 1989.

It is interesting to note that most of the walls and theatre backdrops were painted with watercolour. They knew that they could not use soap and water to remove the dirt and dust off because the paint would also be removed so they used dough to blot and slowly restore the beautiful paintings.

This is the entrance to both the Elgin and Winter Garden theatres.

Here is a panorama I took of the Elgin theatre. Click to see it in it’s full size! It’s so beautiful!

This is the Winter Garden theatre which is absolutely magnificent. The ceilings were covered in real leaves. During the restoration, they were replaced and some faux leaves were also placed. You really did feel like you were sitting in a winter garden!

Here is a model of the layout of the theatres. Very cool!

Here shows that the Elgin theatre is on the bottom and the Winter Garden theatre is stacked on top.

I hope that I get to watch a musical at either one of these theatres.

The annual Canadian National Exhibition took place this year from August 20 to September 6, 2010. It is usually on every year and signals the end of summer. Everyone tells me “you know it’s the end of Summer when The Ex starts!” which was really true, because on the first day it commenced it was the first day it was breezy cold! I had to borrow a jacket from Kaori!

The great thing about The Ex is  it’s proximity to Downtown. Just take the 509 Streetcar from Union Station and it will take you right to Exhibition Place (very close to Lake Ontario).

The Ex is similar to the Royal Melbourne Show which I only recently discovered that I had quite a liking for. The Ex is full of typical fair rides and games. I love that fair feel – everything and everyone is lighted up and having so much fun. It’s so joyous and full of laughter and joy.

Here’s the Ferris Wheel which you can take and see really gorgeous views of the exhibition and the city!

Kaori and I

View from the Ferris Wheel!

The Swing Tower

About to ride the “Swing Tower”!

This is the “Crazy Mouse”. We didn’t manage to have enough time to ride this one.

Kaori and I on the “Crazy Surf”

Upclose and ready to ride!

Here’s me and Kaori’s husband, Jose on the where you feel like you’re flying.

Here is us in motion! It was so fast & circling, it made me feel nauseous after.

Here are some of the games you can play to win some prizes!

WIN WIN WIN

Hoop Shots. Can you shoot the ball through the hoop and win?

Can you pick the right duckie to win?

The Prizes!

Will you win some big money?

Here’s Kaori trying to shoot the star. You have to shoot the entire star before all your bullets run out to win!

Here’s Jose trying to give it a go

Here’s how they went! Unfortunately – no win :(

The Ex also features various shows from Ice Skating to Acrobatics to Dog Shows. Here’s some photos of the ice skating show featuring the Canadian olympic gold medalist duo! I have to admit that they were really good. The others weren’t so much… Haha.

The Ex also features various exhibitions such as the Home exhibition, and also showcases crazy things like Sand sculptures and rock balancing. It had quite the variety of things to look at!

It was a good thing we went on the first day because there were all sorts of specials. Adult Admission tickets were only $8 and you could pay $10 for 5 rides. Pretty awesome! Normally tickets are $16 and 5 rides would probably cost you about $25.

Last Thursday evening I was taken to Ashbridges Bay (The Beaches of Toronto) to celebrate Canada Day by watching the fireworks show. There were a lot of people who came to see this event, it took us one hour just to drive out of the street where we parked and we parked fairly far away (up near Dundas)!

There were a lot of people who carried Canadian flags, and dressed in red and white. We left when they started singing the Canadian anthem which made me cringe. Haha.

Anyway – enjoy the snaps I took :)

On March 22, 2010, Fuze hosted a smashing fashion party to kick off the Spring Fashion Week in Toronto. I was lucky enough to be one of the Fuze twitter girls at the event and was very honoured to have be invited to this party let alone have this role!

Us Fuze girls had to make sure we came looking our hottest, here’s me (below) getting ready for the party with pink lips. Hehe!

Here are the Fuze girls before the event!

Our FUZE dresses!

 Here’s Tanya (my fellow Fuze Twitter-er) and I

FUZE! Love this flavour!

Above is the fashion runway with the seats reserved for the V.I.Ps!

Here are the dresses marked up and ready to go for the show! LOVE that green floral dress!

Here are the models backstage getting ready for the show.

Accessory showcases getting ready for the party.

Above are some of the models at the accessory showcase. Hot!

Here’s the bar, serving the special Fuze-tinis (Fuze martinis, so cute!) 

Fuze-tini! Love it!

Another accessories showcase. Amazing jewellery!

Upclose! Beautiful!

In all, I really enjoyed attending this event. There were so many fashionable guests and the fashion show was fabulous. The accessory showcases were just fantastic, with a wide range of items available to purchase. I also have to say that the music was banging! But best of all the Fuze was tasty and I am not paid to say that at all!

Well done to the organizers of this event – Shannae (http://whatwomenwant.com/) and Yvonne (http://heydoyou.com/), two very well known and respectable fashion bloggers in Toronto. You girls are awesome!

OH MY GOSH! It is now the final countdown until the SGI-Canada Youth Festival which is on May 15, 2010. This means that there is only twelve days left. TWELVE!

This has been a long anticipated event. One whole year of planning has gone into this day and I’m sure it will be spectacular. Out of 3,000 tickets available at Roy Thomson Hall, there is under 500 remaining! I’m sure it will end up being a packed house and full of Soka Spirit! Remember, if you haven’t got your tickets for this event yet, you can purchase tickets online at Roy Thomson or directly at the box office.

Just to reiterate, this event is an event in conjunction with two wonderful organisations, Me to We and Free The Children. SGI Canada have partnered with these two organisations as they share the same values of empowering youth and we hope to work together to create many good things for this world. The co-founder of Free the Children, Marc Kielburger, will be guest speaking at the event.

Last weekend we had our dress rehearsal in the Ikeda Hall (main hall which we have our large meetings) and it was all cleared out to simulate the stage. It was a long day (10am to 5pm), where we had two run throughs and then leaders including Tony Meers (SGI Canada General Director) gave their encouragement and sincere thank you to each and one of us who has put their time and effort into making this event such a success.

This includes all the performers (Hip Hop Dance Group, Latin Dance Group, Youth Chorus, Youth Band, Musicians) and the Behind the Scenes group (marketing, public relations, hair & make up, people movers, coordinators) and so on and so forth! There are so many people participating in this event that I just know that the weekend of May 14 to May 15 is going to be amazing!

Here are some photos of the dress rehearsal and another sneak peek of the event!

Here’s Mai (Public Relations) and Louise (Hip-Hop Dance Group Coordinator)

Below are the hip-hop dance group getting their make-up done!

Leslie, Sammy and Young Chul after we got our hair and make-up done.

Here’s us being “gangsta”.. hahahaha

Above are the boys being gangsta..

Funny how there’s that little girl in the bottom-right hand corner! Haha.

Youth Chorus rehearsing while waiting to be called on stage.

Latin Dance Group waiting for their turn to go on stage. Do you recognise where they got their costumes from? It’s a H&M Dress from the Spring Garden Collection. Aren’t they lucky!!

Below are the youth band! Their shirts look so sharp and spiff! Cute!

Please keep in mind that there are so many other performers and segments that I haven’t shown in this post. The youth of SGI Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal are also making their way to Toronto to perform with us!

IT IS GOING TO BE AWESOME!!!!!

Last Friday, Kaori and I made our way up to High Park to see the Cherry Blossoms for Spring 2010! These Cherry Blossoms (Sakura trees) are such a wonderful celebration to see and experience in Toronto as they mark the end of winter! It is an old Japanese tradition of Sakura Hanami which is roughly translated as “cherry blossom flower viewing” and typically occurs in late April – early May. Toronto’s winter is just too harsh and cold, even for these most cold tolerant flowering cherry tree species! I’ve been told that these flowers don’t last very long as they fall very quickly and if you want to catch a glimpse of these photos, you only have about a 1-2 week window to go! Sakura blossoms are seen as a metaphor for life itself, luminous and beautiful, yet fleeting and ephemeral.

History of High Park’s Sakura Trees

In 1959, the Japanese ambassador to Canada, Toru-Hagiwara, presented 2000 Japanese Somei-Yoshino Sakura trees to the citizens of Toronto on behalf of the citizens of Tokyo. The trees were planted in appreciation of Toronto accepting re-located Japanese-Canadians following the Second World War. Many of these trees were planted on the hillside overlooking Grenadier Pond (immediately southwest of the Grenadier Café) and around the west shore of the pond.

In 1984, a grove of Japanese cherry trees were planted along a pathway west of the Children’s Adventure Playground in High Park. The trees were donated by Yoriki and Midori Iwasaki as a special gift to the people of Toronto and “a joyful symbol of life”.

Through the Consulate General of Japan in Toronto’s “Sakura Project”, 34 Yoshino ‘Akebono’ and Kwanzan ‘Fugenzo’ Sakura trees were donated toHigh Park in 2001 on the west shore of Grenadier Pond near the Maple Leaf garden.  In 2006, 16 additional Yoshino Sakura trees were planted near the original 1959 planting site.

Plaques commemorating each of the plantings can be found under the cherry trees in High Park.

Source: High Park’s Cherry Blossom Website

Image Source: High Park’s Cherry Blossom Website

There are two walks that you can take at High Park to see these trees. Walk 1 involves a 30-45 minute walk along the paved trails which can also be quite steep in some places. This walk is definitely worth it as you’ll see the most beautiful views of High Park’s Sakura trees as well as Grenadier Pond and Hillside Gardens. Also watch for Baltimore Orioles that have just migrated back to the park feeding on nectar from the Sakura blossoms! I didn’t manage to see any while I was there though..

I didn’t do Walk 2 but this walk features the grove of Sakura trees donated by the Iwasaki family in 1984 as well as the Children’s Adventure Playground and the Lower Duck Pond. While there are fewer Sakura trees on this 20 minute walk, this walk will be good for your little ones :)

Below are photos I took while I was on Walk 1. You will get a little viewing of some of these truly beautiful flowers! It of course is not the same to viewing them up close with your own eyes.

High Park becomes a photographer’s heaven at this time of year. From amateur to professional photographers, this is where they gather to capture this beautiful moment in Toronto. I didn’t see one group of people without a camera!

As mentioned a little bit earlier, there are some beautiful wildlife that come to stay at High Park.

These birds aren’t the only birds who come to enjoy High Park, but so do “Love Birds”.

And so do families and friends..

High Park also has other beautiful flowers such as this pretty pink one below.

Location & How To Get There
View Larger Map

The most convenient and easy way I find is to take the TTC to High Park station (on the Bloor line) and just as you cross Bloor Street, you’ll see High Park. It’s too big to miss!

If you prefer to drive, there’s free parking available at the Grenadier Restaurant (enter the park from the intersection of Bloor Street and High Park Avenue and follow the one-way loop to the Grenadier Restaurant in the centre of the park) and the lot immediately east of the Zoo (enter the park from the intersection of High Park Blvd and Parkside Drive).