Today is our second full day in Vancouver and it can be roughly described as Richmond day, yes, we are spending most of the day here in Richmond, the area in Vancouver that has a very high concentration of Chinese and other asian people living here, one of the reasons probably why at home, Richmond Hill is also populated with rich Chinese people too, it’s because of this place I guess. Let’s see how today went, it’s a longest day thus far.

After a fairly easy transit ride via the same ‘Canada’ line train that we used to get to our hotel, we used the same train to get to Richmond, which is roughly a half hour or so ride, not bad. After a short walk from the station we arrive at our first location, Richmond Public Market.

Oh boi, just from the entry point you can kinda get a sense that this place is old and ghetto, just look at that wall.

When you enter, the ground floor is basically mostly full of junk and or just storage space for the grocery store and butchery places, no one really shops there, but the first thing you have to do is climb some stairs to the second level, manually as both of the escalators are broken, and will probably be broken; forever. This can be challenging for some, it’s not very accessible as it can be seen.

The second level is basically one big food court filled with all sorts of chinese fast food places akin to manchu work, but far better and real. Shit is pretty busy, it’s not even lunch noon time yet and it’s busy.

Looking down from above, there really is nothing worth going to on the ground level, it’s all about the ghetto food court man.

This bubble tea place has what my sister calls, wheel cakes, basically waffle like wheels filled with cake and filling shit. She got some, I didn’t really want to have any, I forgot to take a picture I think. They were alright.

Another view from another angle, pretty ghetto. I suppose that’s part of the charm I guess?

From online one of the most famous/popular things people say you should try is some fresh rice roll shit, so my mom lined up for that. For some unknown reason she got talking with this random guy in blue. Apparently he’s from Texas here for some friend shit I think, he watched some tictock videos about this place, hence why he is here. Ok American, Ok.

After a long wait time, far more than it’s worth she gets the special fresh rice roll. It’s alright, different from what I am used to, fresh but it’s a bit too soft for my opinion, I like more chew but yea, it was alright.

Most people were getting like 3 item combos with rice and shit, since that’s what most people seemed to be getting. For like only $16 dollars you can get a huge pile of food like this guy has, not bad man, looks pretty good. We are only here in Richmond public market to kill time and eat some stuff, we actually have dim sum reservations at another place nearby, called Kirin.

A short walk away in a seemingly dead mall that has a Hudsons Bay (RIP) we get to Kirin seafood restaurant, despite it’s name, is a Chinese/Cantonese restaurant. One that is highly regarded and liked by online reviews and google. They have like 3 other locations in the Vancouver area apparently.

Getting there is a bit strange and a challenge for some however, as you need to climb a number of stairs manually, there is no other way, no elevator. Some elderly folks were complaining about that, ours too in some regards. This guy on the right had his left leg smaller than his right, his left shoe has a huge high lifts, it was strange man.

Our reservations once we got inside was at 12pm, a late dim sum time but whatever. Lots of families had just finished their own shit so they are making their way out now, ok then.

We are seated inside, not bad decor, as I expected really.

Proof of Richmond dim sum experience edition, ordering is hard edition since the menu has no numbers besides items and the english descriptions are shit, no paper to checkmark on and no old ladies with pushcarts. Sure sure, dis is the new wey.

First thing to come is steamed bbq pork buns, they were different than what we were used to, better than normal, their pork is more savory and tender. Nice.

Also ordered some Hi-Kim crab claws, for some reason they asked if we wanted them cut, as they did, sure but it tastes good still, solid.

Classic big siu mai, overall better than average, seemed freshly made, good shit.

Another classic staple, hawgow shrimp dumplings, gud shit, solid indeed.

There were a few other items that we ordered but for the sake of time, I didn’t put them all. The last thing we had tho was this cuttlefish ink salted egg yolk bun, a sweet ish bun to end our meal, overall pretty good shit.

Since Kirin is known in Vancouver, they actually have frozen versions of their dim sum items that you can buy at grocery stores which is kind of cool really. Noice, I guess they are semi famous and well known enough to do this. Overall, this dim sum experience is good, nothing super exceptional or bad, it’s comparable to the ones we have at home in Toronto/Scarborough, or at least the one from Grandeur Palace, that one in Chartwell shopping center. Ok, now I know.

We decided to go back to to Richmond Public Market to get another look at the eats and get something if we were still hungry after dim sum. It’s even more busy now.

I ended up getting some spicy fried chicken, small box sized after this lady gave me a sample, shit’s really good. Samples work man, they work.

This cost about $11 but it’s very light and spicy/crispy fried chicken, I think it’s like Sichuan or Taiwan style, I am not sure but it’s spicy, good shit. We shared a bit but I mostly ate all of this as the others were still mostly full.

The place where I got the chicken, you make some good shit Tony, not bad.

On our way to our next location, a familiar like mall in the area by CF group, CF Richmond, not exactly a fancy name but you get the idea. We all need rest at times, everyday you know to get from point A to point B.

Once we get inside we immediately get a sense of familiar design notes and layout store type trends, this is pretty much the same shit as CF Markville Mall and I think a few other malls in Markham/Toronto.

Inside a SoftMoc to buy new shoes for my Mom, her current shoes she says was pinching her feet, so that’s not good, it was causing her mobility issues/pain and causing her feet to hurt, so she went and brought new shoes. Ok, I guess. She says they are better, the sandal like ones. We’ll see.

There is alot of blind boxes stores in the mall, even tho it’s supposed to be a western white people mall, which is interesting, Richmond still too Asian I guess.

They even have stores that are basically convention stand in stores for artists, not even joking, it’s like artists can sell their anime convention warez all the time now, it’s something that I have been seeing for few years now. I guess that is a big thing here too in Vancouver.

The mall is mostly one level but the food court is on a second floor. I guess in Richmond, they like to do that shit for some reason. Looks nice tho here.

Wow, vessi is real. It’s a brand a shoes that some youtubers have been shilling online in their videos. I didn’t think they were big enough to have real brick and mortar stores, wow.

Not surprisingly, they got a uniqlo too, probably got it first in Canada probably.

After we killed a sufficient amount of time, we went back to the Canada line to get to our next location, another mall called the Aberdeen Center, which is a fairly large popular Chinese/Asian mall in Richmond. It’s connected directly to the transit line so that’s really good.

However, you still need to use escalators sometimes to get to where you are going, which can be challenging for some. Good thing they have elevators nearby for those facing mobility or physical movement impairment. It is so over…

When you first get inside the mall, you are actually in Aberdeen Square, a complex that is very much like Pacific Mall at home, with very small units with people doing whatever shit they want. This one had real gacha machines from Japan, oh boi!

They use tokens for their machines 10 tokens cost about $20. This gacha snow miku gacha cost 5 tokens, not the best one but still nice, the best prize is a mini figure.

Another 5 token machine. Got the main miku mini figure, pretty nice shit. It’s good since it’s not bootleg shit, it’s actual gachapon from bandai japan. Worth, even tho quite expensive.

There is quite alot of anime shops selling prize figures in the square, lots of nice miku prize figures for reasonable prices, as excepted from a place close to Japan.

Inside another one of those adhoc artist alley stores one was selling guilty gear stands, wow, I think I saw these from an artist in EVO last year. Gud shit. Cool to see that they are still selling, even outside conventions.

Another store had lots of hololive and vtuber merch, I am like 100% sure I brought from this artist before at a convention. The style and Dokibird and Bijou I know for sure I brought from before.

More of the convention merch being sold in a regular store like this, noice. Perhaps we will see even more of this in asian malls like the dying pacific mall at home? Gud shit.

Posters from Noms, that place that I like to buy food shirts from at Anime North, has an outpost for their prints here wow. I think they are based in NY maybe, maybe Vancouver, I have no idea? I can’t remember even tho I spoke to the artist directly 2 years ago at animeNYC.

Oh wow, I most definitely brought from this artist in the past, since it’s suisei, towa, aqua. I have these up on one of my corkboards, I see them all the time. Cool that the artist may be based here too, or at least west coast.

Oh shit, in the same store they have that artist we saw for the first time this year at Anime North, the one that had food/location illustrations. He was supposed to go to AniRevo, guess he’s from here too obviously. Gud shit. Brought some of his shit.

And as you can imagine, this store is called “The Artist Alley”, ohboi lol jokes. So pure and true.

We eventually get to the main Aberdeen center fountains, wow, not bad. This mall seems quite well maintained indeed. New even, not like the ghetto state that pacific mall has fallen to as of late. It’s really impressive actually, I even forgot that this was a Chinese/Asian mall since it’s so clean and well kept with interesting stores.

Their food court is also cool and clean, well maintained and orderly too. Wow. Nice juice spot that was there for 21 years.

Ended up getting some blueberry slush. Never had blueberry slush before, not bad, but lots of seeds and shit but it’s ok, it’s healthy. For a large it’s $9. They have a card stamp system too.

More anime goods stores, which actually has decent stuff in them like prize figures and plushies. If you live in Vancouver, you have easy access to this, which is nice for a anime fan.

Proof of killing time existence, our mom totally was not sitting around for several hours while we explored the mall, edition.

We had killed a sufficient amount of time at Aberdeen mall, it was almost 7pm so it was time to go to our last destination, once again another short ride via the Canada line train.

Of course, this means we are going to the Richmond Night Market, a weekly night market that is held in Richmond from April to Oct every Friday and weekends, an exceeding long time in my opinion, but sure, they can do it. Proof of waiting in line existence, night market edition.

The night market opens as 7pm and we got there roughly 15 mins after open. We had to line up to buy tickets to get in which are $8 per person. They have some group plan bullshit that is cheaper for $35 dollars with max 5 slots/entries but it’s just not worth it really for us. On the way line up they have like shit like this to entertain people while waiting to get in, ultraman not bad.

They have a zipline in the place too, wow, dumb but sure I guess.

It look us about half an hour wait to get inside and pay but that’s ok, this shirt is jokes.

While the night market is all about food, they have all sorts of shops and vendors. Labubu’s are the hottest trendy shit lately for girls so I guess this makes sense.

They had an area sectioned off for a maid cafe type of thing. wow. I did not see any maids in the area, now or even later this night, I have no idea why.

First order of business for food is to get the bait trendy viral hype foods, like this migoring doughnut and noodle sculpture.

Not bad, but super bait and gimmicky, so perfect for an event like this, per my sister.

I on the other hand got something a bit more traditional and eye popping. This mile of food noodles that just seemed like it’s exploding out of the cup. Most of the food items are on sticks and forks to create this illusion, worth it.

We got some burrio tacos, we found a table and rotated on going out to get food and sitting. My mom got this and it’s pretty good, nice juice to dip in too, good shit.

All sorts of food in the market, from korean shit to friend squid and such.

Decided to try some more cumin lamb/beef skewers, which as I am learning now is called xinjiang style bbq skewers. Ok, the more you know. I waited a long time for these ones so yea, hope they are good.

By the time I got back, my sister had went out and brought a few other things, like this bear drink. Nice gimmick for vessel and landyard.

The skewers we shared were pretty good but a bit too spicy for my sister, you had a choice and I got all spicy for the lamb, beef and chicken that I got but I guess it was still too much for her. I thought they were pretty good tho.

She got some chicken karrage, because of course she would. I had a piece, it was pretty good, noice.

I went out again and get this 30cm korean chicken skewer. I just felt like eating grilled meat today after eating those noodles so yea, not bad.

Most places give you a card and number but this place had a bit of fun with their queue system using plastic chickens. Nice gimmick.

I had to put the onion mayo and sprinkles on myself but it tasted pretty good, not bad, not the wait however. As you can see, the sky is dark now. I waited a long time.

My sister got another drink, for me this time as requested. Nice duck, it lit up as it has a ice cube that has a light on it, not sure how it works but it’s nice gimmick. Flavor is lycee drink, not bad.

Shits so dark already. Time flies in the market when you are buying and waiting for food. All the shit I got took a long time to prepare and serve.

My final place is another xinjiang bbq skewers place. Hope they are faster but they are not, they seem pretty popular however.

Some dude called chef James is apparently famous cooking his shit in person like this. I have no idea but yea, that’s him I guess.

The last place I got had the skewers in a cup which is a good vessel really. Overall these ones were the best tasting and best value, good shit. Kinda regret getting the first ones I got but ahwell, you don’t know.

During this time my sister and mom got some other shit, by the time I got back these were already fully eaten and gone, hence these are not my photos, but my sisters. A cheese coin loonie, filled with cheese, similar to yen cheese coin in Japan, good but not quite the same as Japan as she says.

Some thai mango sticky rice thing my mom got. I have no idea. She said it was good, I guess it was good? I didn’t try any that was left.

By the time we finished eating it was almost like 10pm, it was getting late and we still didn’t fully explore the other parts of the market yet. So we did so after.

Is this a booth vendor at a anime convention? Could have fooled me.

Gold man standing for tip, not one giving him shit. Poor guy.

Like a small scale carnival, they had like games and shit to win prizes like a fare or CNE.

They also had a stage to show various performances and dances for some reason or another.

When we came it was some white girl doing idol dances to some korean pop band. Wow, looking for the next hololive vtuber member maybe or at least the next gig at the next anime convention I guess with her crew, noice.

It was getting really late we we left at like 10:30pm, it would take roughly half an hour to get back to our hotel with train and walking included so it was our longest day for sure.

On this trip, in being mindful of the elderly and the mobility challenged, we end our days pretty early, at like 7pm, today is the longest day for some, so yea, it’s been a long day. Hope we are able to get up tomorrow for our next day of activities.

It’s nice seeing Vancouver at night, it looks ok, it’s a quiet city it seems like little or minimal night life and that’s fine, at least in this area we are in. Let’s see how things go tommorow.