The holidays went by so fast this year! I was off all of last week from my full time job. So with a few sporadic shifts at the library, I pretty much had the entire week free. Aside from eating too much turkey on Christmas Day, I did make time to meet up with friends over the break.

Last Tuesday I took Eri-chan out to watch Disney On Ice. That was the only thing I could think of that would keep me indoors on chilly afternoon in Toronto. LOL. Actually the show was a lot better than I thought. Eri and I had to walk from Union Station towards the Rogers Centre. Of course, with only one box office gate open, it meant we had to walk halfway around the perimeter of the Rogers Centre before we could collect our tickets. Once we made it inside, we had some time to browse through the overpriced concession stands with all the Disney memorabilia. The price of my ticket was equivalent to one bag of popcorn, a shaved ice drink in a commemorative cup, and a bag of cotton candy with a souvenir Mickey crown. (>.<;) However, the show itself was worth what I paid for. We had pretty decent seats facing the centre of the ice rink and it was really entertaining throughout. They started off with songs from Aladdin and by the time it ended there were at least 20 genies on the ice. I also really liked the Disney Princesses as well as the 'It's a Small World' segment. They also covered Mulan, which I had watched a million times as a kid. The only segment I hated was Nemo. There's something really creepy about fish sprouting legs.

After the performance we walked back towards Union Station. It was raining outside, so Eri and I ducked inside a restaurant to grab a late lunch. I introduced her to funnel cake for the first time. =)

For the second of my day trips to Toronto, I took Tomomi and her friend Hiromi out to Casa Loma. Thursday was by far the coldest day of the year and it was snowing steadily throughout the day. For both of them it was their first winter in Canada, so I felt bad that we had to do so much walking outside. I was wearing four layers already, with tights underneath my jeans. I’m not sure how they managed to get by in the cold!

After meeting both of them at the station, we took a short walk towards Casa Loma, which used to be the estate of a very wealthy Canadian named Sir Henry Pellatt. The castle was built in the Gothic style, complete with secret passageways, a billiards room, a conservatory and a great hall. (Sounds like the boardgame Clue!) Casa Loma used to be one of the largest personal residences in Canada until Sir Henry had to vacate it after WWI when he was left practically penniless. The castle was later turned into a museum and made open to the public.

It was my first time being back at Casa Loma since my elementary school days. I honestly couldn’t remember anything about the castle. Once we paid the admission at the front, we headed downstairs to the basement where we got fitted with headphones. Then we were off to explore the many floors of the house. We first went to the stables and the plotting shed, which was connected by an underground passage. Later we toured the ground floor, then went up to the bedrooms and the tower. The spiral staircase got me really dizzy, but it certainly made it feel like a castle!

After touring for a little over two hours, it was nearing closing time. We dropped off our headsets, then made our way back to Dupont Station. We took the subway over to College as we’d be having dinner at an izakaya nearby.

At first when we got to Guu around 5:30pm, I thought we had already beat the dinner rush. Unfortunately, looks were quite deceiving as we were informed that the waiting time would be around an hour. However, it meant that we had time to visit the new Loblaws at Maple Leaf Gardens, which was a block away. Loblaws is a huge supermarket chain in Canada and it recently opened a new store at the venue where the Toronto Maple Leafs used to play. They renovated the entire arena and it is by far one of the most gorgeous supermarkets in Toronto. (Almost like the entire floor of a depachika.) There’s an entire wall that is completely devoted to cheese, a market-style food court and a mural made of the seats taken from the original arena. It’s one of the nicest supermarket I have been to in Canada. =)

Hiromi and I ended up getting a soup from the self serve counters. Poor Hiromi was probably freezing from being outdoors for so long! She needed something to warm herself up. After browsing for about 45 minutes, it was time to head back to the restaurant. We ended up waiting for another 15 minutes by the heated patio before we got to our table. It was great eating at an izakaya with Japanese friends because they always introduce me to new food that I won’t order on my own. After filling our tummies, we had to brace the cold again as we walked towards Yonge Street. We were meeting Andrea and her friends for karaoke!

(Food shots don’t look as appetizing when you take them with a camera phone. Sorry!)

Karaoke is so much fun when people know how to sing the same songs as you. Actually, Tomomi was a little embarrassed that we knew to sing more songs than she did. LOL. Andrea introduced me to her friends Ken, Elaine and Hiro. It was fun sharing the mic with everyone. Someone drank a little too much, while other people just had too low tolerance for alcohol. Hehe. I had tons of fun during the holidays. Time to focus on 2012. Akeome! =)