On the morning of August 1, Lyra drove from her side of the state to mine, arriving at my parents’ house at about 10:30 AM. From there we departed in the FLE car for Montreal!
The Travelodge, our cheap hotel of choice, required a three-night reservation. We decided to travel down on Thursday, August 1, and pass Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, departing Sunday morning. We anticipated arriving on Montreal by lunchtime, early enough for us to go to a museum that afternoon. We also thought that we would do shabu shabu at Kagayaki on Thursday night before the anime hordes descended on Friday, the first day of the con.
I got smart this year and brought clothes hangers [to dry sweaty clothes before putting them in laundry], a garbage bag [to separate dirty clothes from clean], extras of everything [because I sweat a lot around this time of year], and my own towels. For dolls, I brought two 1:6 scale Hardshippers, Toon Silence and Toon Ethan. I was considering bringing just one, but I started to feel guilty. Because they are partners, I didn’t want to bring one without the other and make them unhappy to be separated!
I also got smart this year by checking beforehand how long the border crossing might take. The US customs and border patrol’s website conveniently lists each border crossing, how many of each lane [passenger, commercial, pedestrian] are open, how long the wait is, and if there are any warnings. When we left my parents’ house, I saw a ten-minute delay [i.e., a ten-minute wait at the border] for the Highgate Springs crossing, where we have always gone into Canada. We hoped that our luck would hold and that we would not have to wait long to cross.
As we got within yards of the border, we saw one of those portable highway signs that forms digital text with each letter made of different formations. It said WARNING: CANADA AHEAD! We thought that was hilarious, as to me it implies that Canada is a surprise or toxic or both.
We were also highly entertained by an infographic sign of a speed bump because Lyra had seen a Norwegian version online. Apparently the Norse word for speed bump is “fartshumper,” which is naturally funny to us Anglophones because it contains “farts,” a scatological term. We were just saying “fartshumper” and snickering.
Anyway, we cleared the border in 10 minutes, which was the quickest weekday border crossing I’ve ever experienced! Once in Canada, we experienced bumpier local routes and highways, but no problems entering Montreal, parking the car in the usual garage a block away [$30.00 Canadian a day], and checking into the hotel [room 201, right by the elevator].
We identified a new favorite food shop in Chinatown for lunch and all other snacks. Coco, a chain of patisseries [sometimes in conjunction with bubble tea shops], offers delicious Japanese and Chinese pastries and other sweets.
For lunch we got sesame buns with red bean paste in them, which are crunchy because of the sesame seeds, dense, chewy, and fatty because of the doughy bun parts, and sweet [but not too sweet] on the inside because of the red bean paste. We consider them the perfect blend of sugar, fat, and protein, the perfect addition to a meal. We also got onigiri, which is kind of a Japanese equivalent of a sandwich with a filling [I had spicy beef], rice for the equivalent of bread, and a seafood wrapper to keep the whole thing together.
Pictures of Coco and food below. Click on any photo to enlarge.
After that we hit up Nanami, a Korean cosmetics store, that Lyra was looking to replenish her sparkly neutral eyeshadow from. I took pictures of product packages that interested me, including a face mask whose promotional photo reminded me of the Phantom of the Opera, adorable packaging for Bye Bye Blackheads and a “strawberry honey jam” peel off nose pack, the handwritten bilingual notice telling people that there are security cameras, and the eyeshadow palette Lyra got. Pictures of Nanami below, except for the storefront, which is up above in the Coco gallery.
I should also note that the phone booth near the hotel, which I took a picture of a few years ago, was still there. I recorded it again for posterity. It had more graffiti on it this time, some of it right next to a sign trying to discourage graffiti.
We rested for a while in the hotel room, cranking up the air conditioning so that we could turn into ice cubes and escape from the densely humid and hot exterior temperatures. Then we scooted to Kagayaki for shabu shabu at 5:00 PM. By going on Thursday before many other conventioneers were in town and also early in the evening, we enjoyed a quiet restaurant, quick service, and an unhurried, leisurely dining. I got some photos of the restaurant interior without too many people in it. Pictures of Kagayaki below.
Of all parts of the dinner at Kagayaki, we enjoyed the yuzu soda the most [the yellow soda in the photos]. We figured that it was simply concocted from yuzu marmalade and soda water. The yuzu peel and pulp gave a wonderfully bright citrus flavor to the soda water. The pulp stuck to the bottom of the glasses, despite our best efforts to stir it into our drinks. We also liked the maneki neko with an oversized beckoning paw, determined to catch every last bit of ambient luck.
We went to another Korean cosmetics store, C&C, right by the foo dogs at one of Montreal Chinatown’s gates. Again I took photos of interesting packages, including four varieties of eyelid tape [for Asian people to achieve a more “Western” eyelid shape], a pomegranate face mask that, like lots of imported cosmetics, looks deceptively delicious, and masks for lips and feet [branded with Hello Kitty!] and everything in between.
I always like packages that resemble other things, so the fruit-shaped cosmetics interested me, including Banana Hand Milk [an excellent band name] and lip balm in containers shaped like apples on the left of the last photo and peaches on the right. Actually I think the peaches look more like tits, but that could just be me.
