something something something changing your mind
if i'm being completely honest
i did not expect to be this impressed by vancouver it has been a long time
since i was last here literally i think a whole decade but before that i think i would come
almost every year to vancouver i usually you know had some kind of work thing that i was doing here
or i had some friends that i was visiting i was never that you know inspired by it it was never
a place of like oh i love vancouver i'd love to come back it's a place that i would actually
you know consider settling in because that was actually the choice that i was faced with when
i moved back from tokyo back to canada if i wanted to be in the film industry i really had to choose
between toronto or vancouver and it was a very easy choice for me a hundred percent i was set on
toronto toronto had always been like a dream city for me i really enjoyed it all the times that i
had visited before and i loved you know the seven years that i had spent there but now i feel like
the tables have slightly turned because the last time that i was in toronto about six months ago
you know after all the pandemic and everything it was very sad like it was very sad to see
that almost every third business it felt like had shuttered its doors some of my favorite places
didn't exist anymore there was way more garbage on the streets a lot more vandalism a lot more
homelessness unfortunately and it just didn't feel like the same city you know that i had
really moved to all those years ago vancouver on the other hand has greatly impressed me
especially considering everything that i'm sure was difficult for them as well during the pandemic
but here in the downtown core it still looks like businesses are just thriving the streets
are overall super clean everything is well taken care of i don't see a lot of vandalism
and just in general people seem to be happy like people seem to be in a good mood in their regular
west coast laid back sort of nature yes there is still some negatives you could say about vancouver
that i've always felt were things that kept me from ever considering moving here like number
one the weather i can't handle half of the year being overcast dreary dread coming from the sky
that is unfortunately you know the common weather forecast in vancouver and then the second thing
and especially now more than ever uh vancouver is ridiculously expensive so those are my two main
issues with vancouver that really haven't gone anywhere so to say but at the same time there are
so many positive things that have truly impressed me that i will share in this video about vancouver
want me to be
tell me
what do you see
keep slipping through my fingers
i try to find a way not to cry
so a hundred percent one of the top things about living or even just visiting vancouver
is the nature out of all the major canadian cities i think vancouver really is that perfect blend
of still being a very big city with many modern amenities but at the same time being a harbor
city being a port city you literally are on the water you're in the midst of the mountains and
you have so many amazing nature excursions literally an hour's drive from the city
their license plate is literally beautiful british columbia and i mean i mean they're not wrong
if i had to choose my absolute favorite thing to do in vancouver it would definitely be
running or biking the sea wall which is this beautiful path that wraps all the way
down through here all the way into stanley park you can literally go for
i don't know how many kilometers it is but would take a whole hour to bike and probably
about three hours to run so that is what we will start off today's video with i'm going to
rent a bike at a local shop and i'll take you guys on a little biking tour
the sun is out how amazing what a treat unfortunately in the five days that i've
been here so far there has been sun one day you know was very nice but basically
all of the other days maybe it comes out for like two or three hours and that's it
but having said that that is a rarity for june i guess they are having a very cold
and overcast june compared to what it usually is but still if you're thinking of visiting vancouver
it's almost a given that you should expect that most days will be overcast there will be rain
so make sure you know you bring a rain jacket ideally some waterproof shoes mine have been
soaked basically every single day but another point i want to make since we are about halfway
on the seawall right now having a wonderful time i just wanted to mention how lovely it is
that vancouver almost makes it very easy to be an active person a lot of the fun activities
that there are to do in the city really have you exercising and leading a healthy
lifestyle the food is really good here like really fresh just in the short time that i've been here
i've clocked almost 20 000 steps every single day it's a super walkable city it's super easy to get
around and overall i would say that if you are living in the downtown core there overall really
isn't any reason for you to have to get a car it's super easy to walk or just take the public transit
what do you want what do you want from
what do me want what do you want for
me i'm not a very good fighter a fighter
do i have to tell you one more time my way of laughing redefine that song
for now what do you want what do you want from
now it wouldn't be fair for me to do a video on vancouver and talk about only the good because as
i said i feel in many ways it has improved since the last time that i was here and just the way
that i remember it but that of course doesn't take away from the very real problems that vancouver
is facing and that in a way it has always faced so as with most major cities and especially you know
our main two in canada of toronto and vancouver both of them definitely have extremely
inflated rental rates i mean real estate prices in general whether you want to rent or to buy
it is a very large percentage of people's income and you could say that the average person
you know barely makes enough to even consider being a homeowner at some point in their life
vancouver is actually canada's worst culprit where if you want to live anywhere basically near
downtown and even in some of the outer boroughs which are also you know quite nice the average
one-bedroom apartment is going for 23 2400 canadian dollars and to put that into perspective
let's say a person that is working a minimum wage job or just a little bit more of that if
they worked full time you know 40 hours a week after taxes they would barely be able to afford
just the rent just the rent nothing else for a one-bedroom apartment here in vancouver it's
extremely sad because i believe anybody who's working a full-time job should absolutely be able
to afford you know at the very least the rent of a one-bedroom apartment and that basically ties into
vancouver's second biggest problem which is drugs most major cities do have this problem as well
but unfortunately in vancouver it is you know quite prevalent and what's maybe different
than uh some people have experienced compared to going to europe or something is that you
will see people that are literally like out of their minds you know walking around the streets
the good thing i guess is that overall most don't seem to be dangerous and you know even in the area
that i'm in downtown you know we have um you know some people that sit outside of the hostel that
i'm staying and you know they're overall fine you know really nice people you know everybody
has a different story of you know why they're in the situation they're in and we should never
judge them but unfortunately here in vancouver that is a fairly big problem and like i said if
you go to the eastern part of the city that's when it really shows but having said that where
i am right now is actually on the eastern part of the city i am in chinatown which is an area
that i actually really like and that i think doesn't get visited enough just because it is
kind of close to hastings street but there are so many good little restaurants and
shops here i'm actually gonna be meeting a friend uh for cocktails at a really cute bar
that she recommended so if you come to vancouver i would definitely recommend checking out chinatown
all right guys i am at the coolest place with my friend tiffany and we are drinking
super unique cocktails which one did you get tiffany i got oh my gosh wasn't it called grace
kale or something like that yeah cause like look at the color of this and it has gin sapphire gym
sapphire gin oh my gosh and then mine is actually the kind of special of the month it's called let's
uh i'll go to the lobby it's got bourbon creme de cacao salted butter popcorn looks absolutely
amazing and is actually here in chinatown right really cute little cocktail bar so nice
so guys we moved from cocktails to this amazing
modern middle eastern restaurant called nuba here in yale town right we're in yale town now
and we've got some beautiful italian red wine so delicious we've got some fresh pita bread
and we actually decided to go with the two kind of sharing platters that they have here this
is the vegetarian version where you have like the bell pepper spread we've got some i think
just like sauerkraut kind of thing we got some carrots tabouleh bubba ganoush hummus
and then the next platter will be a meat one so look at the colors right the colors are
just like beautiful and i love that vancouver has so many like you know different ethnicities that
bring their cuisines to the city and we get to enjoy this masterpiece like this is just amazing
me
no
i was hoping it was going to be sunny for my outro no such luck but i wanted to end things off here
on granville island guys this is definitely one of the loveliest places here in vancouver i actually
purposefully didn't film too much for this video because when i come back of course i'll come
back to vancouver i think i want to do much more extensive videos about the different neighborhoods
in the city so i hope you guys enjoyed this little introduction of a video and like i said before
i am truly impressed by vancouver and definitely want to spend a lot more time here it has changed
a lot since when i first came here but let me know your thoughts in the comments guys let me
know if you have been to vancouver what were your impressions what are your suggestions and who
knows i might actually be coming back here late this summer i don't want to make any promises but
i do have a couple of work opportunities that i might be doing here so we'll see maybe i'll
be back sooner than later so i hope you guys enjoyed the video as always i am sending you
so much love hope you're having a fantastic day and keep being your own kind of beautiful bye
something guys your mind you want me to be
tell me
what do you see staring
that was