Ontario, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal - Canada

Finally, it's my time to take a real vacation after my hard final exams. Since my parents came to my graduation ceremony, my dad suggested that we all should go to Canada for a nice vacation. I honestly didn't know much about Canada, so I decided to visit Canada by getting a tour program for convenient purposes. I used the tour service from Tour4Funs, which is unexpectedly good.

After long searching, I decided to pick a 4-day tour program that heavily emphasizes on Niagara Fall. I and my family spent almost 2 days around Niagara Falls and then spent the rest of the tour at Toronto, Ontario, Ottawa, and Montreal respectively.


Niagara Falls:
My folks spent very long hours on the bus, going from Manhattan to Niagara Falls in the first day of the tour. But the long wait on bus is worth because Niagara Falls are really gorgeous. Here are some photos at Niagara Falls:

Niagara Falls at Night

The most remarkable thing to do here is Maid of the Mist. You will get on a boat and be brought closely to Niagara Falls. It is very exciting (a rain coat is provided).

Maid of the Mist

At the afternoon of day 2, we got on the tour bus and went to Toronto.

Toronto:
We visited Canadian National Tower and Nathan Phillips square.

CN Tower

The View on the Top of Canadian National Tower

Nathan Phillips Square

At the beginning of the next day, we went to 1000 Islands, located at the border between Ontario and New York.

1000 Islands:
There are about 1,800 islands in this region. Some are a bit bigger than others. Some are very very tiny (yet they still consider them islands).

1000 Islands

 There is a sad story behind a castle, one of the architectures in this area. There was a wealthy man who devoted a lot of his wealth to build a castle because he wanted to have a good time with his beautiful wife in the castle. Sadly, his wife died from illness before the castle finished, so there was no one ever lived in that castle.

The (sad) Castle

At the end of the day, we were heading to Ottawa, the capital of Canada

Ottawa:
We visited the Canadian parliament in Ottawa. It's so beautiful.

Parliament Hill

Parliament Hill

We didn't spend so long at this city because it is very small and does not have many remarkable things to see. Montreal then became the next journey right after the visit at the parliament.

Montreal:
I was so surprised when I arrived at Montreal because the tour program brought me to St. Joseph Cathedral, the largest catholic church in North America. Father Andre is the founder of this church and his heart is still preserved as the dead wish from father Andre. There are many miracles happen for ones who visited and prayed. For example, some has been completely cured from cancer; some can walk again even though the leg injury was permanent and incurable.

St. Joseph Cathedral

I decided not to take a lot of photos here because I had only half an hour allowed to be here. I mostly spent my time praying inside the church.
In the afternoon, we went to the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

Olympic Stadium

The view from the Top of Olympic Stadium

I actually spent almost 6 days for this trip because I spent a lot of time flying from LA to New York and the other way round. I think one should visit Niagara Falls at least once in a life time because its beauty is grand and unique. Hope you enjoy my narrative trip here :D

Kouraku Restaurant, Little Tokyo - LA

Nothing is better than having good food after intense final exams. I've looked for a new place in Little Tokyo and found this Japanese place as my new favorite. It offers delicious Japanese food for decent price. The typical dishes here are Yakisoba, Katsudon, Ramen just to name a few.

Katsudon (Pork Cutlet)

Yakisoba

The only negative thing in my opinion is that this place accepts only cash. If you are comfortable with that, this is a must to try.

They serve Sake and Japanese beer too. This place closes at 3 in the morning (except Sunday), so it could be a good place to have late meals along with a nice conversation with your friends.