Shabusen Yakiniku House

Shabusen Yakiniku House is an all you can eat buffet that offers Korean barbecue and Japanese dish. The restaurant is located on the busy Vancouver downtown Burrard Street and it is on the second floor. So it may be a bit difficult to spot but it does have a advertisement board on the first floor along the street.


Since we went for a tough hike early in the morning that day, we were so hungry when we got back to the city at 1PM. Thus we looked for an all you can eat buffet to fill our stomach. We found Shabusen as we walked down the street and decided to give it a try.

As we walked up the stairs we could smell the Korean barbecue. It smelled so good. It was very busy in the restaurant and we had to wait for 10 minutes before getting a table. As we sat down, we were given an order sheet to place our order. The number that we put on the order sheet is for per piece, even for sushi rolls. What this mean is the dish will come with just 1 piece of sushi roll. We find this to be very efficient since we could try a piece of every single roll.

So we ordered few places of beef and pork for barbecue, about 10 pieces of salmon Sashimi, 2 salmon Nigiris, tempura, tofu, and other stuff.

The food came very quickly and started grilling it. The salmon Sashimi was very fresh and each piece was very thick. We were surprised with how thick each Sashimi was. We really loved it. The salmon Nigiris was not bad either, but it did not feel as fresh as the Sashimi. The beef and pork barbecue meat was already marinated and had a lot of flavor. We really liked the way how we grilled it.

As we finish up the first round and wanted to order the second round, we were told it was the last call. We were surprised because it was not even 2PM and the restaurant closes at 2:30PM. We ordered more salmon Sashimi to enjoy the feast and few more plates of pork and beef for barbecue.

Overall, Shabusen Yakiniku House was quite good and offered a variety of food selection. One thing that they do note is that they make sure you do not waste food and order too much. We overheard a table wanted to order more and the owner asked if they could finish. The price is $21 per person, which we think is reasonable.

Japadog

Japadog is a popular hot dog joint located in Vancouver Canada. It started with just a hot dog stand back in 2005 and has since expanded with multiple hot dog stands and even sit in restaurants. Japadog is unique compared to regular hot dog. It offers a variety of unique flavors that originate from Japan. Then it has also expanded into selling other type of fast food such as fries and Takoyaki. Nevertheless, Japadog is a place that people will definitely try when visiting Vancouver.


During the beautiful Memorial Day long weekend, we decided to visit Vancouver. We got to Vancouver and checked in to the hotel at around 3:30PM. We were hungry and found a Japadog sit in restaurant near by. The restaurant was only 10 minutes walk from the hotel and the cloud was clearing up, so we started walking over.

The Japadog restaurant was not big. There was probably around 20 stools with few tiny tables. Before we sat down, we placed our orders first. We ordered a classic Okonomi Japadog with mayonnaise and bonito flake, a Kobe beef Japadog that was made from the famous Kobe beef, and lastly a serving of poutine.

We waited for about 5 minutes to get our Japadog, which was quite fast. The Okonomi Japadog had a lot of flavors, especially with the bonito flakes. However, it still tasted very similar to regular hotdog, so it did not feel that special for some reason.

The Kobe beef Japadog was very aromatic. It smelled so good with Kobe beef smell and the  seaweed on top of the hot dog was really amazing. We loved the combination of seaweed and hotdog. It was just awesome.

The reason we got the poutine was because we were in Canada and must order a poutine. However, as we expected, the poutine was not good here. We were told that the tossed fries at Japadog is very good, but we did not order it.

As we were about to finish, a horde of tourist just came in an pretty much occupied the entire restaurant. We were glad that we came 10 minutes early.

Overall, Japadog was an exciting place to try and the hot dog was quite good. We probably will not try again though, but if you have not tried it before, we recommend people to try it. In terms of price, Japadog was at least $7 or more, compared to $5 regular hot dog.

McCall Point Trail

McCall Point trail is located within Tom McCall Reserve. It is about 1.5 hour East of Portland. McCall Point trail is a 2 miles long trail and very well known for its wildflowers during the sprint time and many Oregonians love to come here for a hike in Spring. On this very beautiful sunny Saturday, we drove out on I84 and headed to Tom McCall Reserve.


The drive to Tom McCall Reserve was very smooth. One we get to Mosier, we got off I84 and drove on historic highway 30. Highway 30 was very narrow with bridge that only allowed one car to go through. After driving about 4 miles on Highway 30, we got to Rowena Viewpoint, which is where  the trail head is at.

We got to the trail head around 9:30AM and the parking lot is about half full. From the parking lot, which is at Rowena Viewpoint, we could see the windy highway 30 going down the mountain. It was quite interesting. Some people hopped over the wall and walked on the cliff side to get better selfie photos, but it was very dangerous.

We headed to the trail head and there was a lot of wildflower on the field, even at the start of trail head. We saw many girls wearing their beautiful dress to come out here for a photo shoot.

As we hiked towards the top, there were even more wildflower to be seen on the side of the trail. We just love it. As the trial gained elevation, we could also see Mount Adams on the North side and Mount Hood on the East. The scene was just amazing.

We also saw a Labrador Retriever, 2 Golden Retrievers, and a St Bernard on the hiking trail although the sign specifically said no pets allowed. The dogs were very well behaved however. There were also many people brought their new borns to this beautiful place.

The trail itself has about 1000ft in elevation gain over about 2 miles, so it is a relatively easy hiking trail. It took us about an hour to reach the top, but it was mainly due to spending so much time on taking pictures.

At the top of the trail, there was not really any seating areas. So most people just sat on the ground to enjoy the flower and the breeze of wind. There were also bees flying around.

When we got back down to the parking lot, the parking lot was entirely full of cars and so many people were there. There is another trail(Rowena Plateau Trail) on the East side of the parking lot, which is very easy with essentially no elevation gains and very suitable for young children and seniors. However, it did not have as much wildflower.

Overall, McCall Point trail is our favorite trail this year so far. There are many other trails around this area and we definitely want to explore this region to check out more wildflower.