Canada 2019
I was on vacation in Canada from Monday, March 4-to-Wednesday, March 20, 2019. Because of the International Date Line, I arrived back in Japan on Thursday, March 21st, a national public holiday here called “shubun no hi,” Spring Equinox Day. The dates make it appear that my vacation was longer than it actually was. First, that International Date Line thing. Second, the first four days of the trip were spent on the VIA Rail Canadian 2 cross-country train (Tuesday, March 5th-Saturday, March 9th). The cross-country trip is more a vacation by itself than merely a means of traveling to a vacation spot, so I want to classify it separately from the time I spent in my hometown. But that’s a perspective that requires a lot of exposition.
When I write about vacations - especially vacations on the train - I am tempted simply to publish my daily diary of events, sights and impressions. That might get pretty boring pretty quick, so the alternative is an exposition of things that impressed me, which necessarily omits the majority of the experience.
My Air Canada flight to Vancouver was 8 hours on a comfortable Boeing 787 Dreamliner. But the 12 ½ hour return flight from Toronto was on a smaller Boeing 777. I wasn’t happy about that, because I was expecting another 787. I confirmed the aircraft type with my travel agent when I booked my ticket. The difference between the two aircraft was very noticeable. The movies were mostly crap. I only watched three full movies the entire trip.
On the afternoon of March 4th I visited the Capilano River suspension bridge in North Vancouver. After that I bummed around downtown and Gastown taking pictures. I had an early start on Tuesday, March 5th because the departure time from Central Pacific Station was 12:00 noon. 24-hours later in Jasper, Alberta, in the heart of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, I hopped off the train during a 45-minute stop. I always want to dash across the street (highway) to the gift shops there. It was very cold. After that I hopped off at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (-29 degrees C) to mail some postcards, then again at Melville, Saskatchewan, and once more at Sioux Lookout in northern Ontario. I could have gotten off in Winnipeg, too, because there was a long stop there. But we arrived seven hours late at 3:00 a.m., so I figured hell no. I’ve gotten off in Winnipeg before, in the day time, to take pictures, and the thing is that once you’re off the train you can’t get back on board until the crew are ready to board you and depart. So, at 3:00 a.m. I would have been stuck inside Winnipeg Station with nothing to do for a couple of hours.
It was the tenth or eleventh time I’ve taken the VIA Rail Canadian 2 from Vancouver-to-Toronto. (VIA Rail Canadian 1 runs from Toronto-to-Vancouver). I’ve never done the eastern leg of the cross-country trip, which is the VIA Rail Ocean that runs between Montreal, Quebec and Halifax, Nova Scotia. But honestly, I am already planning on that trip next year. I’ve got it all blocked out in my mind. That’s an important step, you know, because I habitually tell people that I cannot do anything at all until I first can imagine myself doing it. Picturing it in my mind is the first, and most important step in anything I do.
VIA Rail is not like passenger service in Japan. In Japan, trains are ultra-modern, clean, fast, and - barring disasters - absolutely punctual. You can literally set your watch by Japanese trains. By comparison the VIA Rail Canadian is kind of disgraceful because the train is 65-years old (the Art Deco design is supposed to be part of its charm), slow (maximum speed about 100 km/h), jerky, and notoriously behind schedule (because CN freight trains have priority on the tracks). However, if travelers understand all this and are prepared then the trip is actually quite wonderful. For the duration of the trip, the service provided, the people you meet, and just the experience of it the cost - more than an airplane ticket - is okay.
An important feature of the cross-country train is that I get to see Canada’s geography. The geography is exactly as we were taught in school. The Rocky Mountains are there, and they’re rocky. The Great Plains are flat, really flat. Amazing flatness. So flat that looking at them too much inspires suicidal thoughts. And, the Canadian Shield really does feature lakes, rivers and forests, with outcroppings of pre-Cambrian rock. It’s all true.
The first time I took the train I was like a dog sticking its head out the car window. I was glued to a seat in the observation car gazing at the passing scenery. These days, though, I’m more comfortable moving around the train doing different things. I visited different observation and activity cars throughout the day, I napped, I read, I talked to people, and I worked on jigsaw puzzles (games left behind by previous passengers). This year I finished three puzzles: first, a 275-piece puzzle of two horses’ heads; second, a massive 1,000-piece San Francisco cityscape; and, third, a 500-piece tiger. They were all challenging in their way. Fortunately, I did not work on them alone or else I’d go crazy. I worked in a team. (The 1,000-piece puzzle took almost exactly 28-hours.)
I enjoyed meeting and talking with people on the train that I otherwise never meet. They are usually retired Americans on an adventure tour with their spouses. This year my 1000-piece puzzle team consisted of three older Americans - two women and a man. They were great fun to talk with and really good puzzlers. One interesting thing I noticed about their American English is their way of pronouncing the name “Toronto,” with the second “t” clearly enunciated - like ToronTo. The habitual Canadian pronunciation sounds closer to “Toranno.” It’s not that we don’t pronounce the second “t.” We do. It’s just that in Canadian speech the second “t” is very muted. Or, we just say “TO.”
We arrived in Toronto only one hour behind schedule - which is very good for the cross-country train - with plenty of time to make the connection to the train for Guelph. There are two southwest bound VIA Rail trains leaving Toronto, one goes to Windsor and the other to Sarnia, Ontario. The one that goes through Guelph is the Sarnia train, not the Windsor train.
Guelph was cold and icy. Some snow. Some rain. Temperatures hovering around freezing. Dirty. On mild days ice and snow began to melt, forming large puddles atop frozen ice beneath, meaning that walking was always treacherous. I shunned sidewalks and shortcuts through the park to walk on the road. March is a bad month to visit Canada.
I spent almost every day at my storage unit, continuing my 3-year-old project of downsizing my collection of stuff. This year I counted boxes, not books. I moved 71 boxes of books and donated them to a branch of the local Public Library. The job is not finished yet. I need about four more days of work to finish my planned downsizing. And if my plan changes, then maybe even more time than that. Book selling and librarianship are surprisingly physical jobs. Books are heavy and there is a lot of lifting involved in those occupations. I had to cut my fingernails short because I painfully broke so many nails on heavy boxes and cumbersome tomes while heaving and toting them to and fro.
Everywhere I went shopping this year the cashiers always asked me at check-out if I wanted to donate to one charity or another. That’s a tactical approach for money strategically timed, while people have their wallets or debit cards are out. I hated the obvious calculation of it, and I quickly learned to cut them off, like this,
“Would you like to …?’
“No.”
“Do you want …?”
“No.”
Also, while shopping I noticed a common habit of Canadian store clerks to say, “Have a good one!” to departing customers, meaning “Have a good day!” I took it as a Canadian thing and thought how tedious it would be to explain that to my Japanese students. I didn’t appreciate it.
On Monday, March 18th I visited Niagara Falls, about a 100-minute drive from Guelph. I had to rent a car to do that, because my mother refused to let me drive her car so far out of town. It’s the first time I ever rented a car. It was easy to do, and it was a good car - a Japanese Mazda. On a Monday morning in March, with cloudy and cold weather, the Falls were not crowded. I could park directly across the street. After the Falls I drove 12 km downriver to the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, right where the Niagara River empties into Lake Ontario. It’s a very historic and scenic town. The War of 1812 broke out in that area when the Americans invaded and were defeated by General Sir Isaac Brock at Queenston Heights, atop the Niagara Escarpment. Again - not crowded. In summer time these places are like your local shopping mall at Christmas time, packed with tourists, cars, buses and recreational vehicles. But not on a cold Monday morning in March.
I left Guelph amid snow and ice and a forecast of 6° C. Tokyo was 20° C when I arrived.