Click on images below to enlarge:
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| Royal Ontario Museum (R.O.M.)
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| The ultra-modern new entrance to the Royal Ontario Museum (R.O.M.).
| The R.O.M.'s original structure / old entrance.
| A panoramic video of the R.O.M's atrium, notable mainly for the surprise
attack at the end.
| The surprise attack bird, up close.
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| Apparently this is a history map, as explained in the following pictures
of the wall labels.
| Overview of the history map.
| A detailed explanation, just barely readable in the full-size image.
Ignore the French.
| More explanation, easily readable in the full-size image.
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| The old building sometimes impinges into the pyramidal design of the new
wing.
| A pre-historic sea turtle hangs in one of the pyramidal atriums.
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The exhibit on the evolution of armor ends with a display case
containing hockey uniforms/padding.
| The evolution of stained glass styles, explained visually. Neat.
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| A slightly more detailed textual explanation of the stained glass
display.
| A panoramic video of an incredibly tall totem pole.
| The "Light of the Desert", a Cerussite gem, is more sparkly and more
impressive than the Hope diamond. I'm
surprised I never heard of it.
| Details about the gem.
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| I get a sense of being let in on a secret when I see a room in
transition, in this case after all objects have been removed.
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| Misc
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| The plaza by the Bay Street Metro Station is cute.
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| Koreatown
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| Koreatown. Note lots of Korean writing. Also
note the outline of Korean peninsula in lights attached to the lamppost.
(It gets lit at night, but it hadn't yet been turned on when I took this
picture.) Incidentally, the outline is reversed compared the normal
perspective one sees on the map; I took this picture from the wrong
direction. Also, did you realize South Korea possessed a fairly sizable
island (shown as part of the outline)?
| Another sample shot of Koreatown.
| And more Koreatown.
| Honest Ed's, a bright discount department store at the east end of
Koreatown.
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| Snakes & Lattes, a cute cafe with tons of board games.
| Inside Snakes & Lattes. The bookcases are filled with board games
available for playing, some you've heard of, some you haven't.
Looks like a fun place.
| Fun Mario stuffed animals. I can't decide on a favorite.
I took this picture on March 16, 2012.
| Inside the shop. Notice the walnut cakes (foreground right) and the
machine that makes them.
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The cakes were filled with red bean paste and dots of walnut. They were
good; I liked that they were mostly filling.
I took this picture the following day, on March 15, 2012.
| Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu, which we selected for dinner.
| It's a bustling restaurant, densely packed.
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The restaurant has an efficient menu: 9 items.
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| Our panchan, all decent: kimchi, soybeans, radish strings, and bean
sprouts (the favorite). Also pictured are the raw egg which came with
Di Yin's meal and the chili sauce which came with mine.
| My hot stone pot bibimbab was decent, if a little plain. (There was too
much rice relative to the other ingredients.)
| Di Yin's combination soon tofu, a soup with beef, shrimp, mussels, and,
of course, tofu. It was pretty good, with a pleasing mellowness. (We
ordered medium, not regular = spicy.) It came with hot stone pot rice
to mix soup with rice in one bite.
| From the Korean snack shop, we
also got a red bean pancake, which was served to us warm. We ate it for
dessert.
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