Taipei Day 3 (Sonic Café, Dadao Theatre Building, Animate)

 Today I woke up a bit late, around 9pm. I slept in cause I could hear someone coughing a lot in the morning and I did not want to go out. :(

I had breakfast, 姨媽 bought me a shaobing with egg omlette inside. Very very yum. I also finished off my bread from FM station. 姨媽's olive oil order arrived and the Building Management rang and since she was in the toilet I picked it up. They said she also has a traffic infringement notice and wanted me to sign it and return it? Turns out it was the parcel they wanted me to sign, not the notice, lol. It was for when 姨媽 turned on a flashing green light, but in front of the pedestrian and not the back, and was fined by a police officer. They want her to go do a remedial lesson. She was on the phone sorting this out when I left. 

I headed to Sonic Café which is hosted by Literati Café near 府中 line on the blue line. I arrived and it wasn't too busy, and it was spacy so good. But they seated me one seat across from another person... should be OK though?? I hope. I had to go back and ask for the Sonic Menu as they gave me the normal menu. I got Shadow's Doom Surf Upon a Cake (Black Forest) and Sol Kingdom's Purple Princess (Grape Calpis). The food was OK... the drink delicious. The cake used that mock cream and the sponge was super airy, so it didn't have much body to it. So when you got to the end, the mock cream made you feel a bit sick.

The decorations were really really cute though. I also did the SNS thing where you post and get someone to like, and then follow the official Sonic Page on facebook. You get a free clearfile! Sadly, the demo playing has already finished at the end of Oct, and you can't get the clearfile from that anymore. I took some photos, and then bought some tshirts. One for myself, two as a gift for friends. A shame they didn't sell the plush that's on the merch display table, they're so cute.

After this, I headed to Ximen and went to Animate. Because my series are so niche I generally have to browse the "general/mixed" section, which is always near the bottom. I kinda had to sit on the floor for the very bottom row. I managed to find some Bakumatsu Rock rubber straps that I don't have. And others I do. I think someone sold their collection?? And no luck finding any Appmon sadly (I found a Parco Appmon badge last year). I think their Lashinban section has definitely increased in size. I also found two Monster Hunter Stories 2 acryclics. So I adopted these lost kids. There was actually a World Trigger and Golden Kamuy section (next to each other! lol) but nothing for me. The nui/manjuu section was as large as ever. I call it the orphanage. xD

The Orphanage

Golden Kamuy and World Trigger together

I found Akaba Reiji?! Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V

All the BakuRock goods I found

It was about just before 3pm, and time to walk to Yongle market. On the way I passed Beimen, and the historical Postal Building. And also saw the city gate all wrapped up in scaffolding. There were some info plaques and displays in a mini park section as well. So frikkin' cool. I saw some workers repairing the tiles/installing a new art piece as well?

Workers were to the right of this wall!

I headed to Dadao Theatre building to see the Huang Jun Shong exhibit I missed last year but didn't know it existed!!! It's a small section so I took my sweet time, really looked at the puppets and then didn't realise that they have a permanent exhibit on the hallway.... they also run classes here, I think, and live performances. But I didn't leave enough time for the rest of the exhibit and they close at 5pm, so I guess I will come back tomorrow (they open at 9am).

I was getting a little hungry as I only had the cake and drink for lunch. I had a walk around outside (my feet was really sore) and found a vegetarian open air shop!!! Score!! I was worried I'd order something with fried shallots or heavy alluim and upset my stomach again. The vege place is like a buffet, and you get your veges weighed and a bowl of rice. The boss said 90 to me in Dai'yu and I had to ask when does it mean... and then he said 90 (dollars) in Mandarin. I said sorry I can't understand Daiyu! My food was yummy, and their chilli was really spicy (I only took like 2 strips) but good, and while I was eating the boss walked over to the stove, and I told him that it's "好吃" with a thumbs up. He didn't catch me the first time and I repeated it again. He then said to me that there is soup here and bowls/utensils there. I said thank you. I finished eating first, and then used my rice bowl for the miso soup. It was really sweet... but turns out it was sweetened by the sauces from the veges. I had a second bowl of miso and it was much better and less sweet.  I called 姨媽 and it was the little sis niece Cindy (Yu Shin) who answered. She asked me if I wanted to open the door, I told her no, let 姨媽 know I won't be home for dinner. Bye bye~

I put my bowl and utensils into the recycle station and then thanked the boss as I walked past him. I then walked to Beimen MRT station and started browsing the Underground Mall. There was a gift/souvenir shop that stocked various items from different artists. I bought some stuff for friends - a foldable shopping bag $240, a Capybara clip $80, a phone cat shoulder strap holder $400?, and a small 204 piece puzzle with cats at a café $210 on it. The total was $862 I think. While shopping I asked about the phone shoulder straps and a customer also shopping showed me a live demo of what hers looked like. Thank you. I found the store that had the Lin Xue Ya nendo again, and asked how much it was. The boss said someone has reserved it, and then commented that it wasn't easy to find. I said I was looking for a friend and they said to try my luck. I thanked them and left lol. I didn't get all the way through.

 My feet is so dead and it's like 7:40pm now and time to head home since it'll take me an hour. 

I am so sore. Took a shower and ready for sleep now.

Taipei Day 2 (Gugong)

 Today I was a bit tired, and every time 姨媽 moved or sleep talked I would wake up. She moved to the sofa to sleep after a coughing fit at like 3:50am though. It was raining and I didn't have a spare key so just rested and waited a bit. Then accompanied 姨媽 to the wet market. She got 酸豇豆 from the market and will cook it up tonight.

Frikken big avocados!!

A stall at the 子菜市場

Then I had an early lunch of leftover noodles (VERY YUM!), then had a dragonfruit, and headed to Gugong. It was around 1pm when I went out. And I got a bit lost on which bus to take from the MRT station, but got there in the end. I ended up walking through a garden? and then up the hill to Gugong. I took Blue 7. But Brown 20 will get you to the entrance of Gugong (I took this one home).

There were heaps of student tour groups from Korea and Japan. And other tourists as well. It was soooo busy. I went through the special exhibit which was where the Jadeite cabbage was - since it was not at 302. The pork stone isn't on display today. The special exhibit was a collab between Gugong, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Musée des Arts Décoratifs. The museum took them 3 years of preparation. The Jadeite cabbage was at the very end/last display box, and it was so busy I waited about 15 mins+ to be able to get a photo in the front position. It's actually a lot smaller in real life, and very cute. 

Then I had a look at the other exhibit about imperial princess'. It was mainly document based, and learnt that the aerage princess lived to only 26 years old... that's so said. And the handwritten documents, looked so neat in handwriting you'd think it was printed! The tip is so fine!

I ran out of time at they started kicking people out at 5pm, and the gift shop was already closed. Thank goodness I went to get stamps after seeing the cabbage as there's heaps of people doing the stamps now. 

I took the Brown 20 from the musuem exit and it takes you to the Wenhu MRT line. Cool! There's a less of a line for Brown 20 than the Red bus. The bus that came was so tiny it was really cute. The driver was also able to converse in some English, and shouted out that the MRT is next stop at the stop before.

I ended up printing DIY postcards, and popped into 全國電子 on the way home and they ended up having the type of converter plug I needed. Sweet!! 

Home for dinner and everyone was home (表姊 and the kids, 紹珉, 翃毅 and their mum). 姨媽 cooked a lot for dinner and the 酸豇豆 was so delicious!!! Like what!!!! Ohhhh man so good I ate so much but didn't want to overstuff myself. Also my pee is red from the dragonfruit, lol. 

I had to wait until the kids went home and then I could relax a bit more. I had some tea while waiting. And then took a shower, had a leg bath since they were so sore with the shower water (and rinsed off afterwards), wrote my postcards, and blogged. I'm so tired.