Taipei Day 2 (Animate and Underground Shopping Mall)

 Yima got my lobogao and a danbin today. Hooray! This lobogao also had ham in it, and some onion/garlic, I think. Not my ideal but still yummy. The danbin (egg flatbread omelette?) was OK. I ate it all and had milk tea for drink.

Once done, I popped twice?? and hopped out. I got to Ximen around 11am and had a look at the Red Building. It looks really cool. I didn't go inside. A lot of shops are closed Monday.

Then I headed towards Animate - and got pulled in by a lady trying to sell me Nu+Derma skincare. That took about 20-30mins with them demo-ing products because I'm not good at pushing people away. Their products, on special, are reasonable, but full price, it's like $150 for a single product. Ew. Feels nice though.

Once I'm free I headed to Animate and spent like 1.5hr in the dungeon looking at the 2nd hand stuff/Lashinban. Cause all my fandoms are older or niche, I have to dig through the "misc" sections. I managed to find 1 Appmon badge of Astra and Musimon!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 Score!!!!!!! Only $50! This is a new badge for me.... that means there's a set somewhere... aw man. I can't complete. I had to take him home though.

Whilst I was browsing through the first misc section, I got a call, and it ended up being the courier for the SD cards I ordered off PChome???? I thought I selected conbini pickup???? The courier guy was really nice though, and asked if I wanted to leave it at the kanri-room and asked where it is. I'm like uuuuh let me call home and ask where it is cause I'm staying with a relative. So I called the landline and Yima was home, so I let her know how much it cost ($777) and she was able to pick it up for me. I called the courier back and told him to hit the doorbell number, and someone is home to be able to receive the delivery. Thank goodness. I was so apologetic but he was really nice about it 😭

I managed to find Animate cafe, but it's Blue Lock. So I just took photos of the outside and left. They didn't have a toilet either... I went to the nearby 7 and they had a toilet. I was getting hungry (almost 2pm) and bought an onigiri (bacon egg) and baumkuchen (choc outer ring). I saw outside the Taisugar building near Animate and ate it. There's a pair of trains outside which had a QR code to swipe (I took a photo to check the story later).

Then went back inside Animate to get Blue Lock photos for a friend and bought them a Blue Lock plush as xmas gift.

Next I tried to find toranoana and walked by too far. The entrance isn't easy to find as it's 2F up a building with just the security guard/counter on the first floor in a small space. There's some interesting TW made creations but most of the stuff is 18+ or BL/GL so I didn't stay too long as it doesn't interest me at this point.

Continued on towards Beimen, and passed a shop selling beef pepper cakes. Yes please!!! Bought 2, $120. Continued down and there's a travel plaza, nice open space, and seating, so I sat down and ate a pepper cake. Realised I was dangerously low on water so only ate 1. Then kept walking towards the Underground Shopping Mall entrance. And spotted a drinking fountain? Ok! The red brick building for this restaurant, I assume, is closed, and there's public seating so I just sat and ate the last pepper cake. Yummy. But also very filling. I got through half and started to struggle. I saw what looks like a homeless spread out some plastic from a distance, and they laid down on it, and scratched their butt (under their shorts). He also checked out the bushes under the trees where the seating are before he did that. I wonder what he was trying to find. Cigarette butts maybe? 

I headed towards the Mall/Station entrance and there's an old brick relic!! From the Qing dynasty!! The park/facility it's part of seems to be closed today. But I still got to see the brick wall up close!!!

So cool. Then in the station there's more relics!!! Like from excavations!! So lit!!!!!! I wish I had more time to stare properly as it was almost 4pm, so I tried to make it quick. They had like 12 pits in total I think.

I just browsed the mall and went up and down a lot. A lot of shops are closed Mondays. I forgot to keep an eye out for the maid-themed eateries since my aim was to finish the other side of the mall. I ended getting confused again cause I went through the same shops a couple of times, and also coming out and getting confused which direction I went in. I ended up shopping until 8pm... and headed home (since I wasn't hungry). I decided to do one Ichibankuji draw for World Trigger, and got C-sho. I got Konami so out of that set (it's blind boxed), it's the best result!!! Stopped by the Vineyard bakery before I got on the bus, got a lemon cake (it's not covered though... worried about fomite transmission), and a "kumara bake" which looks like a kumara enclosed in dough.

Once I got home, I felt super tired. Had a tiny bit of dinner to eat, rehydrated, showered, had a mini bath for my feet, and it's 11:30pm now after blogging.

Taipei Day 1

 Yima went to line up and buy a special youtiao for me. It was youtiao sandwiched in a shaobing. It's really yummy? No wonder people line up to buy it.

I just mucked around and chatted with Yima until she needed to leave to go help a relative. I decided to go out for a walk in the neighbourhood (around 11am now) and walked past the Performing Arts centre. Seems like they have a performance on at 2:30pm today. I also found a gammy shop that still has its "post stamp seller" sign up, I asked the boss if they sell stamps and he said no, it's a old sign. So cool. There's a stationary shop just further down the road a bit and they sell all sorts of traditional toys and I even spotted some beyblades!!! out the front. I asked if they have stamp collecting books and they said no, but the post shop should have blank ones.

Found a toy store selling Gunpla and they had unicorn for $1418. Next to a 全聯福利中心. I also got dad's battery while I was in PX mart.

I walked back to have lunch, and Yima bought me lianmian (cold noodles) for lunch when she went out earlier. They used wasabi instead of garlic, and it was really yummy, cold and straight out of the fridge. Aww man that was nice.

I needed to poop again (thrice now), and then felt a bit unsettled. I was a little worried so I took a RAT test (negative) and decided it must just be from all the irregular eating.

Decided to go to Taipei Underground Shopping Mall as I realised exactly how much I wanted to try fit in in this week. I saw some cosplayers from the back transferring to the Red line from the Bannan Line (one Genshin, one ?? short ice blue hair and black top) so it must be for that event run by Fancy Frontier. Got to the mall, and boy am I glad I wore my N95. It is packed! I started walking down and yes I remember these few animanga shops. But wait, I think the number of gashapon has increased??? And also there's more shops now?? As I walked down further. Definitely more box houses. I spent 3+ hrs and only managed to get through one side...

I did a gachapon for Tatung rice cookers. Heh they're really cute and come with a rice paddle and cup and everything! $120 for a spin, did 2 and got a friend one.

There's also World Trigger ichiban kuji!! Wao!! Ony 1 A prize left and it's a Yuuma fig. I will consider it. 

I saw 2 Yunos but no Asta.... also found the ALO Kirito figma a friend wanted so that's great. I found Lin Setsu A nendo for $6500... lol. Store said no photos so I took one of the storefront so I remember which store. Think the boss said something about it being exclusively sold in Taiwan or something? Naaah. But it's rare now, that's for sure. I also saw one box selling the World Trigger gacha figs, and Yuuma is $250. I think I'll go back to get him.

I spotted a few boxes selling Pili figures but no SBH from the chibi set. Also saw a cosplayer buying something from a store. Miku wig, pearly dark coloured horns and tail.

There's soooo many gashapons... and more stores selling trading/blind boxes and the lower crane-grade figures, Q-posket, etc. So many people too. I called it quits around almost 6pm (getting hungry and tired) and walked back to bu the Kirito figma, and unsure about the GGO one because it's a display one and I want to double check with my friend.

Get on the MRT and get home, it takes about 30 mins and then 10 mins or so for the bus. 

Yima had cooked dinner!! Awww. She also cooked the Top Grade Rice from Chishang that I gifted her. Everything was really yummy!!! The rice was yummy too!!!

Just chilled and had half a bath from the wash water as I wanted to sit. So my feet got a little bit of soaking. 

Sleep now, postshop tomorrow and maybe I will finish the other half of the Underground Shopping Mall.

Taitung Day 3 (Guanshan)

 I had lobogao for breakfast. Yummy!!! This is what I have been craving. Pity there's ham in this one, a vegetarian one is the exact flavour I wanted. But it's good enough, considering I can even have this.

After I sorted out the rest of my luggage, I left for the Guan Shan Farmers Assoc., got lost, rode past too far, but found it. They had a couple of rice, so I chose a gift pack award winning rice, since I forgot to buy an extra one for one of the uncles. Ride back, drop into Family Mart and grabbed 2 onigiris for the train ride.

Then went back to the homestay and the proipertress offered to box it and send it for me. Aww thank you so much. It was $150 via courier but $80 via post office - she offered to send it for me so I can go ride the bike trail of the old railway. 

Off I go - wow I really realise how much the electric bike compensates for muscle. I managed to find the bike trail but missed the onramp, and ended up riding along the road for a while. I pass a Tudigong miao just before where teh onramp was and must have rode into a chopstick, which was flung up so I stopped as it made a noise. I thought it might've been a warning from Tudigong, so I made sure to greet him. And decided to keep going. Passed a place that does honey, stopped at the entrance and took a photo. Then continued. Damn the rice fields here are awesome too. I'm thinking now, is this a bike train or a normal road?? and saw a fenced path higher up and thought that might be it. Tried to find an on ramp under the bridge but that wasn't it. It was way too rocky. So went back and rode further along. Found it!! Up I go, and wow being higher up gives a nicer view. The old railway station of Yuemei is left there, and a small portion of the track. What used to be the track has been converted into an ashalt riding path. It's a slight downward slope going down, and I was tight on time, so I had to turn around when I reached the old railway station. 

Going back was a bit hard, since it's a slight upwards slope. Saw the part of the trail where I missed initially and the view is very nice. I made it back down the ramp, past the Tudigong, and back to the homestay at 10:50am. Took some minutes to cool down and wipe my sweat, and then packed the rest of my things into my bag.

The proipertress came back and handed me the change - thank her so much. Then she dropped me off to the train station. I N95'd up in the car, and thanked her for a wonderful stay. 

Pity I didn't have time to explore the old Guanshan station, only saw it in passing from the main road intersection. I made my way onto the platform, since there's no one (I actually realised later I got in early), so I demasked and ate a onigiri in the 15 min window. They announce and start accepting people onto the platform officially about 10 mins before the train arrives. 

I got onto the train, Taroko Express, and had an aisle seat on the left side. There's enough space to stick a big lugagge case but the seemingly European person in front reclined the chair a couple of times in the trip, causing me to squash my luggage against my knees. 🙃 Gee you are not helping your stereotype. The trip was pretty uneventful, but the CO2 monitor stayed 1200-1300ppm so I didn't feel comfortable unmasking... I needed to pee at one point and it was at a rocky part of the track. No choice, I had to wait for the toilet to open and whilst waiting my luggage rolled out towards the person across the aisle. I saw them stop it, I'm so sorry 😭 I don't know when the train will stop rocking as hard before my stop. Pissing whilst the train was rocking so hard was an experience too as it's a metal squat toilet. I didn't see a bin for the tissues so I flushed it down. Quickly went back to my seat and apologied to the gentleman next to me. About an hour left to go. I arrived at Taipei Station, and anaged to exit out. I feel like the station has gotten so big?

Anyway, sat outside, there's a row of people sitting outside here but I tried to distance... and then a lady sat near me. Um, oh well. I guess at least there's a nice breeze? I had to eat. I finished my other onigiri and then masked back up and tackled the MRT. Arriving at Zhong Xiao Fushin after riding Bannan Line, the station looks familiar so it's the same as what I remember.

Then transferring onto the brown line, the station is as I remember. But I don't remember the carrige being this narrow???? I may have misremembered. 

Got off at Wanfang Hospital, deducted $30 for the ride. I asked the staff at the info desk if there's space on the bus to put a big luggage cause I don't want to be causing problems for other passengers. He said at this time of the day it's not too crowded so should be OK. There is an area. I checked google but it seems like I need to take more than 1 bus for a bus stop near here? Uhhhh guess I might taxi?? I spotted some taxis waiting at the hospital so and I saw CCTV cameras so judged it OK. 

I asked the driver to take my to Yima's address, he wrote it down on a paper pad next to his steering wheel. How interesting. The ride was $130. I managed to remember the right door, and rang the doorbell. The elevator looks different on the inside. Yima welcomed me in. 

Had the peauts I brought in from Guanshan nightmarket - they were still good, as pre-dinner. Then Yima went to get dumplings for dinner. They were yummy. This shop makes their own dough. Yima unfortunately has memory issues now after her infection in June. I will check and see if there's any supplements that might be helpfu for her, and she can decide if she wants to take them.

We just chatted and chilled. Took an early shower, kinda tired now. Yima looks after her grandkids after school on weekdays. Oh noooo.... covid risk as kids/schools are infection hotbeds. :') God help me.