2012.08.21 - Anime and Boats
Seriously, that's all I did today.
Steven, Joanna, and I decided to go to an underground mall today at Taipei Main Station because there's a huge typhoon coming in soon (seriously, is my flight going to be delayed?).
We went to one (sorry, I don't know which one... there's several) that had a LOT of anime merchandise. (Anime is Japanese animation, and it has an enormous fanbase.) Luckily, I'm not a huge fan, so I didn't really get much but I did buy some gifts for friends. Yay!
Some merch~
We also saw some themed cafes! It was really cool and... very fitting of the anime vibe.
All of the employees are decked out in frilly mini-kimonos (I think they change themes every day) and one came out and asked me in a really adorable voice to take their business card... I kind of wanted to go in and eat lunch but Joanna and Steven seemed reluctant. These kind of shops cost a lot of money, after all.
I also saw a butler-themed one.
We settled for a random shop instead which served ramen, bibimbap, gratin, and pasta... I don't favor bibimbap and I didn't trust the place's Italian skills, so I went for an interesting butter ramen. It had a crown next to it, so I guess it's popular?
It was surprisingly good! The butter was a nice touch, but it didn't overpower the ramen. I like ramen with a more milky-looking soup (it's usually from boiled egg yolk) because they tend to be creamier and slightly sweeter as opposed to savory. There weren't enough noodles, though.
On our way to the platforms, we saw a wall covered completely with people's drawings!
After walking around QSquare, we went to an international supermarket where I got this popsicle. I just felt like eating it.
It was really good! There was a milk part and a red bean part, both of which are really creamy. I prefer the milk part though, it has a different aroma than milk we drink in America. My family gets 2% which kind of tastes watery. Not my favorite.
Afterwards, we headed to Xindian (新店) to go to Bitan (碧潭) which is famous for its scenery along the river, and its suspension bridge.
Right when I saw the pedaling boats I knew I had to go on it. So, we did!
Funny story about this picture of the egret. As you can see, this is the border where we can't go any further since the boat workers don't want the boats going too far anywhere. We drifted off to the border and I took a picture of the egret, then I said "Okay guys, let's go back". Well, we couldn't. We thought we were caught on the wire, but we weren't. While trying to get back to the dock, there was a big spider by Steven and so we both started to freak out and rock the boat everywhere. (Steven killed the spider). Finally, after a lot of dangerous leaning off the boat and pushing us away from the boundary, we went back to the dock. We were stuck there because the current was pushing us there, and I think we had a faulty boat... the pedals were a bit broken. Well, as long as we make it back okay.
After our boat adventure, we decided to cross the suspension bridge.
Where all the boats are.
When we crossed the bridge, we went to Seven Eleven and ate some food... and all of us failed to notice we missed the sunset. Whoops.
We didn't do anything after we came home from that.
Good day, good day.