Where are my legs?

The Dormy Inn, Harajuku, Omotesando, and Aoyoma

Sunday, Sept 22 was our only full day in Tokyo, and even though we had a lot of fun, it was the only day that was full of rain! So there are not a lot of pictures and we didn’t do a lot of running around.

We stayed at a hotel called Hotel Dormy Inn, and it is located between Shibuya and Harajuku. It was a really nice little place that was perfect for Michael and me.

Our room was cozy, but that is too be expected in Tokyo.And even though most probably wouldn’t think the view from the window was all that spectacular, we liked it because the minimalist grey and white color scheme in our room went well with the green trees and trains and cloudy skies outside.

We liked our hotel for many reasons, including how cozy it was. My favorite was this cool little spa they had. I spent both evenings relaxing, alternating between time in the dry sauna, cooling off in the cold water bath, and then soaking in the soft mineral water pool. My muscles felt great every night. I also never took a shower in our room because I used the Japanese style shower stalls in the spa.

Meanwhile, back upstairs in our hotel room, Michael took full advantage of the technologically advanced bathroom. This included using every function available on the toilet:And learning how to use the shower, which included some functions he tried to explain to me, but I fell asleep before he finished:

We also went downstairs to choose special pillows they had for guests. These pillows included standard cotton fill pillows, a “Low Rebound Charcoal Pipe” pillow (the pillow is supposed to sink and return slowly when pressure is applied), a “Pipe” pillow (straw-shaped pipes are cut into small pieces and packed into the pillow. it is especially heavy and hard), and “Malco beans” pillow (Malco beans are shaped like beans but are not real beans. It is especially soft).

On Friday morning, I started the day with coffee. Initially, when I opened up the package of coffee, I thought I’d find either instant coffee or one of those filter pouches you stick in a made-for-hotel coffee maker. But, instead, I found a single cup coffee filter that rests on top of your coffee mug. Check it out:Before adding hot water and a picture of my coffee while it was brewing.The coffee wasn’t anything to write home about, but the design was just so cool. So much cooler than Starbucks Via or K-cups or even the drip coffee you get at those too-cool-for-school coffee shops that are all over SF and NY.

Then we had some breakfast, which included pastries and fruit, green tea lattes, and many other things. I think this was the first time Michael had eaten his preferred breakfast of granola and yogurt in many weeks, so he was pretty psyched about that. The hotel also serves complimentary bowls ramen every night beginning around 8 pm, but we were always too stuffed to take advantage.

After breakfast, we braved the rain and walked around several neighborhoods. We left before most stores had opened, so we decided to find the famous Prada store in the Aoyama neighborhood that was designed by Herzog and de Meuron.So many luxe boutiques line the streets of Tokyo–it becomes a little overwhelming at times. But I did like seeing many of the Japanese designers, including some of the famous ones like Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto, and new boutiques I’d never heard of.

Our next stop was Omotesando Hills, which was designed by Tadao Ando. We spent a fair amount of time here because 1) it was indoors and we were out of the rain, and 2) great place for shopping and some coffee.

There were a couple of housewares/design stores that we spent most of our time in (unfortunately, we did not have enough cash to buy a Harry Winston diamond…haha), and I think that at this point, Michael now fully understands why I am so amazed by stores like this. We avoided buying anything, though, but I still regret not getting this leather pencil pouch. It was perfect in design…maybe next time…

For lunch, we had the best Tonkatsu we’ve ever eaten in our life at a restaurant called Maisen. It was well worth the walk in the rain to find the restaurant in a back alley. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of our meal because I didn’t want to be that person.

After lunch, we walked around some more, and I had to make an executive decision to buy a new pair of shoes because my leather campers were soaking wet, and things had become very uncomfortable. Unfortunately, the place I decided to buy my shoes was a store called Beams, which is kind of like Barney’s. When I took my wet shoes off to try on the new pair, I was so embarrassed because my socks, which were originally white, became this nasty black tie-dyed pattern from the wet leather. So I thought I’d just take those off and try the shoes with bare feet, but my feet were even grosser and had been dyed black, too. I’m pretty sure the sales person dry heaved a little from how gross my feet looked, so I quickly bought the shoes and left the store.

With fresh shoes, we walked to Harajuku just for a few minutes and were confronted by this mob of umbrellas:The shops along this area seemed targeted more at younger folks, so we started back for Aoyama to the Found Muji store, but made sure to check out some of the other famous Japanese men’s stores like Beams and United Arrows.

After a full day of walking around in the rain, we went back to The Dormy Inn and Michael ended up watching this rather strange interview with a Sumo wrestler on TV. The interview was conducted in kind of a somber fashion the way that Charlie Rose can sometimes be. So basically it was like Charlie Rose interviewing a Sumo wrestler who was in his gear:

Last day tomorrow and much of it at the Tokyo Fish Market!

Evening in Shibuya

After ramen noodles, Michael and I spent the rest of the evening walking around the Shibuya neighborhood. Many of the taxis in Tokyo look like this one. Michael was a big fan of the classic style.This is another picture at Shibuya crossing. And we spent some time shopping at some  Japanese stores like Keyuca, United Arrows, and Uniqlo.

Before heading home, we stopped for some tea and dessert at this cafe:I noticed that there was a basket under each of the chairs, but I didn’t know what it was for. And then I realized it was for purses and bags. There have been so many times where there isn’t a hook or good place to put my purse, and I don’t want to place it on a dirty floor. What an easy solution!

And one last picture of Shibuya crossing as we walked back to our hotel…

To Tokyo….

It’s been a while since my last post, but you can blame it on the San Francisco Giants. Michael and I got sucked into baseball ever since returning from Taiwan. The Giants were absolutely amazing during the postseason, and they swept Detroit to be the 2012 World Series Champions!

So the last time I posted we had just spent our last night in Taiwan, so on Saturday, 22 September, we got up early and Elsa and Lenny took us to the airport. After checking in, I made sure that I stopped by the check-in counter for EVA Air’s Hello Kitty flight. EVA Air, the major Taiwanese airline, recently began Hello Kitty-themed flights between Taipei and a number of other cities. Elsa’s friend is a flight attendant on the flight, and she said her friend gets a little tired of it because the passengers are always trying to steal stuff from the flight. Anyway, here are some pictures from the Hello Kitty ticketing counter. Some day I’ll be able to take one of these flights, but for now, I will just have to dream about it and watch this slideshow over and over again.

Before we got on the plane, Elsa gave us this letter, which I framed when we got back to the US. She’s such a great artist. When she came to visit us in 2007, she got Michael and birthday card and drew this great picture of him making grilled cheese sandwiches.

After making it through customs, we got to the gate. Here are a couple of airplanes for those in the family who love modes or transportation:Michael thought he’d take advantage of the recliners and relax a little before getting on the plane:These recliners are so comfortable. I wish that MCI had them since I am often waiting for an hour or so before getting picked up from the airport…just kidding.

Earlier I mentioned how great ANA airlines was, and this time I remembered to document the most notable innovation on this flight. So think about how many times you’ve been on a flight and get your complimentary beverage. You’re already tight on legroom and space in general, and now there’s a beverage on the tray in front of you. And what if you wanted to read or write something? You’re juggling that with trying to keep the beverage from spilling. So, why doesn’t every plane include this SIMPLE innovation:It is just this little round piece of the tray that folds down to hold your beverage. You can leave the tray up AND have a place for your drink. And if you want to use the tray while enjoying some coffee:
No problem, because here we go…another cup holder!

Anyway, after a nice, relaxing flight, we landed at Narita International Airport about 3.5 hours later. From here, we took the Narita Express to Shibuya/Harajuku to check in at our hotel:Even on board the JR Express, they had innovative doo-dads. A hook for a suit jacket and that beverage holder. LOVE IT!

We got to our hotel around 2pm, freshened up and started exploring. Our first stop was ramen at Ichiran. This was the place that Elsa was telling us about. The restaurant is set up in a way where each person has their own personal stall to eat ramen. Michael and I figured out how to fold the divider back, so our stall converted to a 2-person stall. Here’s some pictures of Michael enjoying a beer and some ramen:

More on our adventures in Tokyo tomorrow, but here’s a picture of Shibuya crossing:

Last Day in Taiwan

Friday, 21 September, was our last full day in Taiwan. A week goes by so quickly. After waking up, we got ready and went downstairs for our last breakfast at my aunt’s noodle shop. So sad…

And then we walked around the neighborhood on our way back to their house to wait for my aunt Mei (my mom’s little sister) to stop by. Here’s a picture of the playground by Lenny and Elsa’s house. Lots of little kids playing with their grandparents:

My aunt Mei stopped by Lenny and Elsa’s house to drop off my brother’s favorite brand of pineapple cake. She and my mom were also going to have a video skype call, which would be the first time they’d seen each other in 8 or 9 years! Then Uncle Rex and Auntie Michelle came over, so everyone was on Skype with my mom. After a 1 or 2 hour conversation, we got on our way to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial, but we first stopped for more soup dumplings at a restaurant opened by a former chef at Din Tai Fung.

Friday was the first day during our stay that Michael experienced the hot, humid weather I had become familiar with when spending summers in Taiwan. It’s a little unbearable. And we were going to spend a good deal of time outside. So in order to prepare, I put on these fashionable accessories: a sun-brella and a gigantic visor:You know, the visor seems so ridiculous, but it’s probably the best thing in the world. keeps your entire face in the shade, which means less crow’s feet and leathery skin. Also, in the states, people LOVE being tan and will go to great lengths to maintain some of that “healthy glow” even throughout the winter months. In Taiwan, it’s the opposite, where they what to stay as pale as possible. Aesthetic reasons aside, it’s probably a good idea to keep your skin protected like this. I walked around like this for most of the day. I’m pretty sure Michael was so embarrassed…

Here is a picture of a model of the CKS Memorial and then some pictures of us in front of the main building.

This area holds the memorial, as well as the Opera House and Performing Arts Center. When we went to the Memorial, there was also a Dali exhibit going on. Last time I was in Tokyo, about 13 years ago, I went to a Dali exhibit…but we skipped it this time since I’m not so into Dali any longer…

Our next stop was the Botanical Garden and History Museum. This area is quite pretty. There is a big pond in front of the Museum with beautiful water lilies. Michael used to call lily pads “frog couches” when he was a little kid. We also saw an art class painting with watercolors:

Next stop was some shaved ice after walking around outside for a while. Did I mention how hot and sunny it was outside?! The walls of this place were covered with people who had written little notes documenting that they’d been there. The shave ice was so yummy!

Our final stop was to an area called Shimending. I think it used to be a pretty hip place to go back when my mom was growing up. Now it is most popular with younger kids (maybe high school to early college years). It also has a number of LGBT-friendly shops, bars, and restaurants.

Michael got particularly excited about this Foxconn wheelchair…I guess they don’t just make iPhone parts…We also stumbled upon a restaurant I had read about several years ago. It’s called Modern Toilet, and everything they serve is toilet themed. So bizarre and gross. We did not try it, mostly because I had heard the food is only okay. But also because it sounds so unappealing. I couldn’t help myself from having Michael take this picture though.
I don’t think I’ll ever stop finding potty humor hilarious. HAHAHAHA!

When we got back to Tucheng, my aunt (Elsa and Lenny’s mom) had prepared a gigantic feast for us. It was so delicious. Lenny had gotten some mango and pineapple flavored Taiwan beer for us to try. And of course we had to take some pictures of our last dinner together:This is my youngest cousin, Aunt Mei’s son. He also loves my older aunt’s noodles and has her make him a huge bowl every time he comes over!

After dinner, Elsa took us for a walk, which helped us digest the huge meal we had just finished. We walked to the track and field gymnasium behind their home, which was filled with people exercising. Some groups were dancing, some were practicing tai chi (above), others were running around the track. Michael and I just fell in love with this because so many people were out and about, socializing, exercising, etc., which is so different from life here in the states, where people dont’ really go out and mingle like this on a regular basis…It’s just so livelyWe walked past a National Health Clinic. The doctor’s offices are open until 9 or 10pm, which makes a lot of sense to me. That way you don’t have to take off work to go to the doctor. Dentist offices are like this, too.And some more pictures of Elsa’s neighborhood:

The next morning, we had to catch an 8 am flight to Tokyo…and both Lenny and Elsa got up (well, Lenny stayed up late, while we got up early) to take us to the airport…

Ye Liu, Tamshui and Yang Ming Mountain

Lenny picked us up and had two glasses of grass jelly for us to drink (read about grass jelly here). In the past, I haven’t really loved grass jelly, but this time, it wasn’t bad. And then we started driving north to Ye Liu Geological Park on the coast.

Ye Liu is known for its  rock formations, and the most famous one is the rock that resembles a queen’s head. There are a number of other rock formations that look like other objects. This has become a popular tourist destination, and it was much more crowded than when I visited a decade ago. We walked along the touristy portion, but then Michael began wandering off and led us too a less populated hike by accident. We came across a couple who were serious birders and photographers, and we saw these gigantic butterflies that were the size of our hands. This turned out to be one of the few times that Michael’s detours did not end up in blisters on our feet and tears in our eyes (just kidding!).

We took the coastal route from Ye Liu and stopped by a temple. It was a quick stop because all we did was pick up some zongzi, which are kind of like sticky rice tamales, from a famous place in the area. And then we stopped at Taipei’s Fisherman’s Wharf and went for a stroll.
Michael thought this sign was particularly funny:

This area was interesting because there is so much real estate development, but none of the condos looked like they were at capacity. It seemed a little like the sprawl we see in the states. And there were a good number of empty/out of business stores along the boardwalk. But Lenny said that this is an area where couples like to visit. They will take the ferry from Tamshui to Fisherman’s Wharf, watch the sun set, and all that romantic stuff.

Before meeting up with my uncle, my aunt and Elsa, we went to Tamshui to walk around. Michael was pretty hungry at this point because he doesn’t like zongzi, so he didn’t snack on any. So, what did Michael eat as a snack….Yup, a gigantic soft serve. Just kidding. Lenny and I helped him out (a little) with it. But Lenny and I were more interested in savory snacks, so we picked up these shrimp rolls from a street vendor:

Our final stop for the evening was to have a meal atop Yang Ming Mountain with my uncle, aunt and Elsa. We picked them up at Shilin Night Market, the most famous of the night markets, and my uncle greeted us with several bags of snacks he picked up from the market, including scallion pancakes and something called “da bing bao xiao bing” which means big pancake wrapped around small pancake. Michael tried this, which is one of my uncle’s favorites, and loved it. Here’s a picture of it from someone else’s blog:

And up we go to Yang Ming Mountain. Check out the beautiful views of the city:

And some pictures of my uncle’s family and of all of us:

As a side note–today is actually October 16, but in my blog, it is still September 20. Over the last 10 days or so, Michael and I have been watching a lot of baseball along with Lenny, who’s been following from Taiwan. The SF Giants are in the National League Championship Series, and we took these pictures. We are all watching the Giants game, drinking Taiwan Beer, an ocean apart!

Around Town

We let Lenny sleep in a bit on Thursday, since he had a gig Wednesday night. So we started the morning by having some coffee and cake at the cafe across the street from my uncle’s house. Michael drank something called a European Hot Chocolate, which tasted a lot like Ovaltine.

After doing some laundry, we walked over to my aunt’s noodle stand. Today, I took some pictures of the noodle stand.There are lots of little food stands like this all over Taiwan, and I love eating at places like this. But I found it pretty hard to do it this time around because my mom wasn’t with me and, as most know, when it comes to Chinese, I am basically illiterate.This is a close-up of how the bowls of noodles are made. The noodles are put into these strainers, which are about 6-8 inches deep, and  they are lowered into big pot of broth/boiling water. Then my aunt will put whatever greens you want in the strainer while the noodles are being cooked, and shortly afterwards, your bowl of noodles is ready.I had a bowl of wonton soup this morning instead of my usual noodles in honor of my mom. She loves these wontons and they are DELICIOUS! Here are a couple pictures of Michael and me with my aunt.

After noodles, Michael and I went through the closest market on our way to the subway stop. As I have mentioned before, I love these markets so much. It makes me so happy to wander through the little alleys and explore.Beautiful fruits–dragonfruit, persimmon (another one of my mom’s favorites), some guava way in the back…These carrots and daikon radishes are the cutest things I’ve seen!Look at all those different types of greens. Yummy!

And then we took the subway to a department store called SOGO. After visiting the homegoods and electronics floors of this place, Michael now understood my obsession with Asian (mostly Japanese) homegoods, electronics and office supplies. It doesn’t seem so weird that I once brought back a desktop vacuum cleaner for sucking up eraser bits and dust…

Now we wait for Lenny to pick us up and take us to Ye Liu and Tam Shui, towards the northernmost tip of Taiwan…

Taipei 101, Ning Xia Night Market and Shi Da Night Market

We grabbed some food before heading to Taipei 101. And where did we end up eating? Pizza Hut Lunch Buffet. When my cousin Lenny suggested it, Michael’s eyes lit up because he hadn’t had pizza in over 10 days at this point, so he was well overdue for a “recharge”. Also, Pizza Hut is a bit of a guilty pleasure, especially lunch buffet.

And when we got there, they told us there was only about 10 min left for the buffet, so if we wanted it, we’d have to go fast. So we sat down and ran to the buffet and stocked up…except when we got to the buffet, Michael realized that the topping combos in Taiwan are quite different from options in the US. So…terriyaki pizza, black pepper pizza, kimchi pizza, seafood pizza, a Mexican style pizza…Michael had to get what he was willing to eat, and when I saw some pepperoni pizza being brought out to the buffet table, I ran back from our booth to shove all the slices I could onto my plate to bring back to Michael.

This is what the gluttony looked like:

On our way to Taipei 101, we saw one of the many bike shares in Taipei. Great to see that this concept is really global! Now we’ve seen them in DC, Montreal, Taipei…

And here we are:

The first few floors are retail and restaurants/food courts. And all the retailers are luxe shops. I didn’t get many pictures indoors, but here is one:

Michael’s carrying Uniqlo bags in this picture. We spent a good amount of time at Uniqlo stocking up on some basics because 1. it was Asian sizing, so it fit Michael and me really well, and 2. it was so pleasant to shop at Uniqlo without hordes of people around. The prices are comparable to US prices, but we both LOVE that clothes fit us so well across the Pacific.

And here we go up the elevator to the Observation Deck, floors 88-91. The ride took ~45 seconds. Kind of amazing…Notice in this picture that we’d been in the elevator for 21 seconds and were at floor 63. WE STARTED AT FLOOR 5!!! It seems to take me 45 seconds to get from the lobby to the 7th floor at work!

And here are some views of the city from the 89th floor. My cousin Lenny pointed out that the reflecting pool in front of the Sun Yat Sen Memorial looks like an iPhone (check out the first picture)

We walked up to the 91st floor and went to the outside Observation Deck. It was pretty scary! Here’s a picture of the top 10 floors of Taipei 101:

And this golden sphere is the damper, which helps protect the building from the frequent earthquakes in Taipei:

After Taipei 101, Lenny took us to two different night markets. Unfortunately, it was raining pretty hard when we went to the first one, which was slightly smaller, but had pretty good food. Lenny bought fried taro balls, which is one of the foods that Ning Xia night market is known for.

The picture below wasn’t taken by us, but it is from this blog. The fried taro balls are the things sitting on the cooling rack. The other items are egg yolks and fried pork. I usually do not like taro, but these were pretty delicious!

And then we went to Shi Da Night Market, which is close to my cousin Olive’s university to get Sheng Jian Bao, which are essentially pan-fried pork buns, from the best place to get them.

Lenny ordered about a dozen, and I think that I ate 1, Lenny may have had 1, and Michael ate the rest. He LOVES these things. Below are a couple pictures of the food (again, I did not take these photos, but the source of the photos can be found at this blog).

That about wrapped up our night. So Wednesday is over, and Thursday will be packed with lots more site-seeing around Taipei!

Nougat Museum, Mochi Museum and Sun Yat-Sen Memorial

We started Wednesday by having noodles at my aunt’s noodle shop. And then my cousin Lenny spent the day taking us all over Taipei. Our first stop was still in Tucheng, where they live. It was the Nougat Museum!

we were the only adults at the Nougat Museum who were not part of the staff. The yellow buses above are school buses for grade schoolers.

Michael liked these cartoons illustrating filial piety. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to make nougat because you need a group of 10.

Our next stop was the mochi museum. Again, we were the only adults. These cookies are called “egg rolls” and they are delicious.

Here are some pictures of exhibits at the mochi museum

The school group that was touring the mochi museum with us:

And Lenny and Michael trying to make mochi the traditional way

Here are more pictures of yummy food. These are little cakes that have custard inside. I used to buy these on the side of the road when I visited Taiwan. They were so good!

And we are on our way to Taipei City…

Before Taipei 101, we stopped at Sun Yat Sen National Memorial and we got to witness the changing of the guard. Here are some photos.
so many tourists……

And check out all the schoolkids in their uniforms (they’re required even in public school)Our next stop will be Taipei 101….

More from Taroko

There are a few more pictures from our day at Taroko National Park:

There’s a funny story behind this picture. Taroko gets a lot of tourists, and like many places, the tourists arrive in large tour buses. So next to my foot is the entrance to the first tunnel you go through, and many people take pictures here. This one man walked over to get his picture taken, but somehow, maybe the weight ended up being distributed oddly, and his foot fell through. His friends kept laughing at him saying “oh wow. I didn’t know you were that heavy…hahahaha” and “maybe you should lay off the snacks”. And we kept running into this group throughout our time at the park and I would find myself cracking up every time I saw this guy again…

I love this sign: ROCKFALL!!

I made it about 25% of the way and turned around. It was so scary. I now know I could never go skydiving or bungee jumping…these folks also turned around.

I’m pretty sure I have a picture of me standing in this same spot from when I was 15…

Michael thought this sign was funny. “To Visitors: Please behave yourself”.

After our day in Taroko, our tax driver took us to the beach, where we sat around for half an hour or so, and then we had her drop us off at the train station. After grabbing some food, we were on our way back.

This is similar to the train we were on. There is a train that looks more like a bullet train, and it gets you to Taipei 40 minutes faster.

Elsa met us at Banchiao station on Tuesday night after she was done teaching and we went to Din Tai Fung for soup dumplings. They are very well known for soup dumplings (read about Din Tai Fung here) and have US locations in LA and Seattle, though I heard the US locations are not as good as the Taiwanese ones. Michael loves soup dumplings and I think he enjoyed the fried rice and he loved the “kong shin tsai” (read about the hollow vegetable or ong choy here).