Taipei

070227. Cute "Hello Kitty" food on the airplane

070228. The green man walks and then runs :)

"Taipei 101", the tallest building in the world with 508 meters

The stabilizing pendulum

Great view

On the very top :)

Lunch at "Teppanyaki"

Delicious food

Tea pots and cups

Nice company

070301. The Taipei National Palace Museum

The nightmarket "Danshui"

Example of the food that is sold at the nightmarket

Great view

"Lover's bridge"

070302. On our way to the temple

Graves

Fushan temple

Tasty food

"Stinky tofu"

We had a great view while enjoying delicious tea

Jasmine tea

Delicious cakes and tea

Another temple

Colourful interior

Two guards guarding the door

Having a great dinner together

Delicious Xiao-long-bao!!!

Pig lanterns

070303. On our way to have breakfast

Lungshan temple

Impressive interior

A huge balloon

The sky was filled with balloons

070304. Tasty dumplings at the airport

The cutest airplane ever :)

070227-070304

070227, Tuesday
In the afternoon I met up with three of my friends to go to Narita Airport. A little past 8PM our flight took off. I have to say it was the cutest plane I have ever seen. On the outside it was decorated with "Hello Kitty" pictures and some of the food was even shaped as "Hello Kitty" hehe. After about 3 hours, 1030PM local time (1130PM Japanese time), we arrived in Taipei. Our friend from class, who comes from Taipei, waited for us with her dad at the airport. The dad then drove us to their beautiful apartment where we spent the night.

070228, Wednesday
Since the tallest building in the world, "Taipei 101", is in Taipei we had to go there! The name comes from the fact that the building is situated in Taipei and that it holds 101 floors. It is 508 meters tall and has the fastest elevator in the world which moves with impressive 1010m/min! Using this elevator we were able to go to the observatory on the 89th floor in a couple of seconds. From there we had a beautiful view of the city. To be able to stand against strong winds there is a tuned mass damper (pendulum) made of 730 ton steel in the building. Earthquakes occur now and then in Taiwan but the building's frame should be flexible enough to absorb the energy from an earthquake. Later on we decided to go to the very top. Unfortunately there are no glass here, like in the observatory. Instead there are metal bars. The wind was pretty strong up there and it was a bit difficult to get a good view because of the bars :( After buying some souvenirs we left the building and went to a big department store which is just close by. There we went to the restaurant "Teppanyaki" (type of Japanese cooking). I had steak sirloin and they actually prepare the dinner in front of you :) It was good. In the department, among all the stores, is the biggest bookstore in Taiwan. Because it is cheaper in Taiwan than in Japan we bought some books. A friend of our Taiwanese friend and another friend from our class (who also comes from Taiwan) joined us when we went to a restaurant up in the mountains. Our friend's dad was already waiting for us at the restaurant and together we enjoyed delicious food and a lot of tea. For instance we tried fried pork in sweet and sour sauce, chicken in ume sauce (plum sauce), bamboo shoot, fish and tofu in a spicy sauce, something that ressembles an omelette and spring rolls. We drank a lot of a tea sort called "Oriental Beauty". When drinking tea here, you drink from a very small cup and there is a special procedure in making the tea. While waiting for the tea to get ready you pour hot water on the tea pot. When the poured water on the pot has evaporated a certain amount of time has passed. This is the way of knowing when the tea is ready. It was fun watching my friend and her dad preparing the tea for us. It differs quite a lot from the tea bags I usually use :) Along with the tea we had snacks like chips and nuts. We even had a snack with the nickname "Chicken popcorn" which is deep fried chicken, calamari and fish which you dip in a bowl with spices. It is very good. Today it was probably about 20 degrees :) After this lovely evening together we went home late in the evening to sleep.

070301, Thursday
Today we went to "The Taipei National Palace Museum". During about 6 hours we learnt about different dynasties by using an audio guide and a "real" guide while looking at paintings, porcelain, jade, calligraphy etc. The museum actually holds the largest collection in the world of Chinese artwork! I bought a little souvenir to remember the place :) After this we went to the nightmarket "Danshui" which is by the port. Expecting it to be crowded it was actually rather empty when we arrived. However, we did not let that disturb us. Food that is sold is for instance stinky tofu, fried shrimp and squid. I tried some fried fish on a stick with a spicy seasoning, which was good. I even had a drink made out of almonds. It was a bit too sweet for me though. At this nightmarket eating food is not the only way to enjoy yourself. There are even games to play, like shooting hoops, break balloons with darts and pinball games. However, we did not participate in that. Instead we went on a boat trip. After a couple of minutes we arrived and took a stroll on the lit up "Lover's bridge". Then, while having a beautiful view of the port, we enjoyed some drinks. I had a "Fruit tea" which to my surprise apparently is served with pieces of fruit in the tea. I thought that it would only have the taste of different kinds of fruits but there were pieces of apple and lemon in it :) It was good. We then went back home. Like yesterday it was probably about 20 degrees today.

070302, Friday
Since our friend had a lot of coupons for MacDonald's we had breakfast there hehe. I had tasty pancakes with syrup. After our breakfast for champions :) we went to "Fushan Temple" which is located up in the mountains. On our way to the temple we saw a lot of graves. They differ a lot from the Japanese ones and they almost look like small houses here. Arriving at the temple it struck me that it really looks typically Chinese with a lot of red in the interior and lots of incense. After this we had lunch at a nice restaurant. We had soup, rice, fish, beef with bamboo and vegetables. It was good and the price was 300 gen/person. (Multiply it with about 3,7 and then you get the price in Japanese yen). Along with the food I had delicious "Orange tea". After this we checked out a lot of stores where they sell food and souvenirs. I tried a cookie with a sticky filling. I have no idea what it was, but it was good hehe. Walking around for a while we decided to go to another restaurant to have a tea lesson. We chose the tea sorts "Oolong cha" and "Jasmine tea". The later one was rolled into a ball, allowing its flowers to fold out when pouring hot water onto it. It looked very nice :) While enjoying the delicious teas and some cakes we had a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean. The weather was great today. During daytime it was no problem with wearing a shirt with short sleeves. Taking the bus (there are TV screens in the buses!!) and the train back, we came to another nightmarket (they have quite a lot of nightmarkets here). We then queued to get into a very popular restaurant. They even handed out numbers to all their waiting guests. Now that is a popular restaurant! After waiting for about half an hour we could enter. Since our friend know what food is good we let her in charge of ordering our food. We had "Xiao-long-bao" with different kind of stuffings. For instance meat, crab and a third sort which is a dessert with sweat brown beans. It was delicious!!! We also had gyouza with spinach and another one with shrimps inside. Very tasty! So far in this journey this was the best food, without any doubts!! Feeling very content with the food we went to the place where a lantern festival will take place on the 5th. Since we will leave on the 4th we will unfortunately not be able to see this festival, but still we went there today and we were not alone :) Our friend's relatives had provided us with lanterns that we folded in the shape of a pig, since it is the year of the pig. Doing this we walked around with our lit up pigs hehe. After checking out the area we went to yet another nightmarket where we had dessert. We had a "red bean soup" with odango. Inside the odango was two different kinds of fillings; a sesame paste and a peanutbutter paste. It was good. Now, feeling really content with the food we went home at about 00.

070303, Saturday
Considering the fact that we had breakfast at MacDonald's yesterday our friend wanted us to have a Chinese breakfast today. We had fried pork, soup with mushrooms and meat, beef with vegetables, plain rice and rice with meat on the top. It was good and quite filling. Then we headed of towards "Lungshan Temple". It is a rather big temple with a lots of lanterns hanging from it. To my big surprise some of the lanters actually have the shape of Winnie the Pooh, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Doraemon and Hello Kitty. Later on we went to "Ximen" which is like Japan's Harajuku. When we arrived it was very crowded. Apparently a famous Chinese artist was there. We walked around a bit and checked the different stores. Today was the warmest day on our trip. I could walk around in short sleeves during practically whole daytime. Nice to be able to do this in March :) We went back to the apartment and rested for about an hour before we took off again. Since the lantern festival soon will begin people would gather today to release their own balloons. Our friend's dad drove us to that place so we could join them. The balloon is huge and we all wrote down our wishes on it before releasing it to the air by lighting it up. When we let go of it, it ascended quickly and became like a star in the sky :) Afterwards we went back and had a late dinner together. We had fried bread, sesame bread with egg inside, nikuman and hot soya bean milk to drink. For dessert we had ice chopped into small pieces, with strawberries, strawberry ice cream and condensed milk on top of it. It was good. We then went home to watch a movie and sleep.

070304, Sunday
This being our last day in Taipei we had planned to go to a jade market and a garden in the morning. Unfortunately the others were very tired and overslept so we did not have the time to go to these places :( Instead, we packed our things in the morning and made a quick stop at our friend's mom's parents who live just close by. They were very sweet and gave us tea, cake and even a present (a wallet). Since we did not have too much time left we had to go after a short while. I am happy though we got a chance to meet them. Saying goodby to them we got our luggage and went to the airport where we arrived at about 12. Before saying goodbye to our friend we had lunch together at the airport. I had delicious dumplings :) Our friend left and the four of us waited for the airplane to take off at about 3PM. We were all excited to see that it was the "Hello Kitty" plane again! haha. At about 7PM local time we arrived at Narita airport. We had a great time in Taipei thanks to our friend and her dad who took us to various places!! Even though the trip was great, it is always nice to come home again, so I have to admit that I was happy to be back in Japan again :)