Let’s get high.

I can find a million excuse to explain my disappearing act over the past few days.

1. Suffered a terrible hang over after Valentine’s Day (Friday).
2. Accompanied my Papa to Indonesia for his business trip, which all i did was shook hands and offer my big smile (Saturday and Sunday).
3. Had a meeting with my insurance agent in the early afternoon, before heading to Queensway to print my report. Returned back home with severe headaches and serious indigestion problems which caused me to be bed ridden till this morning (Monday).
4. Accompanied David to the gym, before heading to Ngee Ann to submit my report and caught Jumper over at Tiong Bahru Plaza (Tuesday, which is today).

Anyhow, that’s just a short update on what’s going on with my life and it’s definitely not my sole reason of wordpressig today. Instead the topic of the day shall be the last bit of my Taipei trip, on Xi Men Ding (西門町).

Ximending is now called the “Harajuku” of Taipei. The local bookstores sell Japanese magazines, books, CD albums, and clothing, making it a heaven for the “Harizu”, or Japanese culture adorers. Individual vendors gather in the streets as well as the large business buildings, such as Wannien Department Store and Shizilin Square in the early days, and Wanguo Department Store and Eslite 116 in the later period.

Due to the density of young people, Ximending is comparable to Shilin Market and the Eastern District to be areas with the highest crime rates. In addition, Ximending is well-known for Enjo kosai (Japanese for student prostitution).

Via Wikipedia

I traveled there during the early morning therefore most of the stores are still not opened yet, and the crowd has not appeared.

I guess the main attractions should be the streets filled with stores along the way, which caters more towards the female community, sadly. From shoes, latest fashion trend at awfully cheap prices, to Japanese magazine stalls, you name it.

They do have fashion for the males, however it was more towards the hip hop type of trend, you know, 五毛钱 (50 cents). Which apparently seems like a fashion disaster for me, but i’m sure it’s the way to go for many others, yep.

Anyhow, me and sister stumbled in a female apparel store called Young, where she bought a trench coat in preparation for Sydney’s winter when she head back.

If i do have a girlfriend, and i know her size then i will be able to shop for her. Judging from the store’s catalog, the collection’s fantastic.

The street center is filled with this kind of push cart stores, where they sold snacks. Despite the wet weather, the thought of making money during the Chinese New Year period never slip their mind.

After many hours of walking, accompanied by the wet weather, we decided to take a pit stop over at one of the Japanese restaurant. It’s not the typical type of conveyor belt you see, it’s actually a train with carragies carrying the different varieties of delicious looking food, flirting with you everytime they go steaming past.

My sister had some Udon Soup.

While i had Barbecued Pork Bento Set.

Our Unagi Sushi.

Absolutely not going to forget the Ebi Sushi.

Having the chance to try out the authentic Japanese food definitely made my day.

Thank goodness my sister knew how to speak in Japanese because the restaurants caters more to the Japanese customers. After coming back from Adelaide, i realized my Chinese became really atrocious. Speaking wise ain’t that bad, just that i might stammer alittle. However, when it comes to comprehending, sometimes i have to make them repeat their sentence unwillingly for more than three whole times, disappointingly.

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