Hey guys,
just a quick update: since I didn’t want to spent my last days in Taiwan with writing for the blog I didn’t post anything and these last days I was occupied unpacking, coming home etc. So sorry for not updating!
I hope I can get the last posts out as soon as possible. Thank you for understanding.
Pia
Hey there!
Sunday we woke up at 7 am or so packed our stuff and went for breakfast at the 7/11 next door. The taxi driver was actually a little early but he waited for us to finish our meal and then we started our trip.
First he brought us to Chishingtan Beach. Which isn’t a beack for swimming or sunbathing exactly but it’s very beautiful. There is no sand but pebble and the water is very blue.
Afterwards we went to see the cliffs a little north to the Taroko Gorge entry. (Qingshui Cliff)
We went to different sightseeing spots along the cost. I noticed that it really is almost impossible to go there by foot or bike, since the streets are very narrow and there is no space for other than cars, buses and scooters… We also stopped once where buses could never stop (and I don’t think you really are allowed to stop there). There supposedly used to be a walking path to see the cliffs, but since every year there are rocks falling down into the see, the path is closed now.
Next was Taroko National Park. After a short stop at the Information center at the entry of the park to get a map, we went to the Shakadang Trail where we went around for 30 min or so. There were many tourists so this trail wasn’t my favourite just for that reason.
At the Eternal Spring Shrine there were also many tourist buses, but we went up the Trail that leads to Changguan Temple and there was nobody except us at first (and later only a few other tourists). The trail is mainly stairs up the mountain on one side and then down the mountain at the other side. At the top you can visit Taroko Tower. In order to get to Changguan Temple however you have to cross, what I call the bridge of death…. It’s a small wood suspension bridge and quite long for a suspension bridge I think. Since I’m not very comfortable with hights this was a challenge…
The temple on the other side is also very beautiful, and as I said there were not many other tourists :) All in all it took us 1 h to get there, but we didn’t walk very fast and stopped often to take pictures.
the bridge of death….
the bridge of death as seen from the street under it
Next we went to Swallow Grotto. Our driver fetched us some trendy helmets for safety ;) Although I think it’s more of a touristy thing to have them, not that they are really for safety. As expected: many tourists were there. The trail is not really a trail, more the side of the road. But the stone formations (where the swallows live) are beautiful, and as I said also with the beach, the river water was VERY blue at times. So very beautiful.
At the end of the trail there is the “Indian Head” rock, which really looks like a head, if you know where to look ;)
“safety” helmets…
on the right you see the “indian head” rock
We afterwards briefly stopped to see the “Frog rock” to take some pictures.
turtle? rock
the frog rock (underneath the pavilion)
And then we went hiking again. This time at Lüshui Trail. There are to trails, a long one and a shorter version, we took the shorter one and it took us about 45 min maybe? (stopping often to take pictures) There weren’t too many tourists and the trail itself was very nice (in the woods) There is a 35 m tunnel that has no artificial lightning so our driver gave us a flashlight, but to be honest 35 m isn’t too long… And a cellphone as flashlight would work too ;)
Our last stop was Buluowan. There is a indigenous “museum” of sorts and they had a short movie about the indigenous people there so we watched it. Although neither of us could understand it. They spoke their indigenous dialect and only had mandarin subtitles which where too fast for Alex to read… But oh well. We saw how they got their face tattoos (at quite a young age) to symbolize their adulthood (the women have bigger tattoos than the men actually), we saw a traditional wedding, etc.
Since it was already getting late, and also the weather started to get worse (it started to rain lightly) we decided to go back to Hualien and go to a café until our train departed (at 21:10).
Since the driver kept asking where to drop us off exactly (since it was raining heavily in Hualien) we decided to go back to the café where we stayed the day before (Alice café). :)
There we drank Matcha Latte/Coffee again and also ate dinner, which was a Japanese style menu.
Later we only bought some snacks for the journey and went to Taipei again. :)
If your coming to Taiwan please visit Taroko National Park! There is plenty to see! Maybe you could rent your own car to go there, or go by tourist bus/taxi.
Thank you for reading!
Until then,
Pia
Hello :)
Friday it was raining heavily in the morning so I decided to stay in and write and also pack for our trip to Hualien the next day.
When the weather finally cleared up a bit I left for Daan Park. I got off at Dongmen because I’ve read about a café in the area that supposedly is quite good. It’s called the Formosa Vintage Café. But when I entered I noticed it’s not my cup of tea… So I didn’t stay… Because Lonely Planet wrote that the café also is a museum I thought it would be interesting for me, but it only had some old newspapers, toys etc. at display. And no explanations in English… (Since it really is a café, not a museum) But maybe if you’re a fan of vintage stuff you’ll like the atmosphere?
inside Formosa Vintage Café
Next I went to Daan Park. And I have to take back all I said earlier about parks in Taipei ;) I won’t change my earlier entry, because it was what I felt when I wrote it, but I have to add, that until then I hadn’t been to many parks either. And not to Daan Park. :)
I love Daan Park. It’s very similar to German parks in the sense that there are smaller paths and more trees, but of course the flora and fauna here is different. For example there were many birds I havn’t seen before :)
my lunch from a bakery
weird birds ;)
snack: green tea bread with red bean and mochi filling
here in Taipei there are many street dogs :(
Since it was already getting late I decided to go back to my hostel by foot. As you might have noticed I love going by foot ;) I took some pictures along the way.
Bubble Tea :)
at Ximen
For dinner we decided to have “western” food and went to Chili’s at Ximen. We had a chicken salad and Hot artichoke and spinach dip. :)
Later we got some mango shaved ice for desert at a shop near by.
Since we had to wake up early the next day in order to take the train to Hualien we went to bed early.
Saturday I woke up at 6:30. Our train departed at 8:48. For the first hour or so we didn’t have reserved seats, but we found some that weren’t taken yet.
The ride to Hualien takes roughly 2,5 h and costs about 450 NTD for one journey. We bought some pork buns for breakfast to eat in the train. At the Taipei Metro it’s prohibited to eat, drink, smoke or chew gum inside the trains, but the eating/drinking part doesn’t apply to long distance trains.
We slept most of the journey. ;)
When we arrived at Hualien Station it was pouring… Fortunately we had bought some raincoats at a convenience store earlier in Taipei.
First thing we did was go to the Visitor Information Center to ask about going to Taroko National Park. Since we arrived at 11:30 it was already to late to go to the National Park, but that was ok, since it was raining anyway. We already knew that we probably would take a private cap for the day to go to the park the next day, but preferred to also ask at the Information center. There they informed us that indeed this would be the best choice for us, since you can only go by bus (with tuns of other tourists, for about 1700 NTD per person) or by taxi (2500 NTD for 8 hours, and you can go wherever YOU like and how long you like) if you don’t have a car or scooter.
So for us the taxi was the best option so we booked a taxi at the Information Center for 8:30 am the next day. The driver would pick us up at the hostel.
Our next stop was the hostel. The lady at the Information Center gave us a map and a description on how to get to the hostel, though the description wasn’t very accurate so in the end we took a huge detour… (In the rain…)
The hostel was ok… We booked a private 2 bed room for the night which cost 440 NTD. And the hostel itself was fine (and freshly renovated), but we didn’t have beds… Only mattresses on the floor… But oh well, I slept very good :D (Mainly because I only had Alex for a room mate, not 3 other (sometimes noisy) room mates.)
breakfast ;)
random kawaii picture of the day?
The hostel was the Formosa Backpackers Hostel, if you’re interested. The dorms seemed to have beds ;)
For lunch we went to a Japanese style restaurant. We each ate a bento box with eel. I loooooove eel. :D
Since Hualien isn’t too beautiful (it’s a little bit like a small Taipei) and there isn’t too much to see we just wanted to go to a temple near by, which was quite beautiful! :)
It’s at the foot of a mountain, so you have to climb some stairs…
stylish rain ponchos ;)
near the temple
By then we were drenched so we decided to go to a café. We found the beautiful café Alice. It’s a café targeted at families and they have a room where kids can play and many books for reading.
I had two matcha lattes and Alex had coffee. :D (we stayed for several hours, since it was so nice and outside it kept raining).
For dinner we wanted to go to a nightmarket, but the one we found wasn’t too big, or maybe because of the rain not many stalls were open… :S
We had a duck role that was a little spicy :) Very delicious!
The rest of the day we spent window shopping and sampling sweets. :) I bought some mochi cakes for souvenirs.
We also had Dan Bing, which is like a Chinese savory crape.
Afterwards we went home (drenched…).
So that was it for those two days… I know I didn’t do too much, but it was raining most of the time.
Thanks for reading!! :)
Until next time,
Pia
Hey there,
first off: I found a great breakfast/lunch place near my hostel! They have dumplings (sweet and savoury) for just 22 NTD and have an English menu! :D So I got myself some Taro filled dumpling and unsweetened fresh soy-milk.
My breakfast
Today the weather was a bit better than yesterday (at least it was a little warmer) so I decided to visit the Confucius Temple and the Dalongdong Bao’an Temple (which are right next to each other).
To get there you can simply take the Metro to Yuanshan Station. There is also a Information Center right at the Metro Station. I went there to get a map of the area (they gave me two ;) One for the temples which lie in one direction and another for the Expo Park in the other direction.)
I decided to go to the temples first. I find the Confucius Temple rather interesting. Since Confucius isn’t a deity, it’s not you typical temple. Upon arriving to the temple from Yuanshan Station you first pass the Wanren Gongqiang (Wall of Supreme Knowledge) (this is also what it’s supposed to say on the wall).
Passing the wall and turning right you get to the main entrance the Pan Gong (Side Gate). Inside you will see an information point. I would advise you going there and picking up the brochure that they have in English for all the information about the various elements of the temple.
The temple itself, and the famous Pan Pond on the inside of the Wanren Gongqiang are beautiful. I really liked the Chinese unicorn painted on the inside of the Wanren Gongqiang. It’s interesting how different a unicorn might look to for example Germans and Chinese. The gates of the temple are not decorated as in other temples (since there is no deity) but the buildings itself are heavily decorated with carvings or Koji Pottery.
Random Kawaii Picture of the day :D
After roaming around a bit I went to the other side of the road to Linsheng Garden. It’s a Chinese style garden built by Bao’an Temple.
The Bao’an Temple is right on the other side.
It’s interesting how different temples here look compared to temples in Japan. Here I think they are more heavily decorated and maybe there is a bit more colour. Also the motives are different. For example here you see more dragons (like on top of the buildings).
Most people at Bao’an Temple pray for good health since the halls are dedicated to Baosheng Dadi (the god of chinese medecine) and Shennong Dadi (god of herbal medicine).
My next stop would be Wenshang Shrine, but I had my difficulties finding it. After asking a shop owner for directions his wife (and baby) showed me the way and accompanied me quite a bit of the way :) Most people are really nice here and try to help whenever they can. Although most of them don’t speak English (or don’t want to?) they’re trying.
Finally, I found the shrine. It was hidden in an alley and since the shrine itself isn’t too big I didn’t see it at first. What I noticed is that there are often cars parked on the shrine or temple grounds which I find funny. But maybe it’s just practical.
Right across the big street near the shrine there is the Recreational Sports Park atop the Dihua Sewage Treatment Plant. I went to check it out but it’s not a “must go”… Often I find that the parks here are very different form parks in Germany. In Germany the parks are really green with many trees and you often have small paths that are not paved. Here, all the paths are paved and there is a bit of green, but only at the sides or at open spaces as a decoration. And there are hardly any trees…
At the park there was an observation platform atop Danshui River to which I went to see if one could go to the river and walk a bit there. But as I expected you can’t do that… Every time I have seen (or I knew it should be there) one of the rivers in Taipei there were large highways between me and the river or highways going from one side of the river to another… So it’s not particulary beautiful… Which is a pity, but you can’t have everything ;)
For lunch I had dumplings again, but at this place they didn’t have an English menu and couldn’t speak English either, so in order to explain what was inside the owner grunted at me, and the customer after me said “Pig! Pig!”. :D It was delicious!
The only bad thing about the district: there are many planes that fly directly over it…
Next I wanted to go to Expo Park. The park is divided in three parts. The Yuanshan Park Area, which is more like a big open paved space with a bit of green, but there is the Yuanshan Plaza with food stalls, Fine Arts Park, where the Taipei Fine Arts Museum is located and the Taipei Story House (a European-style house) and the last part the Xinsheng Park Area, which was my favorite since it’s more like a park in Europe.
At Xinsheng Park there is also a beautiful Creative Garden (Rose Garden). Right across the street of the Park there is the Lin An Tai Historical House and Museum. The entry is free (it’s open until 5 pm) and I really recommend going. The house is of southern Fujian style architecture and it’s really beautiful.
The Taipei Story House
at the Expo park
in the rose garden in Xinsheng Park
the creative garden
Lin An Tai Historical House
I spent quite some time at the park, just going around, relaxing a bit. I really like parks I guess.
Since it was getting dark already I decided to head back to meet with Alex.
This time we ate typical Chinese food again :) We also had the soup dumplings again… I wish they had those in Germany… If someone knows a place where I could get them please write me!! :D
We also had fried noodles and different kinds of vegetables.
For desert Alex wanted to show me pineapple bread, but unfortunately the place was already closed. So we found a small ice cream parlor that had freshly made ice cream without added preservatives. The lady was very nice to us and we could try almost every flavour until we decided on what to get. I had Sesame ice cream (black) and alex had banana hazlenut :)
It was very good! The place is near Zhongxiao Fuxing if your interested.
sesame ice cream :)
banana hazelnut ice cream
So I really recommend you going to the Dalongdong Area since there is so much to see.
Until next time,
Pia
Hello again! :)
So today the weather wasn’t too nice (It was pretty cold and looked like it was going to rain) plus I woke up at 11 am (I don’t know how… Normally I woke up at 8 am everyday…), so I decided to go to a museum. My friend recommended the National Palace Museum so it was a fast choice. ;)
In the museum they have ancient Chinese imperial artefacts and artworks (quoting Wikipedia ;)).
So if you at least a little interested in art: pay the museum a visit!!! I really liked it a lot!
So in order to go there you can go by Metro to Shilin Station and take a bus directly to the Museum (it’s the last Station). First I thought I could walk form Shilin but it is a really long distance, so I wouldn’t do that… Plus I didn’t have a proper map. In the bus you can pay cash or with your EasyCard. (It’s one fare for one ride.)
The museum building itself is quite beautiful. They also be the only pictures of the museum since inside it’s prohibited to take pictures…
So… Where to begin ;)
The entry costs 250 NTD for one person (if you have an international student card it’s only 150). The museum is quite big, so you can spend a lot of time there… I think I spent like 4-5 hours for the Main building 1. And then I was tired and couldn’t look at art any more :P (And it was getting late) So I went back to the city to meet Alex for dinner.
The first floor had the “Garland of Treasures” Exhibit which showed masterpieces of precious crafts in the museum collection. This one was one of my favourite exhibits. It’s astonishing how intricate some of the pieces were and how detailed. Unfortunately, because it was one of the more famous exhibits there were many tourist groups which can be a little noisy/crowded. They had many pieces made out of rhinoceros horn, wood, ivory and jade.
One thing I noticed at the very beginning: in all the exhibit halls it’s quite dark… And I don’t know why? Can someone explain maybe? I always get sleepy when it’s so dark inside… ;)
There were also many temporary exhibits (like the religious sculptural arts, the rare books, I think, so on). As I said, the museum is big.
So I won’t talk about every exhibit, but only the ones I really really liked and the famous ones.
The rare books exhibit for example could be very interesting for some, but since I don’t speak Chinese it’s only semi-interesting for me. ;) Calligraphy on the other hand is also beautiful if you don’t understand the words.
The museum is most famous for it’s jade artefacts. Especially the “smart carvings” with the jadeite cabbage. I really liked seeing it, but it’s a pity, that you had to queue up in order to see it. And don’t linger too long… They will shoo you away… So be prepared ;)
The jade exhibits in general were one of my favourites. The also show you how the usage of jade through the Ages developed (from only being used as tools, to being used for rituals and finally for art). Also explaining what jade is and so on.
Another exhibit where you have to queue is the one with the bell and the cauldron with Chinese Inscriptions. For me this one wasn’t too interesting, since I couldn’t read the inscription either. But I could read about it ;)
What I really liked was that at every start of an exhibit there was a big wall with English (Chinese and Japanese) text about what we were going to see. And they had free pamphlets that you could take with you with the most important information. (Now I have like 20 pamphlets ;P)
The next two important exhibits were Clay and Bronze. To be honest I’m not a big fan of neither, but it’s interesting non the less! So don’t miss it!
What I really REALLY liked was the exhibit of the world of birds and flowers in painting, tapestry and embroidery. When it comes to art I’m more a fan of “2D” stuff (aka paintings), so this was my section. It was very interesting to see the differences between tapestry, embroidery and painting. They always displayed similar motives of all three arts next to each other for comparison.
So all in all: check out the museum if you like art (even if it’s just a bit)!
I always thought I didn’t like Chinese Art, but the visit really changed my perspective! In European museums, if they have a “Asian section” I always think it’s the same old stuff… But the National Palace Museum shows you otherwise!
So after 5h in the Museum I went back to meet Alex and we had Japanese Curry with breaded chicken for dinner. And for desert we had shaved ice with milk tea flavour, sweet tofu and bubble tea from Ice Monster (a very famous shaved ice brand here) :)
Sooo good!
Japanese Curry
sooo good
Thank you for reading!
Have a nice day!
Pia
Hey there,
Today I went for a walk… A long one ;)
I started my journey at Ximending, where my hostel is at. Since I wanted to go to see Longshan Temple I went in the general direction.
It’s cool to see how you can start at Ximending, with it’s modern vibe and many stores and walk a bit and see not too modern houses and small local stores that are family businesses.
At Longshan Temple there were many people. Not many tourists like me (who don’t worship there) but many people praying. First thing I noticed was the smoke of the incense. Everyone had incense in their hands and it was almost hard to breathe (although we were outside). The temple itself is quite different from all the temples I saw in Japan. It’s more decorated maybe? And more colourful. I like all the dragon ornaments.
so much incense….
Right next to Longshan Temple is Herb lane. A street were Chinese medicinal herbs are sold. I didn’t take too many pictures because some of the owners looked at me weird. But I should have one or two good ones ;)
Later I decided to go to 2/28 peace park. It was quite the walk but I like walking. :) Next to the park is the Presidential Office Building which reminded me a lot of London. The architecture was inspired by western architecture and you see that immediately.
Presidential Office Building
little park right next to 2/28 Peace memorial Park
Can someone read the inscription and tell me who this is? I didn’t find any English signs and I can’t find it on the Internet either…
Jingfu Gate (Taipei East Gate)
The 2/28 peace park (and the small park next to it) are beautiful. It remembers the victims of the 2/28 Incident in 1947. It was an anti-government uprising that was suppressed by the government by killing thousands of civilians.
After resting a bit I went to Ximen again (by foot) to see the Red House. It was build by the japanese and nowadays serves as a cultural and creative center. Inside you can find some art exhibitions and a small store with souvenirs. I really liked it since it’s not the normal souvenir stuff you can get anywhere.
Zhongshan Hall
The Red House
inside the Red House
random temple
I then walked around again for a bit, ate waffles at a café in Ximen and decided to walk to Alex’s Hotel to meet here there after work. (Which is 5 metro stations away ;))
Random kawaii picture of the day
It was a long walk but I took some beautiful pictures…
Taipei Main Station
so many scooters!!
Barbie Cafe from across the street :D
For dinner we ate Vietnamese pho and Vietnamese sandwiches. :) Delicious! (The restaurant was inside Breeze Shopping Center)
they still have their christmas lights :D
As always, thanks for reading!
Keep commenting ;)
Pia
Hello ;)
The next day started similar to the day before. Since we wanted to go hiking (up Elephant Mountain) in the evening we decided to get a big brunch and then buy something small for the hike.
So we went to brunch at New York Bagel ;) Of course we had some bagels (with eggs and bacon/hash-brown). I was a little sick (I guess from the air-conditioners everywhere) so I got some black tea with my menu and it was free refill. ;) Yay!
Afterwards we decided to go by foot to Taipei 101 (Elephant Mountain isn’t too far from the tower). We were near Zhongxiao Dunhua, so it was quite a walk. But I could take some pictures along the way.
random kawaii picture of the day ;) (I really like cats!)
random tai chi statues
attempting and failing ;)
we’re almost at Taipei 101
there are so many scooters in Taipei!
weird tree… (I don’t know much about plants… Sorry)
Taipei Cow
Transformers ;)
At the mall at Taipei 101 we got ourselves some cooling drinks. I had Green Bean and Pearl Bean Milk. It somewhat does taste like beans but I liked it!
green bean and pearl bean milk (left) and strawberry milk
So finally we thought it was late enough (cold enough) to go up Elephant Mountain. It was like 3 or 4 pm. We went from Taipei 101 by foot. It’s one MRT station, so not too far. Once at Xiangshan station there are maps (at the station) to see where to go. But there were also a lot of people (since it was a holiday) so we couldn’t miss it.
At the bottom we bought some Onigiri and water/tea. Going up the mountain is not as much hiking as going up stairs. You don’t have to be too athletic to go up. Actually we were passed by by some elderly people ;D I guess we are not very fit…
At the top the view was very rewarding. :) (Although there were many people) We waited until sundown and I could take some cool pictures. I hope you enjoy ;)
Elephant Mountain
yeah… I’m already red… ;)
One thing though: better bring mosquito spray or something… I didn’t…. My legs are red now… (I later bought a “mosquito relief” thingy)
It was getting dark so we started ours descent. There are lanterns every few meters but still I don’t like going down hundreds of stairs when it’s dark…
For dinner we went to the Taipei 101 mall yet again and ate Indian Curry (hey, it’s asian alright… Maybe not taiwanese but still asian… ;)) and had … for desert. Which I never had before and I love it! Well, generally I’m a big fan of tofu and soybeans, so… But I recommend trying it. We ate it warm, but they also had a cold version.
Thanks for reading!
Pia
Hello again! ;)
So since we wanted to go to Maokong today and new we’d better go late in the day since it would be too hot and to crowded to go in the morning, we decided to meet a little later and go to eat brunch.
So we went to “The Diner”. It’s American style so we had Eggs Benedict for brunch. :D (I never had them before so it was new for me, although it’s not typical…) Very delicious! I know, some might say: “Your in Taiwan, why do you go to an American style restaurant?”. Well first off: I can eat what I want.. Second I can’t ALWAYS eat Chinese/Japanese etc. I sometimes need western style food. And the place is very nice.
What I like about Taiwan (and it was the same in Japan) is that at restaurants they always give you free water or tea and refill your cup once in a while. I wish they had that in Germany…. :S
Eggs Benedict
Next we went to get a cuteness overload at the Hello Kitty Café… Yeah, you heard right. The HELLO KITTY café. :D
I guess I don’t have to say much. The pictures will say it all ;)
Hello Kitty Café!
the menu
the desert of the desert… ;)
I killed Hello Kitty!!
The cheesecake and Oreo cheesecake
Strawberry Latte
the bathroom…
I love how they really commit at themed cafés…
Kawaii picture of the day? (there are so many!)
In order to get in you each have to order stuff for more than 300 NTD (roughly 9€). Be warned: the sweets are SUPER SWEET! ;)
The Strawberry Latte was surprisingly not TOO sweet, so I would recommend trying that. Then we had cheesecake and Oreo cheesecake. Although I liked the cheesecake more. They also serve you an extra desert of the desert? (Which was vanilla pudding.)
I think after eating all of that I had a sugar rush for at least 5 hours…
So finally it was “late enough” (about 4 o’clock) so we went to Taipei Zoo Station by metro and from there took the gondola to Maokong station. One gondola ride to the top only costs 50 NTD and you can pay with the easy card of the Metro so it’s quite convenient.
As expected you have a great view at the top! We went around a bit until we saw a small restaurant were we went to have some tea. Maokong mountain is famous for it’s tea (since it grows there). But be warned. It was quite expensive… (400 something for a pot of tea) You get a really big pot (well actually a big pot of water and you brew your tea in a small one, but you’ll see on the pictures) and it tastes really good, but be warned…
The lady at the place was really nice and showed us what to do. You put your dried tea leafs (half of the measuring thingy) in the small pot and pour the boiling water over it. The first time you don’t drink the tea but “wash” your utensils and discard the tea. Then you pour new water over the tea and let it brew for about 30 seconds. Then you pour it through a sieve into a small container and from there into your mugs (which are very little :D). You can do this up to 6 times using the same tea leafs (letting it brew a bit longer each time).
Sorry if my explanation isn’t too good. But the women explained everything in Chinese while my friend tried to translate it for me…
and again… hello Hello Kitty ;) (she is the face of Maokong gondola…)
the tea
We sat there, enjoyed the view and the tea for several hours I think. :D After it was getting dark (and colder) we decided to also pay a quick visit to the Zhinan Temple (which is one station with the gondola from Maokong Station). The gondola was open until 10 pm (since it was a holiday, normally it would be until 21 pm), so we had an hour or so to see the temple.
We were the ONLY people there in the end… Well it was dark so I understand, but we were a little irritated about that. ;) The temple is quite beautiful, so you should go there (maybe by daylight) if you visit Maokong.
Chinese zodiacs
Bye bye Hello Kitty… (I think I have a Hello Kitty Overload…)
Finally we went down again and to Ximen to eat Street Food (dumplings).
As ever, thanks for reading!
See you soon!
Pia
Hey guys,
on the 29th, since the weather was really nice we decided to go to see some more Sakura and also, since it was our second to last day in Japan to go Shopping one last time in Harajuku. And since the Yoyogi park is right next door to Harajuku it was just logic to go there.
So we didn’t take any pictures of the last shopping trip, but we accidentally went past a bank where there was Hikakin giving autographs or something. Hikakin is a famous beat-boxer in Japan, he also has his own youtube channel, if you want to check it out.
The line to get into the bank was HUGE!!!
everyone wants to see Hikakin
The part of the line that you see on this picture is only a fraction of the whole line! It really was insane!
Being one of the last days we went to eat sushi again. This time at a belt sushi restaurant. We didn’t take any pictures (sorry!), because every time we grabbed something of the belt we ate it so fast without even thinking of taking a pic. But we took one picture:
Uni
It’s sea urchin, Uni in japanese. A japanese guy we met at the bar of our hostel had told us to try it, since it was so good…. Well…. I’m sorry, but we hardly could eat it all…. I guess it’s not our kind of thing… It tasted really fishy and the flavour was quite strong! But maybe some of you might have liked it?
After the lunch break we went to Yoyogi park. There were quite some people.
so many people doing hanami
But as I suspected, the cherry blossoms got more an more beautiful each day… It’s such a pity that we are not there for the full bloom… Nonetheless, it was stunning.
yay for Sakura!
Yoyogi park
So many people enjoying the blossoms
obligatory selfie ;)
I love spring
In order to refresh myself I bought some Ramune at the park. I tried it before, at the Okonomiyaki restaurant and really liked it. It tastes somewhat like Sprite but the fun thing about Ramune is the bottle. :) There is a small ball on top of the bottle that seals it. In order to open the bottle you have some plastic thing that you have to put on top of the ball and push it down, so that the ball falls into the bottle. The bottle has a unique shape, so that the ball then stays in the upper area. It’s hard to explain, but I have pictures to show you what I mean. This time I tried another flavour… I should have took the normal one… This one pretty much tasted like it looked. ;) Like bubblegum. I guess Ramune normally is for kids… But hey, the normal flavoured one tastes good AND is fun! ;) I recommend you to try it, if your in Japan.
So after resting some time in Yoyogi park and watching the sakura we decided to head back to Asakusa. Walk a bit there and go back to the Hostel to take a nap. We had planned to go out all night for this last night in Japan…
On the riverside in Asakusa the cherry blossoms also were very beautiful.
Tokyo Skytree
So many people!
there are so many different cherry blossom trees!
such a beautiful painting
And I had a cute snack before going to the hostel ;) It was some kind of sweet bread filled with custard.
random kawaii picture of the day!
So in terms of pictures we didn’t take any more this day…
After taking a quick nap and getting ready to go out we met up with Alex Papadimoulis, the founder of the daily what the fuck, a blog about “curious perversions in Information Technology” (so it says on the website). Since JJ reads this blog very often he saw an entry of Alex, that he would come to Tokyo to see the Sakura and wanted to meet up. The bigger meet-up would have been in April but since there were a few people that wanted to meet up earlier the 29th was also set as a date. The plan was just to meet up at Shibuya and than go to an Izakaya, a japanese style bar. Where we went they had an all-you-can-eat-AND-drink for just around 3000 Yen. It was really cheap and VERY delicious. We tried quite some amount of japanese food and drink. :) The people were all very nice and we had so much fun!
After that we went to another bar to drink one more drink and then some of us decided to go to a Karaoke place to stay there all night.
Since in Tokyo the Subway only stays open until 12 pm many people that want to go party have to stay up until 5 am (when the first subway goes) or leave at 12 pm to catch the last train home… It’s quite fascinating really, in Germany (at least in the bigger citys) there is always a way home. The subway closes maybe at 1 oder 2 am (at least on weekends), but there are always night-buses that go every hour or so.
The Karaoke was fun too. They didn’t have many german or spanisch songs (exept 99 Luftballons or Suerte by Shakira), but plenty of english songs to choose from.
So when we arrived at the hostel it was like 6 am and we still had to pack and than check out at 10 am the latest… ;) Yeah, we didn’t get too much sleep that last night in Tokyo. But it really was fun! Thank you again to all the lovely people that made this experience a pleasant one! I hope to meet you again sometime.
Our very last day in Japan we spent most of the time sitting inside, either the Hostel, a bakery or a restaurant. It was raining quite strongly and we were pretty tired….
One last highlight was the dinner we had: unagi, eel on rice.
eel with rice menu
It was soooo good! I really recommend you to try this!
Our plane took of at 22:30 pm or so, so we had to head to the airport. We had so much luggage! We even bought an extra bag to bring home with us, since the stuff we bought here didn’t fit in our backpacks any more! :D Luckily at Quatar Airways they don’t care how many bags you have, if it’s under 30 kg.
So now we’re home again… :S I already miss some things about Japan. But of course it’s also good to be home. You have your own bed, can see friends and family, etc.
I hope you enjoyed my posts about Japan. I think some time soon I will write some more posts about things I noticed in Japan. And maybe I will write an entry about things that we brought with us to Germany.
Thank you so much for reading!
Pia
Hey guys,
sorry that I’ve not posted yesterday, but since it’s our last days here in Japan I really want to enjoy them to the fullest.
So I just wanted to write a quick post to tell you that the next post about our trip will be uploaded in 3 days or so, when I am back home.
Thank you for understanding,
Pia
Kawaii Traveling 