Spirited Away to Jiufen - INCOMPLETE

The goal this morning was to meet up and go to a Peter Rabbit-themed restaurant for brunch before heading out to Jiufen - our destination of the day.  Angela, Nana, and I met at the train station nearest the restaurant and we went there, only to find that (although it was posted on the outside of the building) they no longer serve brunch!  D:  Not only that, but they weren't going to open for an hour and a half, and we couldn't wait that long, so we found someplace else for lunch.

It turned out to be good for us, though, because we went to SOGO (a department store) and managed to easily get into Din Tai Fung, which is a Michilin One Star-rated restaurant (first Taiwanese restaurant to be recognized by Michilin).  It's a chain with stores all over the world, and the food was really good~  The girls told me that usually you have to wait well over an hour to get in, but since it was rather on the early side, we didn't have any trouble.

The menu.  Lots of yummmy-looking pictures and English made it easy (yet so difficult!) to choose what to get.  Vegetarian dishes (of the Buddhist variety) were marked with a little green leaf.

Some side-dishes.  The brown stuff is heavily marinated not-really-tofu, and the other is not-really-tofu (some kind of fake meat), seaweed, and some other stuff I can't remember, but it was yummy.

Dumplings!!  Angela and Nana got the more famous xiao long bao dumplings (which everyone in Japan said I needed to try), but there's no veggie version, so I got some mushroom and veggie dumplings.

A noodle dish (also kinda mine, but I gave Angela a good bit of it because I couldn't finish it).  The clear noodles noodles (under the tofu) are made with 'green bean',  which I think is mung bean.  They don't have much flavor, but they're nice.

Dessert.  Taro dumplings.

GUYS.  I'm going to need to buy a second ticket on the plane because I'm eating so much.  Help me.

After lunch we went to get in line for the bus to Jiufen (about an hour and a half bus ride outside of Taipei), to find a massive line in front of us.  The bus only comes every 15-20 minutes, and it was looking like a nightmare.  There were a few cab drivers actively trying to get people to take their cabs instead of the bus, and we opted for that.  200NT is about $7, which I don't think is terrible for an hour in a cab (of course, that's per person, and it's a lot more than riding the bus).  We were packed in the cab with three other girls and we all went off into the mountains together.  It would have been worse.  The bus was uber crowded when we saw it.  I'd really not have liked standing for an hour and a half going up a mountain and stuff.  From the cab, I got to enjoy the view more.

Chinese-style tombs.  I had no idea what they were, so I asked Angela.  I thought they were maybe mini shrines, but I was surprised to learn the answer!  They're all over in the mountains - many colors and shapes and sizes!

It was so pretty to get out of the city!  Green everywhere~

The water really was THIS BLUE.  It was beautiful

We got to Jiufen in a little under an hour.  Right next to the bus/cab stop was a temple, so I got a few pictures of that before we headed into the maze of shops.

Back of the temple from the cab.

Out of the cab, I got this picture, which I'm really happy with.  ^_^

Jiufen is famous for various reasons.  In the late 1800's gold was discovered there.  Before that, there hadn't been much more than a group of 9 families living there.  In the 1960's the mine closed.  In the 70's, a movie about an until-then rather taboo topic in Taiwanese history (a massacre by the Chinese to supress and uprising, as I understand from Wiki) was made there, which increased tourism again.  In 2001, it was used as a model for part of the movie "Spirited Away" by Hayao Miyazaki.  A combination of these things has sealed its fate to be a tourist town.

The town is really nifty.  Well, the shops are.  They're a a few different streets that meander along.  Well, it would FEEL a bit more like meandering if it wasn't ABSOLUTELY PACKED with people.  When we first got there, it was bad, but by the time we left, it was impossible to move!

There were shops selling everything~  Souvenirs, trinkets, ...stuff!  Lots of places to eat, of course.  It was difficult to see everything because you kind of get pushed to one side and shuffle along with the (lack of) flow of traffic.

Here we go!

We sampled many things here, but didn't buy anything.

THIS we bought!  Well, Nana bought one, and after I tried it, I got my own.  It's a flaky breadstick with a bit of cheese in the middle and a bit of sugar on the outside.  Yummers!

An intersection where three paths meet.

Some places had cool decorations and some spunk.

Where are ocarinas actually from?!  They're sold everywhere!

I guess this is a kind of meat bun, but here they were doing a vegetarian version.  We wanted to try it, so we waited in line a bit, but then some rude people swooped in front of us, saying we'd cut in front of them, so we just left.

Colorful awnings.

Konyaku jellies!  I bought some (after sampling a lot!!)

Grody eggs.  I mean 'iron eggs' or something like that.

These were SO COOL!  Rub their back and they really sound like frogs!!  Different sizes sound like different frogs.  

Dress-up = cosplay for normies.  Less than $1.  Waoh.

The kitchen of a famous restaurant we went to, as seen from above.

Here's the plaque for the restaurant.

We tried one of each - one cold and one hot.  Both were good, but since it was warm and the sun was shining through the window RIGHT ON MY BACK, I liked the cold one better.

Making the sweet potato, taro, and whatever-the-other-flavor-is dough balls.

Oh my~

Not good!  I was thirsty and wanted to try something interesting from the vending machine, so I tried Taiwanese root beer.  It wasn't sweet enough and was pretty gross.  D:

Wall dedicated to the gold-mining history of the town.

These faux-bamboo railings are popular in Taiwan.  I'm pretty sure they're actually cement.

The view again.  Because it's beautiful.

The alley that inspired Miyazaki.  *A*  It's pretty cool~

Some pictures of abandoned stuff for Colleen.

One of several temples in the town.

And old sewing machine used for decoration in the information building.  Nana said their grandmother had one just like it. Cool.  :>

Strawberries on a stick candied with something like honey.  I liked it.  It was strawberries or tomatoes.  Strawberries sounded better to me.

We ended up taking a cab back to Taipei because the line for the bus back was equally long and we didn't think we'd make it in time for our karaoke appointment if we waited (and then we might not get to sit.  D:).  Angela and I slept for basically the whole trip back.

Back in Taipei, we got some dinner to go (we weren't hungry yet) at Taipei Main Station's vegetarian buffet and headed to the karaoke place.  It was in a shady-looking building on the second floor, but it was pretty fun to go to an anime-song dominant karaoke place.

We had a big room!  When Angela called to reserve, only big rooms (min. 6 people) were left, so we got a big room, but it was pretty cool.

OKAY.  THIS IS BASICALLY FINISHED, SO I'M POSTING IT BEFORE I HEAD OUT.  I'LL ADD SOME MORE TEXT WHEN I GET A CHANCE, BUT IT MIGHT BE A DAY OR TWO, SO HERE'S THIS AT LEAST.  HAPPY NEW YEAR

Fabric and Butlers and Food! Oh my!

What's a vacation for if not to relax and sleep?  Am I right?  Who's with me?  So... I woke up at 8, but thought I'd sleep a bit more and woke up at 10:30.  Oops.  That pretty much ruled out trying to do much in the morning.

I was supposed to meet Nana at 2:30, so I thought I'd check out the Hello Kitty Cafe beforehand, since it was near where we were supposed to meet.

I stopped at the conbini on my way to the station - it's a habit now.  I wanted to get something to drink.  I really like this chrysanthemum-honey tea I've been drinking a lot (have I put a picture of it in here?  I can't remember) and I've been enjoying the readily available chocolate milk, but I thought I'd try something different today:

It's got such a light flavor!  It's very refreshing.

At the station, I noticed a sign:

There's a blue area sectioned off on the floor, and I've been wondering why it said 'safe waiting zone' even though anywhere behind the line should be safe.  Now I know!

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the Hello Kitty Cafe, but I wanted to eat, so I ended up at a place called Kitchen Pucchi, which had some veggie buns in the window, then when I looked at the menu, they had a great-looking set meal, so I got that.

It came with mushroom soup:

Very hot, but very nice.

dumplings!!!

I was SUPER EXCITED for these because it is legit impossible to find vegetarian dumplings in Japan.  They were very good.

And some sort of semi-sweet dessert.

It was red bean and some other stuff.  It was a bit dry and I didn't care for it, so I left most of it.

As I crossed the street to head back to the station, I saw the Hello Kitty Cafe sign!  UGH!  I WAS SO CLOSE!!!  Oh well.  I've heard the food isn't good there, so it's just as well.

In my wandering to find the cafe, I noticed lots of stores had a table set up outside and were burning incense.  I don't really know why.  It was interesting, so I rudely took a picture.

I guess what's on the table are a bunch of offerings?

I met up with Nana at the station and we went to the crazy huge fabric store in search for fabric so I can make this outfit:

It was pretty difficult.  We were looking for subtly-patterned brocades.  I wanted the under-pink to be almost white, which was AWFUL trying to find.  I finally settled on using the reverse of this one:

but there wasn't enough!  D:  Not even 4 yards.  Isn't it strange they measure fabric in yards here?!  It's meters in Japan!

Anyway, after two hours, this is what I ended up with:

Pink satin for the under dress (it's pretty thin, so I might have to line/bolster it with something), the darker pink for the waist-thing (silk and cotton brocade), the maroon silk for the sash (100% silk), and gold brocade for the trim.  Total: under $40 (USD) for 8.5 yards of fabric. How'd I do?  ;D

We looked around some shops to try to get some trims Nana needed for her cosplay, but didn't have much luck finding what she wanted.

We had some time to kill before Angela got off work, so we slowly made our way back to the station (it was only partially intentional how slowly we got there - we got lost rather a bit), and stopped for ice cream at a shop called I Mei.

Chocolate-vanilla swirl with Oreo-like cookie bits and nuts.  Mm~  (approx. $1 USD)

 And she talked me into trying these egg roll things which she says are famous.  My best guess as to why they're called egg roll is that they're made of fried/baked egg?!  I don't really get it.  XD  But they're not bad.

Stock image because I'm too lazy to take a picture.

Then we met Angela for dinner at THE BUTLER CAFE!!!!!!!!

Noooo idea what 'Chitty Mood' is supposed to mean.   I mean, I know what is SOUNDS like, but...

This fellow stands guard outside the door.

Like with the maid cafe, you can't take pictures of the staff (unless you pay extra), so here are some pictures NOT of the staff:

The decor.

Ignore the horrible color in this picture.  Sorry.  I couldn't get it right.

I ordered the veggie lasagna.  As you can see with Angela's, it came in a dish separate from the plate, which has sauce on it.  The butler then scoops it out of the pan and places it on the place, before cutting it up for you.  

We were given these cute little bells as 'Christmas presents'.  Haha~  We put them on the salt and pepper shakers like hats.

So it was cute.  The maid cafe had more/better food for the money.  There were three butlers.  One was a bit awkward, maybe a bit slow or maybe didn't care too much.  He needed a slightly larger waistcoat or one with another button.  He had black cat ears.  XD  The second guy was taller and had the same waistcoat trouble, but at least had the benefit of glasses (moe~~~).  He had a bit of a speech impediment and wasn't very eloquent.   He had white cat ears with black spots.  The third guy was easily the cutest and smoothest talker.  He was good at making small-talk and generally better at everything.  He had pure white ears.

None of them spoke English or Japanese.  Apparently, there's a Japanese guy who works there who also speaks English, but he wasn't in.  Of course.  XD  It's okay, he probably wasn't cuter than White Ears.  <3

We explored Taipei Main Station a bit.  There's a Tokyu-Hands-like store and they were selling SHAM-WOWs.  I died.  It was great.

Tomorrow's another adventure~ (with karaoke at the end~).  UNTIL THEN.