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