Ximending - 西門町

So today we ventured into Ximending. V always called it the "young people's area," and we had spent limited time there on previous trips. I'm not sure why because we both had a pretty good time today. Lined with eateries, street food, novelty stores, and whatnot, people have called Ximending "Shinjuku of Taipei," "Shibuya of Taipei," and "Harajuku of Taipei." I'm actually not all the familiar with those areas of Tokyo...yet, but I would say it does feel like a mix of Shinjuku and Shibuya a bit.

We ventured into a number of stores including what V called "the box store." Basically, anyone could become a retailer here by renting out cubbies and selling their wares. It was pretty interesting, but there was a lot of just plain crap too. OK, I won't lie. A couple of things caught my eye, but I didn't actually end up buying anything today.

We walked by a whole bunch of other places and didn't actually go into that many. I was dying for a cup of coffee so we hit up what I'm gonna call 'Cat Cafe.' I actually couldn't read the name and didn't bother to ask. The coffee was subpar and expensive, but V's giant passion fruit green tea was tasty and came in a large beer mug. So we could also actually call the place "Passion Beer Place." The sleeping cat was awesome though, and it reignited my desire for a kitty. Gratuitous animal picture:

I finally found some cool indie designers in an Eslite mall. Was thinking about buying some t-shirts but backed out to think about it a little longer. Apparently, I was super confusing to the sales girl because she would try to talk to me. I completely wouldn't acknowledge anything she said (because I don't understand), then V would talk to her, then she would tell me what was going on, then I would respond to V in Mandarin, and the sales girl would think I know how to speak it and talk to me again. Rinse. Repeat. Sorry girl.

Outside of Eslite, I found another street of indie designers! I accidentally said that I bought these t-shirts for like $10 at Macy's a little too loud (they were buy one get one free at like $90 each). I'm an ass and was having a pretty good day until squish, the unmistakable tactile response of POO.

Back inside the basement of the Eslite building, I washed off what I could. Luckily there was an arcade right there, and a test-run of Bemani's newest invention, Jubeat, helped to wash the stain off my soul.

I worked myself from a tier 2 song to a tier 7 song within the four song gameplay. Those who know will care...I think. Anyway, I might do more of this in Japan. It's super fun.

Thanks to V and yummy crap food and Jubeat and no thanks to POO, I had a pretty good day. See you soon, Ximending.