Day 1:
I arrived a day earlier because I was able to get a dirt-cheap ticket. Now, the reason why the ticket was dirt-cheap was because I landed in Taipei at 10p. With no hotel reservation and putting my trust with the tourist information counter at the airport, I headed into the city. My room was less than ideal. I felt like I was in the slum capital of the world. I spent the night watching "8 Mile" figuring if I didn't sleep, the roaches wouldn't get me.
Day 2:I headed out early in the morning hoping to find better accommodations. In my illegally copied Lonely Planet, the guide recommended a little dive called Happy Family 2. (Not sure what happened to Happy Family 1, but I did find it amusing.) After circling the vicinity for a good hour or so, a lady started yelling at me from the side and gestured me to go. Giving up all hope, I went. It so happened that it was the hostel. The owner was great. He gave me an upgrade because I spoke some Cantonese. On my floor, I ran into a Korean girl named Yoon who was traveling by herself. Since I was by myself too, we decided that 2 heads would be better than 1. Our first stop was the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial.
We watched the changing of the guards while fight some eager tourists ready to push anyone aside for a good photo opt. Afterwards, we attempted to find "The Matone" (aka the Toilet restaurant) for about 2 hours until we were informed the restaurant had been closed. So, we settled for a decent looking place, ate, walked some more, then parted ways for a bit. In the evening, I spent about 2 hours on a bus getting back to the airport to meet Haruka. We got back to the city and ate some Chinese food. All in all... not a bad day.Day 3:
Haruka and I spent most of the day shopping and eating. First, we went to a farmer's market where we sampled some goodies that I've been missing. Later, we ventured to another shopping area and ate more food along the way.
As we were walking along, there were some ladies set up on the sidewalk with strings tied between their fingers and pulling it against another person's white-powdered face. Intrigued by all this, I decided to pull up a chair and chalked up. The ladies were doing facial hair pulling. It was pretty cool albeit a bit painful.
Continuing with our walk, we finally reached our destination, the only thing I really had to see while in Taipei, the toilet restaurant. While day 2's excursion was a bust, this one was a success. The restaurant was under a new name, "The Modern Toilet." I would rate the food as a 2 out of 4 flushes. It was more for the novelty of it all.
In the evening, we headed to the Shilin Night Market and again, we ate. I really miss proper Chinese food. We also watching people stick lit candles in their ear canal. People were shelling out ~$40 do so. It's suppose to clean out your ears but I couldn't really see how.Day 4:
Day 4 had me, Haruka, and Yoon leaving central Taipei and into the countryside of Yamingshan National Park for some fresh air. Along the way, we ran into a really nice couple who showed us around the area. They even drove us to a really nice restaurant they frequent and paid for our lunch. We never really properly introduced ourselves (ie names). The guy is 
a Taiwanese diplomat who lived in South America for 3 years and the States for another 5. I was a bit envious. We returned to Taipei refreshed and headed to the grocery store to pick up some Chinese food for presents. Haruka ended up buying a whole lot of pineapple cake, Yoon got watermelon seeds, and I got egg roll cookies.
Day 5:I can't really say this was a full day. My flight back to Nagoya left Taipei at 10am. (Darn cheap ticket!!!) I said my goodbyes to Haruka, Yoon, and Taiwan with a good feeling and about 5 lbs of Chinese food in my system. Gotta love MSG!
