The next morning, we decided to take the train to TaiChung. I spent quite a bit of time in TaiChung in the 80s at TaiChung University. I remember it as a quaint town with lots of trees. I also remember taking the bus which was a very long ride.
Before the trip, we headed out on foot to the corner for some breakfast. They have these bakeries where you go in and take a tray and a pair of tongs and just pick up the items you want. Once you are done, you head to the cashier to pay and they pack each item in a little bag. I was in heaven.
We then headed to the bus stop and took the subway to the train station. We boarded the high speed train and it was awesome. More room than Amtrak and super fast. I took a little nap and before I knew it, we were there.
After disembarking, we took the bus to where my aunt's friend had another studio/apartment.
This is really a dream property and I wish I could have something like it back home. There was gallery space in the basement, studio space on the ground level, and 4 more floors of "dorm" rooms and classrooms.
After dropping off our stuff, we headed out to explore the neighborhood and to look for a place for lunch.
There was a 7-11 on the corner and I stopped in to see what it was like.
The food selection is definitely different.
We stopped for lunch at this tiny place.
I ordered an eel boxed lunch and it literally came in a box.
You got a little bowl of soup with and you scoop it out yourself right on the sidewalk.
Right along the side of the place was a long counter on the wall where you could sit and eat.
We headed back for a little rest and then headed out again looking for food. We stopped by a grocery store and looked over the offerings. Interesting stuff - one was these individually wrapped eggs and another was this bread with holes in the middle.
We then went to a shabu-shabu place for dinner.
We had our own little dining room.
Great food but it did take some time to eat. We were told shabu-shabu is very popular here.
