It’s a relaxing day for me.I had pot of Dayuling High Mountain Oolong Tea and a Pinapple Cake.
This tea grows on high mountain, 2,300 m high.
As such, it has delicate taste.
I loved my little high tea this afternoon.
Month: April 2017
Trip to Taiwan (Day 4)
I’m going to miss the bunny and Chinese breakfast.
And fruit.
Appearance of the Grand Hotel is also nice, but I didn’t have time to take a photo.
It’s sunny today so went out to explore the hotel again after breakfast.
It’s a big hotel!
There are few spots that I haven’t visited.
I’m going to miss the hotel and of course, the room and its view.
Now it’s time to return to Tokyo…
Ahhh, I was excited when I landed here (Taipei International Airport) two nights ago.
Do I need to walk through here…?
Do I need to get on this? Ahhhh
It took only 2.5 hrs to reach Haneda Airport.
I couldn’t finish a movie, Silent.
A movie is based on Japanese novel, Silent written by Mr. Shusaku Endo, and directed by Mr. Martin Scorsese.
It’s a good movie, meaningful, but this movie is not suitable to watch while eating lunch.
Too bad I couldn’t finish the movie before landing.
I feel hanged now. Sigh.
Now I return to my apartment and feeling sentimental having nice pot of Taiwanese tea: Oriental Beauty.
This Taiwanese tea has a nice story.
This tea is called Baihao Oolong and originally called Formosa Tea among the European.
Why is this commonly called Oriental Beauty today?
Well, when the Queen Elizabeth II tried it, she loved it and called it Oriental Beauty.
It also has beauty elements such as polyphenol compounds, various Vitamins, calcium, magnesium, etc.
I enjoy delicate flavour; simultaneously, it can beautyfy me!
Great!
Trip to Taiwan (Day 3)
Unfortunately, it was raining in the morning.
But it didn’t discourage me to enjoy Chinese breakfast at the Grand Hotel.
First, I visited National Revolutionary Marty’s Shrine to pay a respect for people who lost their lives for the WWII.
A war will create many victims and they are all victims.
We should not start any war.
Next I went to National Palace Museum.
There are so many great things there and I could share some great master pieces with you.
I have no idea how these were created.
This is must to see at this museum: Jade Cabbage.
And a set of carved openwork concentric ivory balls with cloud-and-dragon decoration.
There are 24 layers and each layer/ball can move!
There are many more.
I don’t mind to visit the museum again to spend more time admiring these arts.
Next, I visited Taipei 101, the tallest building in Taiwan.
He is a Mascot of Taipei 101.
It is 101 floors building and it takes only 37 seconds to reach observation floor, 89F.
There are many unique buildings in town according to Feng Shui.
There is a twisted green building that is currently under the construction.
It’s lunch time!
I really look forward for Din Tai Fung (Dim Sum) and I enjoyed, really enjoyed every bites!
Their XiaoLongBao (soup dumplings) is highly recommended!
MUST EAT!!!
I ate five today. hehehe
I requested additional dessert.
I wanted to try a famous Taiwanese style Mango Snowflake Ice.
Since I didn’t have time to eat there, I asked for a take away.
It supposed to look like this.
It’s so Mango because ice is not normal water ice, it tastes Mango!!!
And it’s so soft and melt like snow!
A take away style is like this.
After lunch, I visited Longshan Temple.
The stone curving on pillars are just amazing.
I’m here to pray, but at the same time, I get anazed by these breathtaking arts!
After praying, I watched the ceremony of changing the guard at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.
Last stop was Jiufun.
This little town is located in the mountain because it used to be a gold mining town.
Now it became a hot tourist spot because it’s traditional looks and there is a rumor that Mr. Hayao Miyazaki, Japanese Animator, got an inspiration from this town to design a town for a story of Spirited Away.
We need to go up stairs to go to a main road.
A main road is narrow.
I tried Taiwan’s Stinky Tofu!!! Mmmmmmmm
I think trying once is enough for me.
To my surprise, many people, even youngs, like these Stinky Tofu.
Well, I love Chinese tea and one of my missions for this trip is to get nice Chinese tea.
This tea house strictly controls quality of products and I love their products: smooth, delicate, nice aroma and delicious.
I bought varieties of tea and even bought new kinds.
Chinese tea is like herbal medicine; it can assist to detox, beautyfy and slimming.
After tasting Chinese tea, my skin improved drastically.
My parents already asked me to mail order before I open my tea.
I haven’t touch my stock!
I can enjoy them for quite some time.
I continued to walk the town.
I reached the building/area that Mr. Miyazaki got inspired…
This is a tea house, but in the movie, it’s a bath house.
If you watch a movie, you can easily spot the scene.
I left Jiufun for dinner for a nice Taiwanese local food at Shin Yeh, Taipei.
It’s very delicious or was I too hungry…? hahaha
Earlier I achieved one of my missions.
Now I’m achieving another one: to try papaya milk.
My friend recommended me to try papaya milk.
(Hummmm, same friend recommended to try Stinky tofu…ahhh.)
Papaya milk is nice and I also recommend it to you.
I also tried a nice dragon fruit smoothie; it’s not a guava juice.
Guava Juice is the name of shop. hahaha
Trip to Taiwan (Day 2)
I checked out the hotel early to walk to the International Terminal, Haneda Airport.
I usually plan to buy new cosmetics at the airport to cut tax; these are new cosmetics.
I bought these to improve my eyebrows.
I look forward to trying them on tomorrow. fufufu
I also bought black and blue mascaras and a Quattro Eye Shadow (Tisse Smoky) that I often use – this could be my third one.
It takes 3.5 – 4 hrs to reach Taiwan and I enjoyed the movie, The Man They Called Pirate…
And brunch while I was boarded.
To my surprise, the Taipei Songshan Airport is located in the city.
How convenient!
It takes only 15 mins from the airport to reach major places in Taipei.
It was still early to check in to a room so we went to a fortune tell.
I’m lucky because there are a quite number of fortune tellers who are able to communicate in Japanese.
Then we went to Xingtiangong Temple to pray.
We returned to the Grand Hotel; this hotel has three names: in Taiwanese – 圓山大飯店, in Japanese – Maruyama Daihanten (we pronounce Chinese characters in Japanese way) and in English – the Grand Hotel.
There are many good luck charms, Dragons, as many as 220,000 – 230,000 in this hotel.
Since this hotel is so unique, we had a special tour.
This hotel is GRAND because it was a former State Guest House.
This hotel received many VVIPs.
Well, there is a mysterious 85 m man-made tunnel which could be a secret escape tunnel.
However, we don’t know why this was made.
A room is also nice.
And the view from a room is nice overlooking a whole Taipei.
Tonight, we had dinner at the Golden Dragon Restaurant, the Grand Hotel.
I enjoyed these food with a Taiwanese local beer, Golden Medal Taiwan Beer.
After dinner, we took a hotel free shuttle bus to Shilin Night Market.
I’m so surprised to find many Japanese characters on products and Japanese confectioneries, health and beauty cares.
It was an interesting day.
Good night for now.
Trip to Taiwan (Day 1)
I am so stress out in the office and I can use some get a way.
My trip to Taiwan starts tomorrow; however, since we need to check in at the airport early, we decide to stay at the airport hotel, the Park Royal Hotel.
Usually, we don’t have much time to explore Haneda Airport, but after I checked in, I went out.
I didn’t know there is a bridge, Nihonbashi that we can actually walk on.
Shopping and restaurants area is nicely decorated as Little Edo (Tokyo).
I had salad and gratin for dinner @ Bon Gout, Haneda Airport International Terminal.
This restaurant is delicious and reasonable.
I’m full and shops are already closed.
It’s time to go to sleep.
I cannot wait to reach Taiwan🎶
Saving Paper
I stopped buying magazines.
But it doesn’t mean I lost interest in beauty, health and fashion.
I try to read them at the gym while I exercise.
In this case, I can save money, paper and space in my room, but able to obtain information♪
And finally my gym installed WiFi!
Gym is located in B1 (basement); therefore, 4G is out of reach.
I’m happy with a news.
I quickly registered password.
If we could use WiFi there, we can have more fun!
A Criminal Defense by Mr. William L. Myers, Jr.
Now I’m reading this book.
I’m hooked!
Foodie Report
Today, I had Kakiage Morisoba (mixed tenpura with cold soba) for brunch @ Sarashina Horii Sohonke, Azabu Juban.
This soba shop is always busy and with no exception, we waited for our table.
If you like soba, this restaurant is highly recommended.
It’s worth waiting!
I went to Wet Aging Beef Korean Barbecue, Nikugen @ Roppongi for dinner tonight.
American beef is aged to enhance its flavour and tenderness.
It’s different from Japanese wagyu beef; I looked at it as a skill.
Beef could be cheap but manage to enhance it by maturing it.
If you are so used to Japanese wagyu, you might not like it, but please consider this is a different beef!
Another uniqueness of this restaurant is recommending to grill beef for one minute by using an one minute hourglass.
But to be honest with you, some meat require more than one minute to cook.
We need to pay attention. hahaha
Book Review: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
I finished reading this book today.
The story started slow, all about a lady with issues such as alcohol and relationships; it made me bored.
However, I continued reading it because its review is good and if I’m not mistaken, a movie will be made based on this story.
A story towards the end is very exciting: I love suspense, but I couldn’t guess a murderer.
I couldn’t stop reading it.
I hid my iPad to read on Kindle after my lunch hour (only for 30 mins) to finish a book. (I work over time, but I don’t get paid for over time so I do have an excuse for this).
Reading a book is a good exercise to improve my English.
I can kill two birds by one stone: I can learn English while having fun reading it.
Takuhai (Delivery) Box
I’m keeping my hair long.
However, my hair is thin so it’s easy to get waves when it’s moist.
The other day, I tried this KERASTASE Hair Oil for Colour-Treated Hair at a beauty salon; it’s heavier than other KERASTASE series, but lighter than Moroccan Oil.
I asked for one, but it was out of stock.
My beauty salon is just one block away so I asked them to deliver when a product arrive.
I received a product in Takihai Box (Delivery Box).
There are few delivery boxes at my apartment to leave a delivery box if a receiver is out.
A delivery person will leave a note to inform number of box and its combination to open a door
I usually come back home in the evening, so this Takihai Box plays a great role for me.
sonokotchi 
