A new black vinegar bottle, Ma-Kurozu, is mild and easy to drink.
The manufacturer recommends to replace or mix with soy sauce to reduce sodium.
I also bought a bottle of tomato juice: Yuuki-kun (Mr. Organic).
Obviously, it’s organic tomato juice.
This is also mild.
I started my day with this new toothpaste: roselle (hibiscus).
Roselle is rich in vitamin C; therefore, this toothpaste is good for gum.
I try it and taste is not bad.
Dad gave me a Starbucks’ free drink ticket and this ticket will expire on 13 June 2017.
I decide to treat myself after beauty salon: strawberry Cream Frapuccino.
Yammy
I overare today, cannot stop eating. hahaha
And I need to make correction on yesterday’s recipe – one ingredient missing: 15 cc olive oil.
This is a medicine!
Healthy medicine!
I cooked healthy breakfast.
I opened Maltese Cuctus Jam (Gozo) to enjoy with yogurt .
I visited Malta in 2016.
It’s nice country: people are nice, ocean is beautiful, food is nice because agriculture products are so fresh.
I would love to visit Malta again.
At dinner, I had Azuki Kuzu (red bean flavored arrowroot).
I bought this at the shop near Saigoku No. 5 Fujiidera (Fujii Temple).
It’s delicious and it’s healthy because Kuzu assists to increase immune system and body temperature, enhance blood circulation, stabilize hormone and mental, antiaging and many more.
I like it so I should continue taking it for my health!
I also learned that 15 cc of black vinegar and 15 cc of chopped ginger will warm up body and detox excess waste; and a glass of tomato juice for cleaning blood.
Let’s monitor the outcome.
This series of shampoo and treatment allows me to enjoy head spa at home: Plosion de Salon.
As labeled on a bottle, shampoo is in carbonated foam to massage scalp.
It’s refreshing and relaxing.
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!
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
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.
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!
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.
I’ve been busy and I haven’t taken care of my face lately.
I also have sensitive skin so I have been refraining from doing too much.
I bought this facial mask while ago and it’s not good that I just let it sit to get spoiled.
It was okay when I tried it for the first time.
This facial mask is organic and unique.
It’s gold with iron sands.
I applied gold mixed with iron sands on my face for 10-15 mins and took out iron sands by a magnet.
The process of taking iron sands from face gives nice massage.
I should make it as a habit.
sonokotchi 