東 means west and 門 means gate, an allusion to the west gate of the city in the era of Japanese rule. This goes hand to hand to the 西門 station, more remarkably known.

Originally snapped a picture of the new MRT map, but the official version is available at the Taipei metroweb, along with some handy information about train times and such. Dongmen connects the Green and Blue lines. You may need to squint your eyes to find it (・・”)

The station is four levels below ground — the deepest MRT station at 72 meters deep (!) – and has five tunnels which according to Wikipedia “intersect in a twisted form”. I have no idea what that means :3 but the station will also connect to the future Xinyi line 信義線, which goes West towards Taipei 101 and the Xinyi commercial district. Who knows when but I hope it’s soon enough!

Thou Taipei metro tries to make friendly maps both in Chinese and English, I am not good with maps at all T^T but Dongmen is kind of the exception — to the left you see Daan Park 大安森林公園; to the right it’s the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall 中正紀念堂.

The Orange line stations are quite big in size, in comparison to the Red and Blue line stations. Not sure if they are designed like this to escalate for rush-hour times or for the future, but be prepared to walk long distances in any Orange station. The good thing is the numerous number of exits, good for going underground in the upcoming rainy season or hot sunny summer days.

Now if you’re wondering, the most famous place around Dongmen is Yongkang Street 永康街.

For some reason, Yongkang St. is in every Japanese guidebook about Taiwan ^^, because of the different restaurants and culinary experiences…

… But most importantly because of Ding Tai Fung 鼎泰豐 — a native Taiwanese restaurant that specializes in 小籠包 or xiao long bao, some small buns.

 I am not a particular fan of Ding Tai Fung, but it is one of Taiwan’s main attraction, Wikipedia says that the New York Times rated it as one of th Top 10 restaurants in the world, with branches all around Asia — Japan, China, Korea, Hong Kong… — as well as Australia and the US. No one can deny it’s success, this is just one of Taipei’s many stores and is 4 stories tall!

鼎泰豐 is so famous around Japanese tourists that the store front has ディン タイ フォン (Din Tai Fon) furigana ^^

One thing I do enjoy in these hot summer days is shaved ice; in Taiwanese we call it 剉冰 (cuà bīng), カキ氷 (kaki goori) in Japanese. You can see some hiragana in the storefront, probably to attract Japanese clientele too. A Vietnamese restaurant selling 蔥抓餅, also one of my favorite “snacks” in Taiwan… I was in a hurry but next time I’ll grab one and take a picture. Guy with the guidebook was looking for Ding Tai Feng, which was just around the corner. Small shop to the right is quite Japanesque ^^. Usually, we say 日式料理 Japanese food, so in the same way we can say 中式料理 for Chinese food, 美式料理 for American food, 韓式 for Korean, 港式 for Cantonese food, and so on :) Here’s another big restaurant, Shanghai Dim sum so to say. Never been there but will try it soon. Quite a sunny day. Only bad thing about Winter is that the sun hardly comes out, which will make taking pictures difficult. Police guy checking his Whatsapp, LINE, or Facebook. As soon as I spotted him with my camera he went back on duty. In Taiwan, we call the new generation 低頭族 — or “looking-down generation”, meaning that everyone is always looking down to their phones. Not uncommon in youngsters these days anywhere in the world. How does this compare to your own country? A girl deciding whether she should take Exit 6 or Exit 7, also wondering why there is one exit next to another one. Closer analysis reveals that some are just exits with escalators going up, while others are entrances with escalators going down… This is new to the Orange line. Not sure why though, maybe to cope with rush hours… Is it like these in other countries? More good news for Youbike users! Dongmen has some bikes parked here, which you can ride all the way to Shida, Taida, or the Xinyi area near the Taipei City Hall. Be careful with cars, scooters, buses in Taipei! One feature of the Taiwanese landscape is the never-ending constructions, especially MRT lines as well as HSR (High-speed rail) lines all around big roads and on top of freeways. It may be a nuisance to some, especially drivers, but Taipei citizens do understand that it really is in the name of progress. Another hypothesis I have is that smaller exits just occupy one half of the sidewalk, compared to bigger entrances. All stations in the Orange line have a glass and metallic-themed design, gives them a clean and neat feeling :) With the completion of the MRT station, buses now have their own lane, which makes traffic a wee bit less dangerous… just a wee bit though. Good thing about Taipei mass transit is that both MRT and buses are really convenient — there’s usually plenty of space on the MRT and the bus, except for rush hours and holidays. Xinyi road goes all the way to Taipei 101, one of the tallest buildings in the world, so soon Dongmen Station will connect to the Xinyi line all the way to Taipei 101… Coming soon™ ! Macaron sweets store. Didn’t fancy them before but I’ve seen they are quite popular in Taiwan. Not really into sweets but I must admit I can eat an entire box of maracons by myself. Clock behind reads 16:16 — not many travelers in the afternoon. On another note, for the month of September, there is some 10 or 20% discount when traveling or getting off at some of the Orange stations. I’m too lazy as to calculate how much the MRT costs anyway <(^^<

Just wondering if anyone is still around this quiet world about instant ramen? ^^;

Anyway, can you identify the 101-story building on the picture? If you can, then maybe you can get a hint of why I’m gonna get back into blogging, how I may spin a bit from the previous mostly-Japan blogging. A lot has happened since I stopped blogging two years ago, and I wish to get back to what has happened in the last couple of years.

If you’re still around, hope you can drop a message, maybe I can check your blog and see what you’ve been up to lately! I’ll get into more details soon — prepare for it! ^_~

PD/ If you haven’t guessed yet, it’s Taiwan’s Taipei 101, one of the tallest buildints in the world =)

There’s not much left to say, it’s a tragedy and it is very sad to know this has happened in Japan.

The image shows a scared Panda grabbing a police officer’s leg. Which is in no way related to Japan because it’s just a random panda in China, as one reader pointed (thanks, and sorry about it! O_o) but I was foolish enough to believe on the internet shenanigans. Anyway, great picture to remind us that we humans and animals are sometimes pretty much the same: instincts, needs, even society sometimes, and the need to hug someone!

I had initially thought that it wasn’t so bad until today where reports and videos are even more shocking. Here is one from a closeup view:

Click here to view the embedded video.

All my friends are safe fortunately, a small positive thing. Life is so fragile!

Metal Gear Solid: Old Snake Cosplay. A little too young I think, but besides that, a pretty good one =)

Just reminded me that the PSP installation of Metal Gear takes place in 80′s Costa Rica (my beloved country!), with all the war against Nicaraguan dictatorships and stuff. Wondering how they represented us! ^^ I should play that one!

Hi there ^^,

Just wanted to let you guys know that the video game me and my brother made, Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles is now 100% FREE for PC. Here’s the trailer:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Download here.

The game was released for Dreamcast and for Korean handheld consoles in both English and Japanese, and we hope that you can play it too (for Free!)

It is a puzzle doujin soft / independent game which I’m sure you’ll enjoy ;D

Anyone watching Bakuman? Basically it’s an anime about two high schoolers who want to get serialized and have their own animé before they’re 18 — pretty ambitious huh? ^^

Reminds me back in the day when I wanted to draw manga and create video games too. Seemed almost impossible at the time but hey, I ended up creating my own game, Wind And Water, along with my brother.

Here’s the trailer video for the Dreamcast and Japanese release if you’re curious about it:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Just remembering the thirteen hundred thousand lines of code that it took me makes me feel nostalgic about it. Maybe I’ll go back to making video games one day…

Found this image of a (quite shady) ラーメン大学、which means Ramen University. I’d be kind of scared to go in there though, do you think it is legit? ^^

Goes nice with my blog’s theme and all, Instant Ramen!

Speaking of which, my Japanese teacher told me that all chefs in Japan need a license in order to become cooks, just wondering if this applies to small ramen shops too. If so, where do they study? Here I guess!

Thanks to Neta

I must say, I love to play my Nintendo DS. But having one for breakfast would be epic, don’t you think? Still wondering how they manage to create such a fine toast (if it’s real that is). Any ideas? ^^

Source: newzonfire.com

Different airlines in the world have different kinds of foods. Take a look at what United is serving. JAL and China on the other side look delicious! Most airlines, however, have really made an effort in recent years to make their grub a bit more palatable. Some refined airlines have even improved the presentation! While some airlines make no effort to provide for vegetarians or vegans, other airlines like United give you many delightful options. Asian vegetarian? Kosher? Whatever you feel like! ^^

A flight, whether long or short, should be as enjoyable as possible, regardless of the food. Take a good book and a DVD player if you don’t have one of those televisions in-built in the seat in front of you. Bring games, a notebook, and a magazine to happily while the time away. Write a To Do list, or plan your next party bets moves or draw up a guest list for your next party. Write the postcards you forgot to send while on holiday! Do whatever you like to make the most of your time onboard. Enjoy the meals– even if you don’t like the main course you might love the dessert! Never say never.

Korean Air’s mineral patch looks delicious! (Here’s a Starcraft Cake in case you didn’t get the joke ^^)

Last time we had some Ninja Golf going on. Well, today we have some Ninja Tennis ^^ nice work on that shadow!

Remember I used to love tennis back in the day… haven’t played it for years but would definitely love to do so again, maybe when I’m rich? (Working on it) Nothing like volleyball, though… Natsukashii~