day9: ximending, children's recreation center, modern toilet

sunday, 4/6/2008:

i spent sunday with my other cousin, the one who took me down danshui old street the night before. first we went to ximending, a popular and youthful shopping area in taipei, and the site of the movie exit no. 6. after some shopping, we happened across a mos burger, and i had a sudden urge for mos burger, so we entered! mos burger, the mcdonalds of asia, is known for its burger buns that are made of rice. i had some kind of beef rice burger and my cousin had the fried seafood one. i was so busy taking pictures of my burger that my cousin was finally like, don't you want to include me in a picture? i guess i'm always so into taking pictures of food that i forget people want to be in pictures too. my favorite part about mos burger is the sink that is next to the trash, so you can wash your hands (without having to go all the way to the bathroom) after you eat and throw away your garbage. after mos burger, we passed this popular noodle shop, which had a ridiculous line and all these people standing and squatting right outside eating the noodles. in taiwan, people really know what's good and what's not good to eat. the really good places always have so many people willing to wait in line forever. then we passed the famous old theater in ximending, before getting back on the mrt to our next destination.

there were two important preplanned goals for the day, and the first was to go to taipei's children's recreation center to see sharon li, one of the contestants in the first season of one of taiwan's singing competition shows, one million star. i LOVED the first season of that show (never did watch the second or third season), but actually disliked sharon li. her singing is never very inspired, almost boring, but you can tell she works really hard at her dancing and singing. but, since i loved the show and thought it would be fun to see taiwan celebrities that i had been watching on my computer, i insisted on going and started to work up an enthusiasm for sharon li! actually, the truth is, sharon li isn't much of a celebrity, since she wasn't even one of the more popular contestants on the show, but she did make it to the final 10. we got to the children's recreation center just as the show was about to start. it was mostly little kids and their parents, and there wasn't very many people. there were two singers that sang before sharon li. the first, a guy, named zhi xiang, apparently has an album coming out. the second, a girl named wa wa. i had no idea who they were, but tried to act really into it and took a lot of pictures, to get the full experience. i wanted to act totally crazy, partly to get the full experience, and partly because the singers were singing to a really cold audience and i wanted to see how the singers would react if they thought someone in the audience was actually obsessed with them. my cousin, though, was less amused by this idea, and then i didn't have the guts to go through with it. finally sharon li came on and started singing. this whole time i'm loving my 10x optical zoom camera (btw, my camera is black, not silver), because all my pictures are SO close up! anyway, sharon li was sharon li, nothing has really changed since the competition. she had a few fans (people that didn't just happen to be there with their kids) and one person holding a sign. the last song she sang was without any accompanying music, and i remembered the movie function on my camera, so i decided to try it out! too bad i started it after the song began, but whatever. also too bad that i decided to shoot it vertically and now i can't figure out how to rotate the video so sharon li is right-side-up. other than that, my camera faired surprisingly well! the video is clear and the sound is really clear too! i was pleasantly surprised! anyway, after her singing was the autograph session. it was really sunny and sharon li's mom had come (sharon li is famous for always bringing her mom everywhere. her mom was at all the tapings for one million star.) and held an umbrella for sharon li to block the sun as she walked the 2 minutes to the autographing table. there was a pathetically short line to get an autograph from her, maybe 40 people? anyway, after an autograph and a picture with sharon li, my cousin and i had accomplished the first mission of the day.

the reason i had wanted to go to the children's recreation center was to see sharon li, but my cousin had wanted someone to go do the kiddie rides with her. so we walked around the place, ate some food (quail eggs again, a watermelon popsicle that was actually a pink wedge with a green rind and chocolate spots for the seeds, and then this ice cream that looked really cool but then turned out not to look like the picture but then actually tasted pretty good it was melon flavored, among other stuff i can't remember), and then went on three kiddie rides (swings, twirly things, carousel). btw, there are no melon flavored anything in the us, but in taiwan many things come in melon flavor! i like melon flavored things even more than melons themselves! my cousin wanted to go on the bumper cars, but the line was ridiculously long. then we were too tired of the long lines, so we decided to be done with the children's recreation center.

then we shopped around shilin night market briefly before we went to accomplish the second important preplanned goal of the day: EAT AT MODERN TOILET! my cousin and i met up with her bf (he was a good sport. he wasn't really amused with the place.) and went to the shilin modern toilet, a restaurant that has a bathroom theme, where you eat sitting on toilets and eat out of toilets. i had a spicy hotpot, which came in a toilet bowl (picture). when i tried to move the toilet, a little of the spicy soup spilled over the edge, which made the whole thing look even grosser...HAHA! all the meals come with a drink, which mine came in a plastic bed urinal (extra 30NT/~$1) but i had them not put the drink actually in it so it wouldn't get sticky, and a dessert, which is a poop-shaped ice cream in a little squat toilet. the various meatballs in my hotpot were not the tastiest, but each had a unique look and filling. when the ice cream came, i was so busy taking pictures that my ice cream was half melted by the time i finally ate it. the table next to us was two very not skinny girls and they each got the extra big dessert (extra money) which was ridiculous and actually did look kind of gross when it came out in squat toilets. and their squat toilets were much bigger than our squat toilets. we wondered if they'd be able to finish...and they did. all in all, it was overpriced food, but a fun experience and a cute idea. and i'm glad i went!

after modern toilet, my cousin and i shopped around shilin night market some more. seeing all these girls in taiwan carrying around bucket purses, i wanted to get one too, so i got a cheap one on the street. actually, i had no idea they were called bucket purses, but i was explaining to my cousin, "you know those purses that look like a bucket?", and she's like, "you mean bucket purses?", "no way!"...hehe. then we headed home, where i caught the very end of tka!! and some of a rerun of why why love! on an actual tv!!

WORTH SEEING: modern toilet

full set of pictures at picasa!