friday cheelon, kyufun

got up 8ish. Cha messaged and said he was running late so he would meet us wherever we were. Told him that it’s okay cause we didn’t know where we wanted to go. He called and asked “what do you mean?” I said that I asked everybody where they wanted to go but no one says anything. They all say wherever. Kids were awake. Asked them to get some breakfast from downstairs while I was in a shower. They came back around 9:30. bread was very nice. Asked Kei to exchange my Australian dollars. I had so much Australian money for some reasons. Got 8000 something for 300 dollars. It was much more that I got in Australia for the same amount of money. Kei had to go to Nao’s room to get her hair mousse. She came back with a handful mousse and was laughing. My dad came out from their room with a handful mousse, too she said. I made a survey to see where we want to go but no one got that for some reasons.
10:30am we went down to the lobby. cha called and said he was nearly there. Everybody was down there deciding where to go. Then we realized that my dad wasn’t there. He wasn’t in his room either. He went out for a walk, mom said. Cha got to the hotel. We were looking for dad still but no one was seriously worried. We were sort of making fun of him.
He came back to the hotel as if there was nothing wrong. Anyway we decided to go to cheelong which was Nao’s choice. It wasn’t one of the options I wrote down but.. oh well.
We got two taxis to the station. It was two too many but we all got on anyway. Asked Cha to tell the driver where we were going.
First we got on a train. Cha said that you get fine if you chew gum but not this train. Dai swallowed his candy anyway. It was kind of long trip. Some were sleeping on the train.
When we got to the station, it was already 12. we were not too sure if we should eat lunch there or jyuhun where we were going. It was another half an hour bus ride so we got some snack food. Even finding right bus stop wasn’t easy. There was no way that we could get there without cha’s help. We had to wait for the bus quite long. Well it wasn’t that long I guess but we had this guy, my dad who is incredibly inpatient.
He had bought beer from a convenience store somehow and he was ready to drink. I stopped him in case the bus comes soon. Cha had to ask drivers if the buses were the right one.
The bus we got on was a bit crowded. Some had to stand. I sat on the steps at the very end. My family was eating the “chimaki”. I had some cake, too. I had notice the sign at the front saying something about drinking and eating. Couldn’t really figure out cause it looked like “please of course eat and drink” but it can’t be.. the ladies sitting next to me were talking in English. It was sort of strange cause both were Asian and they had strong Chinese accent. Anyway one of them said “when I go back to Australia..” I reacted immediately and said “are you from Australia??” we had a good conversation next 10 minutes.
The weather wasn’t really nice and it looked like that it was gonna rain soon.
When we got off the bus I asked Cha what the sign means. He said “please do not eat or drink”. “But the second character is “of course” isn’t it?” I said. He said it is “NOT” in Chinese here. I told him what I thought and he was laughing.
It was raining when we got off the bus. Fortunately there was a shop selling umbrellas. Cha was the only one who was prepared for this weather so we all had to buy one each except Dai, he got a rain coat.
We walked through the shops. They were close to each other but we still needed our umbrellas. I bought this simple bracelets for my nieces and kei oh and mom too. There were so many foods. I wanted to try this dumpling which this town was famous for but every body was walking ahead so I couldn’t stop. We found the sign saying “coffee shop with wonderful view” there were stairs to go up but it was so narrow. cha said “let’s see” and he just went up. others followed but we saw a little dog looked like dead. It wasn’t moving. we had to go over him to get through. Aya was crying cause she thought it was dead. it was slightly moving but she refused to go up. I didn’t need coffee so I wasn’t keen either but they were already gone so we had to go. it was a bit scary. there was a shop up there when we finally got up but it looked like closed. they push the bell so many times but no one answered. We decided to go down from different way. we found a coffee shop and decided to go in. Inside was pretty big and we found a great view there. then Cha said that this place was a famous because of this movie. We decide to watch the moview when we go back to Japan. I had flower tea which was nice. we went down and decided to go back to Taipei. it was still raining. I was trying to find some clothes for Aya and Shi cause they were wearing t-shirt and they were freezing. we didn’t see any shops cause we just went down the steps and found the bus stop. waited for 15 minutes and the bus came. There were many school students on and we had to stand. one of them gave her seat to Aya. on the way the driver said something and everybody said something. we thought there was something wrong and he was angry or something. asked cha what it was. well, the driver asked if anyone was going to get off before Taipei and no one was. So the driver decided to get on the highway. We were like oh that’s great! we can save some time! but wait a sec what about the people waiting for this bus?? oh well.... got off at one of the metro stations. went to toilet in Sogo. got on metro and got to the station. there was a shuttle bus which was free. it was very crowded but we were not on the bus that long. it was actually walking distance.
went in the building and looked around. we didn’t know where we can get upstairs. we were supposed to go to the84th floor. It was actually next building so we went out and moved to the next building. cha had to ask 4 people to find out how to get up there.
When we found the place to get up we found out that we had to make a booking for this restaurant. luckily they said that we can do it at the spot. Also they said we have to pay 50 dollars a head at least. for a moment it sounded so much but we realized that we spend that much money for dinner sometimes anyway. there was a choice of western and Taiwanese. We chose Taiwanese of course. had to change the elevator at 60-th floor then went up to the 84th floor. The restaurant looked very fancy. we were told to sit at this table which wasn’t near the window and we were a bit disappointed. We asked if we could move abut they said it’s all booked out. but we were the only customers at that time. There were some private rooms as well. they must have to pay so much to get the rooms.
We didn’t know what to order so we decided to have a course meal. I had to order special meal cause I couldn’t eat most of the food in the course cause they had meat. My dad was getting irritated cause I was talking to them so long. I just ignored him. It took a bit of time for cooking. kids were all going around to see the view. Aya wanted to go to the observation floor but it cost sooooo much so we couldn’t.
many people came after us. There were some young people going into the private room. I said “ We were beaten by them??” my bro said “ well, they are students but for medicine” I continued “.. and their parents could be all doctors and politicians”.. “
The food came and we were all happy. It was a nice meal. I said to cha “Is this really Taiwanese?” he didn’t think so. dad bro and sis decided to order some beer and this expensive sake. It was so much food and we couldn’t possibly eat anymore.
walked to the station. kids were all full of energy so I told them that they can go crazy after closing the pedestrian crossing. they were running with moving their arms up and down. when we realized it was 4 of them. This kid had joined them. his parents were walking ahead of us and looked happy for him to join them. I asked them his name and then asked if I can take a photo of the kids together. All of sudden this
kid was gone so shy and didn’t want it but he joined in the end.
I asked cha where he was staying and he said near Taipei station. He said that he didn’t mind going to the hotel but it was opposite side so I said to him tat he didn’t need to come to the hotel, we would manage to get there for sure. he said he would go to the station and then go back to Taipei.
We looked at the map to see where to get off. Cha said this but Wat said it should be this station. I wasn’t too sure which one was closer cause wat was so confident for some reasons. Cha looked a bit confused but he didn’t say much. It’s hard to argue with Wat anyway.
We got off at this station and said good bye to Cha. It was long long way to the hotel. I had a mission to find the portable chopsticks. kids wanted it so bad. I didn’t see any shops but at the last minute I saw this discount store and I was pretty sure that they have chopsticks. Dai said “well it doesn’t mean they have it” he is always careful.
it was a big store and hard to find things. told that this is a competition to find the chopsticks and they all looked around but couldn’t find them. asked the shop clerk and he took us to the toilet. We laughed and then he came back with something totally different. I showed my portable chopsticks and he understood this time. Luckily they had the same kind and they were all so excited. I got three pairs for them. It was supposed to be just going straight from the station but we had to turn. At this stage I was convinced that my bro told us the wrong way but he didn’t say anything. We were so exhausted walking for half an hour after a long day. went back to rooms. Dai was looking forward to have us in his room. Aya shi and I went to his room and I said that they can go crazy again. Wat and Nao didn’t want it but they said nothing. I told them that they can have a pillow fight and they were so excited. I left right after that.
Kei was relaxing in the room. we decided to check if we can use internet and it worked. I had so much E-mail to send. Kei wanted to see my work so I showed her my photos.
kids came back to my room in 15 minutes and wanted to continue that. I told them that we get complain from other people staying here so they have to go crazy quietly.
they ended up with throwing slippers cause I let them. I showed them how to throw them like “Ninjyas”
they had such a good time. I said “ninjya school special course is finished now”
told Dai that he can sleep in this room if he wanted but he said that his parent might be worried. We decided to write a threatening letter saying that we kidnapped him and leave it at the door way but they were awake and it didn’t work.
when we were finally going to bed we realized that we had connected to internet all the time. Kei was worried about the bill..