Corbin in the Land of the Rising Bubble Tea (Part II)

So, after waiting way too long to get in contact with either of my friends, I figured I could set out and maybe get wifi on the train or when I arrived or something.

Great job stopping him, guys.

Fancy breastfeeding rooms; they really go all out.

The net looked like the more fun way to get up and down floors.

Some stuff from the museum I was able to take a photo of because it wasn't in the museum.

Here are the train gates, you can see where you have to try to fit the coin in as you are shoved along.

High speed rail to my friend's town.

Seriously, every vehicle except American ones have a hammer.

Some kind of cardboard theme was going on at the train station.

Also bees.

Transferred to a regular train. Still no word from my friend, despite waiting in the only spot with wifi for nearly an hour.

They even have the crosswalk guy for the train.

And more free water!

They were too lazy to take down the Christmas decorations I guess.

This town even had blinking red lights.

And infinity mopeds again (but this time bikes as well).

Surprising amount of things to see for what I thought was a small town.

Found a temple.

And an anime shop! (with some very weird manga)

I walked into some kind of stationary store, and it was full of Adventure Time things.

Look at all that!

"Day off" is a verb now.

The hair vacuums are awesome and America needs them.

Found another temple.

And another manga store.

Playboy is popular here (as a clothing line).

Found another temple (but couldn't find the entrance. I even tried going through all kinds of alleys to find the entrance).

The poor man's barbed wire.

I just couldn't get in.

Fancy car.

Found a path to a giant Buddha.

I couldn't get a good picture of it, but it's a giant lawn clock thing.

Not Buddha.

Buddha.

Giant Buddha.

And you could go inside it!

And read about his story.

Unfortunately, you can't enter the head.

You can't actually use the halberd, much to my dismay.

Kind of busted up.

After climbing up a mountain to see the giant Buddha, I was in no mood to walk to another temple.

I think this may have been it though, seen from the path above it.

Glad to see this aren't illegal here, as in the US, but it was different from the egg so it wasn't that great.

You can see the fruits across the top. This tasted AWFUL.

Excellent city symbol, looks like a scythe.

The original. The original featured Chinese over it if you didn't know.

Another tiny temple.

And another.

Inside a Playboy store.

Don't kiss people's eyes. That is how pink eye is spread. Eye licking is not good for your eyes.

More McDonald's, complete with a creepy statue and a bunch of anthropomorphic food.

Having not heard from my friend, I decided it was time to go back (rather angrily).

Sooooo many mopeds.

The yellow line blinks at you when it wants you to stay back.

Instead of just letting everyone get out all the time, apparently they have emergency stairs as well.

I decided to roam for a bit because I was bored and I got messages from one of the friends (the one whose town I was in), but only when my train began to depart did she finally respond. She said her and her friend would come all the way to Taipei to hang out, so I was really happy.

Wigs for everyday use.

When I got back, I realized there was a massive market right near my hostel. I still had time before my friend was arriving, so I explored some.

I found a bunch more anime stores.

The TV let you play DDR.

Apparently I found boystown.

Eventually my friend and her friend met up with me. Her friend didn't speak German, but she did speak English. It was kind of cool because the two could speak Chinese together, I could speak to my friend in German, and I could speak to her friend in English. So each of us had a secret language we could use to speak to just one of the others. Well, except my friend apparently learned some English at some point, so it became the language we used.

Not pictured (I forgot to get a photo somehow) was the next thing we ate was some kind of congealed blood and fat slime. It was pretty good though. A dark crimson red.

Managed to find frog to eat.

Normally they cut it up for you, but my friend told them to leave it at first so I could get a picture.

Tastes exactly like chicken. I couldn't bring myself to finish it and even my friend's friend thought it was kind of gross, but my friend loved it so she finished mine for me.

I got a free ice thing from the lady at the restaurant because I looked interested in the shaved ice machine.

My friends stayed at the same hostel as me. I had to leave that day, but there was time to get breakfast and things.

We have a restaurant of the same name in Chicago, I wonder if they are a chain or something. This one is more colorful though.

We traveled out to some hot springs town.

Even Taiwan has waiting zones for women (if not special women-only trains).

The hot springs town has its own special train.

Anti-spy gear.

They had free workout machines in the park. Some were rather mysterious.

The rivers were super hot.

Some famous movie was shot here presumably.

Do they want me to get in or something?

Birds!

Unfortunately, being a Monday, apparently the entire town shuts down. So we didn't get to go to anything.

But at least the streams were hot. Like really really really really hot.

Some kind of museum (I think it may have been about the natives of the island [maybe]).

Nothing to do there so we headed back.

More workout equipment in another park.

I got a gift for work and I was set.

We got more of the delicious shaved ice at some pretty famous place.

Dong men, probably means exactly what it sounds like.

While trying to find a present for my girlfriend at the time, my friend insisted I get a thing with my name on it; so I had them think of Chinese characters for me. 

So now my name is 柯賓 (which I think comes out to "koubin" at best).

I then left Taipei to get to the airport.

The airport (or train station [or wherever I took this photo]) offered free wifi and electricity, which is the best thing ever, but I didn't need it anymore.

Not my gate, but cool none-the-less.

So, after eating a diet of 90% bubble tea and spending a lot less than I expected (which was good), I took off back to Japan. It was fun, and I was glad I was able to see at least one friend for at least a little bit. And now I have a Jake the Dog doll. Oh, and a bunch of waffle cocks.