About a year ago, a student asked me what the best day of my life was. It was really hard to come up with an answer. I was, however, able to come up with the best day since coming to Asia. Although that day didn't take place in Taiwan, it took place on a vacation to Japan.
Technically this "day" was the second half of the last full day of my trip, and the first half of the day I had to leave. By dinner time on the last full day of our trip, my friend and I had seen everything on our list. Thinking about where to go, she suggested an area of Tokyo called Ikebukuro. She said that she previously had considered adding it to our list, but thought that our agenda was already a bit packed. I asked what there was to do there, and she said not much, just look around.
So off to Ikebukuro we went, and i had little to no expectations about it. which turned out to make all the difference, cause i really had a blast there. I couldn't tell you one really amazing thing that we did there, we just walked around and people watched. saw some drunk people, two probably ten year old kids seriously making out (i still feel haunted by those children, so disturbing the level at which they were going at it), a super popular ice cream store which my friend treated me to. I also remember looking at the ads on the windows of local real estate agencies as at the time i was considering moving to Tokyo, and i remember the rent in Ikebukuro being relatively cheap.
Like i said there wasn't anything super special about that place. We definitely saw and did much cooler and interesting things in other parts of the city. I think just the fact that i didn't know about that place and hadn't researched anything about it, made everything feel fresh and new. This also showed me that I should always travel with another person. Of course it can be hard to coordinate, but with a friend you are exposed to things that you wouldn't have thought to see or do if you had planned the trip on your own.
The next morning, was also great. We had planned to go back up to the top of a very tall building, because we really enjoyed the view a few days before. We were hoping this time to have a clearer view of Mt. Fuji in the distance. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day so we couldn't see much. after seeing the view, we still had time to kill so since we enjoyed it so much the night before, we went back to ikebukuro to explore a bit more. unfortunately by now it had started raining so we ducked into a store, the one pictured above.
I don't know how to really describe this store, it's kind of like a toy store for adults. it just has all types of weird gadgets and things. Things like miniaturized board games, stuff animals that are speakers so you can attach your mp3 player, mops for your feet and hands so you can clean things. I think it's a store that can be best described as having everything yet has nothing. Regardless, we had a nice time in the store hiding out from the rain, discovering zany little things and trying to figure out what they are for, and challenging each other in the various games that they had.
That "day" was the best day out of all my days here in Asia. It was a special time where I didn't feel like i was on vacation but also didn't feel like i was at home. I just felt serene.
Oh the picture above is actually from one of their branches in Taipei. I didn't know that they had these stores here in Taiwan, but I had just been walking around a department store killing a few minutes and i stumbled on to it. I went in to take a look, but it wasn't nearly as big as the one in Tokyo, and didn't have the same kind of zany fun feel that the Tokyo one had. But for a quick bit of fun, I suggest looking up this store online and take a quick glimpse at their wikipedia page. The list of the wide array of things they have will definitely give you a small chuckle.
