What do I buy in Taiwan?

I was just in Taiwan this past spring, and after discussing what I buy in Japan, I thought I should mention what I got this trip in Taiwan.

Compared to Tokyo, Taipei is really a shopping paradise. They have all the same expensive brands I love in Japan, but they also offer a cheaper alternative.  First of all,  Taipei has night markets, and because Taiwan is a large manufacturer of many products, there are also warehouses with endless bins of cheap merchandise. You won't find such bargains in Japan. 

Because I was only in Taiwan for a few days I didn't get a chance to buy very much stuff, but here are some things I brought home with me:

1. Taiwanese candies!

This company is very famous in Taiwan and makes the best candies. Both are chewy, nougat sweets. One is almond flavored and the other is milky (I like the almond one best). These sweets are also packaged wonderfully, so they make great gifts.

2. Clothes from the night market 

I didn't plan on doing any clothing shopping in Taiwan. Like most places in Asia (except Hong Kong) I'm too tall and too wide for almost all clothing. However, I somehow manage to fit the "free-size" in Japan and Taiwan, so when my friend and I say some cute dresses at a night market stand, we decided to buy them at a discount.   

Full disclosure, I did have to alter them a bit to fit me. Basically, the bodice was too short (i.e. the waist was fitting right under my bust), so I added about 4" of fabric to the shoulders. (that's a nice little trick, by the way). You can see the dress on the left has black fabric added to the shoulders, but I think it turned out to be a nice design feature. 

I had a chance to wear both dresses this summer. You can see my photos here.

3. Books and magazines

Yes, I am learning how to read Chinese, so these aren't just for show. On the left is a women's fashion magazine, and on the right is a famous queer book called Notes of a Crocodile (which I hear is finally being translated in English!). This combination  is just soooooooo typically me: Fashion and culture.

Journey to Izumo: The walk

After leaving Izumotaisha-Mae station you are faced not with the Izumo Taisha itself, but with a long road stretching in two directions.
And which direction is the Taisha? 
To the right.
And what happens if you go to the left?
You come across a strange rock sculpture. 

But you probably didn't go all this way to see the sculpture (though it is interesting), you can here to see the Taisha. So, to the Taisha we go.

The right direction

The street is lined with beautiful pine trees. In the distance you can see the deep forest green mountains. The Taisha is deep in those woods, about a 15 minutes walk away. So long of a walk,  in fact, that we were often wondering if we were indeed going in the right direction. 

To keep one entertained, there are many interesting sights along the way. For example, observe this mysterious and elusive night club called, "Live" (pronounced like "live show" not the verb "to live"). So the Japanese indicates that this is a "snack bar," which is like a hostess bar, but less expensive...and with snacks. Snack bars are apparently all you have to choose from for adult entertainment in the countryside.

check out this guy, walking suspiciously out of "live"

Just before the shrine, we met  an old man and woman making Kinako mochi on the side of the street. Thinking this opportunity was too rare to pass up, I bought some, and stuffed it in my mouth while walking obtrusively along the street. (In Japan, it is a  huge cultural faux pas to eat while walking). 

waiting in line for mochi

I never ceased to be amused by the sights of rural Japan. Even this shanty alley holds some kind of mysterious appeal to me.

a random ally

After we ate our mochi and walked up a steep hill, we turned around to snap this photo. The station is just in front of the white gate (on the left), and the mochi stand is directly off to the left (where you see the purple banner), to give you an idea of the distance. 

the view from atop the hill

Along the way we passed a strange residence. 
 I was sort of fascinated by this random house. There are almost no windows, and the driveway is enormous! What is anyone going to do with all that gravel? Seems odd to me. That strange house almost made me forget about Izumo Taisha. Well, you know you are close when you pass this house.

a random house with a large gravel front yard

Finally we've reached the entrance to the Taisha! Too bad there was a lot of construction going on when we were there. It kind of detracted from its ancient look. Oh well...

you've made it!

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Mad Men-themed work party

At work we had a "Mad Men" themed party. 

This is odd because I work in an office of all women. 

That day I wore a retro dress which I made, and my grandmother's cream coat. 

That same evening, I attended a party on a boat. 

These pictures are from on deck. They are not very good pictures and we didn't take many because it was freezing! 

Coat: vintage from grandma

Dress: My designs, Fall 2012 Collection

Shows: vintage

Journey to Izumo: Izumotaisha-mae Station

After a 20 minute trolley ride from Izumoshi Station through Japan's scenic rural countryside, one is greeted at IzumoTaisha-Mae station by this lonely sign.

As I may have mentioned, IzumoTaisha-Mae literally means, "in front of Izumo Taisha." This led me to believe that the station would literally be right in front of the Taisha (shrine). 

I was a bit off in that assumption. 

The Taisha is another 15 minute walk from the station. There are no clear signs to point the way (but there may be some not-so-clear signs), however upon exiting the station there is only one main road, so after glancing both ways, you have a 50% chance of guessing the direction correctly.

The arched ceilings and stained glass windows of the station reminded me of an old country church. The benches inside the station all faced the same direction, like rows of pews. I had wondered if in fact it was an old church that had been remodeled into a station, but alas, it is just an old western-style station. 

Don't be fooled by the "Information" sign in English. There was no English to be found in this neck of  the woods.

When we left the station, we actually guessed the right direction to the Taisha the first time, but we decided to take "the path less traveled" and see what was at the other end of  the road as well. We came across this large gate, and a very interesting stone sculpture.

Snapshot from Hawaii

Amidst colorful Hawaiian leis.....

 

Journey to Izumo: The Trolley

After our meal at Izumoshi Station, I decided the check the times for the trolley that leave for Izumo-taisha-mae station. When I approached the trolly stand, I was surprised to see it unstaffed, with only an old rusty ticket machine.

Apparently the trolly leaves only a few times a day, and we still had another hour to kill before the next departure. I bought my ticket and went to shop at the station's mini-mall, which consisted of a rock quarry, a man-made indoor pond, and about 8 shops. We were among the only people in the train station the whole time. The scene was terrible depressing, but somehow I was charmed by it.

Our classy ride

The trolly to Izumo is a tiny version of a train that shuffles passengers from the main hub of Izumo station, to the truly rural parts of Izumo.

The train itself looks to be from the 1960s or 70s. In fact, it is sort of charming that they haven't updated it in all these years. Why would they? There were barely any passengers when we were there.

Instead of the elaborate kaisatsuguchi (ticket gates) in the train stations fo Tokyo and Osaka, to board the Izumo trolly all you do is show your ticket to the man at the window, who only appears 15  minutes before the train departs, and promptly disappears afterwards. With only a few departures a day, it's hard to justify why he would need to work more.

Because we didn't want to haul our luggage with us to the Taisha, we checked into into a locker at Izumoshi stations. I had also, foolishly, hidden my umbrella on top of the locker, way out-of-sight from anyone, and yet somehow, when we returned, it vanished. It remains forever in Izumo

Looks totally legit

my friend just doing his thing

Along the way are many wonderful sights of the countryside. Rice fields, old Japanese rooftops. It was a gloomy day, the skies were streaked with grey and rain was falling intermittently. 

The train line is known as the Kita-matsue Line. After about 10 minutes of riding on the red velvet seats, who come to Kawato station, where everyone dismounts the trains, and boards an identical train for the Taisha  Line. Another ten minutes, go by, and you arrive at Izumo-Taisha-mae station, which  is appropriately named, "In front of Izumo Taisha" station.

Waiting to change train lines

View from the window 

Fall 2012 Collection

Hey - remember how I said I was merging blogs? Well, get ready to see bits of fashion posts interwoven with travel posts.

Doesn't make a whole lot of sense now, but it will be more coherent later on...I hope...I sense a theme emerging through all this...

Anyways, I wanted to post some recent clothes I made before the year comes to a close. I'm calling this my "Fall 2012 Collection" even though it is not so much a collection as an assortment of random things I've made in the last few months.

Honestly, I've hardly touched the sewing machine in months. I'm been busy with my thesis this Fall, and now that I'm done I can focus on sewing a bit more.

If you want to see some real examples of collections, check out Fall 2010 or Spring 2012.

Lace dress

Cocktail dress

Lace dress

Sleeveless lace dress

Lace dress in a different lace

Yellow floral dress

two-tone cape dress

sheer red top

Large fur bag

mini fur bag

Journey to Izumo: Izumoshi Station

 Izumoshi station is the last stop on the Sunrise Izumo, a 12-hour overnight train ride from Tokyo. Though the train had been making stops throughout the night, when we awoke around 7:00 a.m., our cabin was still crowded with people. Slowly, however, with each stop they became less and less, until we arrived at Izumo, and we were the only ones left. Being the last people to depart the train left us feeling strangely out of place. Like we overslept our real exit and we were now getting off in some no-man's land.

Sure enough though, the Izumoshi Station sign greeted up upon descent.

This marked the end of the only night I ever spent on a train in Japan. Usually I'd be at in a hotel, or a friend's house, or ever bar-hopping all night. Standing on the train station platform made me realize how unbelievable hungry I was. After sleeping on a floor for 12 hours, I decided to celebrate with my favorite Pancake drink from a vending machine. 

God how I love the pancake drink. It literally tastes like  pancake in a can. Imagine a milk tea, but with a slight buttery-maple-syrupy flavor to it. 

Yeah man

I am not fucking kidding

This was my very first time in what I am going to call, "deep Inaka." Inaka is the Japanese work for: rural, countryside, sticks, boonies, BFE. It has a slight derogatory connotation to it, but it can be used affectionately. Americans may confuse this term, however, with our own perception of the rural countryside. Mind you, Japan is a very crowded country, so any town with a population under 2 million is considered Inaka. There is no Pawnee-Texas-population-202-type town in Japan. Basically, a place can be crowded, and still be inaka. Also, one last misconception. Just because a place is inaka, doesn't mean it is without modern technology. Get rid of those rural-China-ox-cart-farming images. You won't see anything like that in Japan's inaka. Rather, imagine something like a sprawling suburb, with no McDonalds and no Starbucks. Welcome to inaka.

Now, "deep" inaka is my term for a place which is really really inaka, but also really far from any major city. People joke that the town of Chiba is inaka, but Chiba is only a 45-minute train ride from Tokyo. Izumo is 12 hours. The closest city is probably Matsue, but there are not many world-famous destinations on Japan's northwest coast. Hiroshima, Osaka, Nagoya, and Tokyo are all along the southeast coast. 

The street right outside Izumoshi station

Landscaping around the station

Despite being "deep inaka," Izumoshi station is pretty big, and even has a little shopping center. I enjoyed a nice meal of  Oyako Don at the soba restaurant there. We were the only customers, and the waitress was an old women who was probably also the shop owner. 

Oyako Don, rice, tea, pickles

The thing I really like about inaka is that people kind of expect you to speak Japanese. Maybe they figure that you've made it this far, so you probably know enough to get by. Usually they are right. The fact that I speak Japanese is kind of taken for granted in inaka. Feels great. 
 

Don't judge. You'd look the same if you had slept on a train floor for 12 hours.

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