Hiromi’s Blog

Entries from May 2005

party and Meiji

May 31, 2005 · 1 Comment

I went to my friend’s roommate’s b-day party on Sat. It was fun. I knew only one person until Valentina came. I was a little bit worried and excited about knowing nobody at the party, but I ended up having a lot of fun. The place was awesome. It is a three bad room apartment on the 5th floor with the whole roof area for themselves. There is a huge hight ceiling living room area in the center. The building was very unique. There is a very old elevator which was a little bit spooky. I ran into two guys who were going to the same party, so I made it there, but otherwise, I could have been lost. We actually went to a wrong direction.

When I walked into the apartment, there are several people dancing around DJ booth, and people and more people mingling. I went to the roof and found my friend and got some drinks and started talking to random people. It was a very nice crowd. I met some musicians, artists, and more…..Oh people who used to live in Japan. One of them was going back to Japan on Sun. They both lived in Kyoto. I want to go to Kyoto again. I should..

I want to travel before I leave, I mean within the States. Where should I go? I have never been to Southwest, South (except New Orleans) and Eastcoast (except NYC). ummmm…so many places…. I kinda want to go to somewhere cooler like Canadian Rockies..oh it’s not the U.S. Maybe, I should visit my friend in Oregon. I haven’t seen her a long time. That would be fun…

Last night, Valentina, Harper and I went to Meiji to have Valentina’s b-day dinner. The restaurant is very nice. I always have nice foods there. I found out that cold noodle that I had before is an egg noodle. I was like, “Wow, maybe I am not allergic to egg any more”, but I didn’t take a chance. Maybe, I am still, but not all the time.

We had Seared Tuna, Salmon ceviche, cold noodle, some makis, and Shirauo (tiny white fish) and udon. Since Valentina knows the owner, he sent us some desserts. Oh we had one of my favorite Sakes (to drink, not salmon), Otokoyama. It was delicious. I don’t think I had a lot, but I passed out as soon as I got home. Oh I had one beer, blue moon at Scott and Beth’s BBQ before Valentina’s dinner. I think Harper came to check on me, but I am not sure. I slept with my clothes on and woke up 4 a.m. and got ready to bed and slept as if nothing happened. what is wrong with me? I slept a lot. I know what this means—it means that I need to go to yoga!

I had a great long weekend. It’s time for me to work on my thesis.

Categories: General

moving

May 31, 2005 · Leave a Comment

One of my favorite people is leaving today. He is going back to Thai land. He used to work at Wabi and always gave me a ride. He is really sweet and nice. He is going to look for a job in Thai land, so we have very similar circumstances. We talked about this a lot. We both think that going back to home is a good thing. I really wish his good luck.

Whenever holiday type days come, I feel a little bit isolated, not like loneliness, but rather feeling a very very foreigner. Oh I know, I am, but you know it’s not easy to be a foreigner. Believe me! I usually like it though, because I learn a lot and become very flexible and very tough. But sometimes, it is very difficult to think that I don’t belong here… I mean…I can’t explain much. It is not a big deal, just a thought today, memorial day.

I cleaned my apartment, but only floor and a bathroom. There are a lot of work to do still. I feel good about cleaning. It is a good feng sui, right?

Categories: General

Murakami and yoga

May 28, 2005 · Leave a Comment

I finished Murakami’s Kafka on the shore yesterday. I like it a lot, maybe more than “Sputnik” one. It has mental journey or struggle like Norwegian wood, and also adventurous or puzzle-like story plot like Wind up bird or Sputnick. It was not unpredectable, yet fun to read. It is not dark or sad…umm…hard to describe it. It is sad at some points, but it seems to make sense. It made me want to go to Shikoku (one of the islands in Japan). I’ve never gone there. I really enjoyed the perspective of 15 years old boy. I want to talk about it more, but I don’t want to ruin it for those who haven’t read it.

After this book, I re-started “A Confederacy of Dunces” which my friend, Chris bought for me. I don’t know why I stopped reading it..Oh…the main character is very bitter about many things, which are sometimes funny, but sometimes hard to take. When I read the book in public like in the train or coffee shops, I’ve got some people came up to me to talk about this book. A lot of people like this book. The author commited suicide and his mother brought it to an English professor who ended up publishing this book. It is autobiographical.

I went to Yoga this morning. I didn’t go to yoga last week, and yesterday I felt bloated and weak. I am glad that I went. I feel light and clear. I am sure I will sleep well tonight. After the yoga class, I went to Red hen bakery and got a cinnamon raisin bagel with a cup of a half decaf coffee and walked for a while. It was a nice breakfast/ teat after yoga. I should do this more often since I don’t work in the morning much except a couple of days a week.

I bought a ticket to go to NYC when my friend, Yurie is coming. We will stay at John’s fancy apartment. His b-day is on the 4th of July, so he will throw a big party and his twin brother whom I haven’t seen for a long time will be there too. It should be a lot of fun. We will be back to Chicago together and she will stay at my place for several days. I am excited. I want to see Jimmy and Gretchen too.

two more days work until my nexrt dayoff….

Categories: General · book · health

My friend from Japan is coming to Chicago!

May 26, 2005 · 2 Comments

Yes! my friend, Yurie is coming to Chicago in July. I am super excited. I’ve known her for several years now. She is great and has cool tastes, and we appreciate similar stuff and sometimes we suffer from similar stuff too. Of course, we cheer up each other. We went to France together while ago. It was a very fun trip, especially because her French friend was showing us around in Paris and Nice. We had a bottle of wine every night.

I have been thinking about where I should take her, and what we should do. We ususally hang out or eat out or drink whenever I am in Yamanashi.

Last year, Kaori came to visit me. It was very fun. She went through so many things like immigration stopped her (I felt so bad for her. She was kinda tramatized by this experience…), she encountered bath room flood (she had never used a plunger before!) She thought she caused a lot of trouble, but not really. I was very worried about her whether she was having a good time. I think she did. She loved Paper Source, the store which sells fancy papers and some craft things. She had a huge steak with Harper. She liked cat fish that I made. I am glad that she came to visit me.

I wonder what Yurie wants to do in Chicago. I am sure we are going to hang out and talk a lot. We have to catch up a lot of things. She likes cappucino and she makes a good one by herself, so I have to take her to Peet’s. She has a fancy milk steamer and even grades cinnamon every time she makes a cup of cappucino. See how cool she is…. I am excited that my friends and roommates can meet her.

Now, I am going back to Murakami’s book. I am a half way done already. I can read it fast since it’s in Japanese. I think that especially Murakami books always give me a urge to know what is going to happen next. I read his Norwegian wood in English, and I think I read it pretty quickly, but not as quickly as in Japanese.

What am I going to read after this? any suggestions?

Categories: General

Kafka on the shore

May 24, 2005 · 2 Comments

I finished The World According to Garp today. What a life…. It seemed real, I mean I hope it was real, maybe not. It is too harsh… I like that Garp’s family loves each other, although so many tragic accidents happened. I wonder what baby Jenny ended up doing in her later life…oh it is not real…..

I just started Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore. One of the beginning scene is about my home town, Yamanshi, and the doctor’s last name is Nakazawa just like mine. I don’t know where the rice ball hill is supposed to be….. I like it so far. I want to keep reading and reading….

I want to finish my master’s thesis for real… I just need to revise it…I will do it tomorrow… I will, I said I will…. I love doing it, but I was doing other stuff, like jobs, scholarship, decision making, work. I need to be multi-tasking. I think that one course at a time at Cornell College was not practical in a real life. One course for 3 weeks and done! and move on to the next one… I liked it, because I felt accomplished every 3 weeks. Life doesn’t run this way though. I am getting better at it.

I am sympathetic to the main character of Kafka on the Shore. I should not talk about it too much though. You guys should read it and talk to me individually. But I just started, so don’t tell me the whole story if you have read it. Murakami is good at creating characters who are not fit in mainstream society. I think that whoever likes murakami sometimes feel this way–not quite fit in a society. I think that there are things that the society expects you to be doing certain things in certain points of your life. If you are not doing it, somebody punches you not physically, but psychologically. Reading murakami makes me feel that I am not the only one. He even makes these people look cool. He made me think I could be cool… Could I ?

Categories: General · book

Taiwan trip and tea IV (the last one!)

May 23, 2005 · Leave a Comment

Umm..I just took a bath and had a jasmin dawny pearl tea, which is very nice jasmin, not too floral yet slightly sweet. Each pearl gets uncurled while it is steeped in hot water. I love taking a bath with a nice cup of tea….

So Taiwan trip IV! I think that some of my memory get missed up as far as chronological order goes. who cares… anyway, I think I covered from 1st to 4th days (Wed to Sat). On Sun I realized that I had only 3 days left, but the last day is a traveling day, so basically I had two days left. Oh… I wanted to go to many places and how should I make it happen? I had a yummy fresh soy milk with a fried bread breakfast. I think I had this almost every morning in Taiwan. either rice poridge or/ and soy milk. Warm soy and a crispy bread are like an Asian version of Cafe Au Lait and a croissant. I love the combination. Soy milk in Taiwan is so delicious. It is not beany at all, and very silky smooth and very refreshing aftertaste. I miss it so much. I don’t like thick starchy soy milk like the ones you see in the U.S. You know when you eat Edamame, it tastes a litte butterly and creamy, but very smooth. That is what I like about soy beans. I just read an article about Taiwanese people’s diet, and 20 % of the population is vegetarian. No wonder why I see vegetarian places everywhere. I found so many good vegetarian deli places.

So a tea house…. I went to ??? (I have no idea how to write or pronouce it with alphabet, but let me try…tsu ton ru…oh no horrible, and the last character is not quit right, missing one part, but I can’t find an exact character!) Anyhow, this place is my favorite tea house in Taiwan. It is not too far from Chad’s place. I walked there. There is a little yet nice garden outside and very calm rooms inside. I saw the servers were having or tasting several different kinds of tea in the room. The way they smell is amazing. First, one person poured boiling hot water into a small tea pot and cupts to warm up the pot and cups, and poured them out. And she put some tea leaves and poured hotwater and waited for 30 to 40 seconds. she poured tea out completely into a creamer like container. After this, she poured the tea into several tiny cups from this creamer like thing. Now, it is time for each person to enjoy the tea. I think there were 3 people at the table and one person did the most of the work, but after the creamer thing, each person took one cup and poured tea into another cup, and smelled the empty cup after pouring. They were circling the cup around their noses, so that the tea fragrance get exposed to the air, I assume. And then they drunk the tea which was just poured from this smelling cup. They repeated this process several times. It is very interesting. I mimiced it too.

I had ??? (of course, taiwanise kind…comes from certain region). This is what I wrote on my notebook:

The 1st brew—stong fragrance, very similar to high mountain tea, but smells very green like early Spring field (cheezy…I am embarrased…..) the tea leaves smell a little acidic.

The 2nd brew— no green fragrance any more, yet deep floral. The texture becomes distictive and round? and aftertaste is very floral. very mild over all.

The 3rd brew—fragrance and taste, both becomes very sweet like coconut milk. The taste is very rich and mature. This is my favorite brew.

OMG…I am a tea freak…. It is amazing how the tea taste becomes different in each brew.

After this amazing tea house, I went to another one in a rich neighborhood. I rode a bus! I am amazing! I went to the tea place called ??. This is a fancy place. It was too fancy for me to relax. I tried ???tea (Tikwan yin?–iron goddess mercy). The leaves are very very grean and tastes very different from the regular? tikwan yin that I have had, which comes from the mainland China. Taiwanese version is lighter and tastes like green tea without oxidization, meaning that the taste is very sharp—wild—bitter in my opinion. I like the mainland Tikwan yin better. I should have stuck with Taiwanese tea.

I had an onion pancake again from a food stand which costed twice than what I had in Shilin. The neighborhood is like Lincoln park, but every thing was so densely packed, and very claustrophobic like Tokyo. It was a hot day too. I had to change my long sleeve to T shirt. what a nice winter! I hang out with Chad in the evening. Oh I had a foot massage. I did it on the first day and it was painful, but this time, it wasn’t. I love it.

On my technically last day, I went to eat yummy stuff. I had steamed green dumplings and sweet purple rice poridge with fruity tea. I think the restaurant serves Peking imperial style sweets/ dimsum. I bought several sweets to bring back to Japan. I made my family and friends in Japan try them later, and they loved them! Yellow bean cakes, sticky rice cakes with roasted soy bean powders, swirl bean cakes…… Oh where can I get those in the U.S.? Those sweets are definately different from what you can find in Chinese bakerly in China town. They are tiny, delicate, simple beautiful and tasty sweets…..

I went to a great tea shop called Fong Puu (?????I bought high mountain tea, Oriental beauty, and rose jasmin tea from there. They let me taste so many different kinds. Oriental beauty was so great. It is very similar to black tea, but lighter and oh soooo sweet fragrance like honey. Later I came back to the U.S., I made this tea and brought it to a class at school (the course title is Lust and Aggression in Visual culture, cool ha?) My professor and classmates loved the tea. It was a day when everybody brought some lustful? food. A lot of people brought chocolates or fruits. I was the only one who brought tea. The name is so crazy–oriental beauty—-I like Chinese character better ???? (Eastern Beauty) This tea involves some insect’s enzyme, and it grows only in Taiwan. It is a perfect afternoon tea to me.

Oh on my very last day, I bought a steamed vege bun and to-go vegetarian lunch box and took a bus to the airport. I ate them while I was waiting for my flight. I ate a lot in this trip. a lot of tea and a lot of good foods and a lot of good people.

People in Taiwan are very sweet and full of hospitality. Toward the end of my trip, I was totally blended in Taiwanese people, so that some people asked me a direction (I assume). I wish I could speak Chinese though….

Okay, I had so much stuff covered, but there are still some stuff that I haven’t tried in Taiwan–hot spring, snow cone like dish, taiwanise noodle dish ????going to a beach…tons of stuff….I want to go there again.

I am so glad that I wrote this… I really thank Chad, Chris, Ella, Selena, who were very kind to me in Taiwan, and Harper and Matiss who introduced these wonderful people to me. I love you all!

Categories: General · tea

Sushi, a new friend, and Haruki Murakami

May 22, 2005 · 1 Comment

Last night I had Maguro (Tuna) and Zuke (marinated Salmon) nigiri sushi at wabi. They are so delicious. Oh I had Shima aji (Hawaiian Jack) as well. I love maki rolls too, but I like simple stuff like Sashimi (no rice) or Nigiri (a piece with rice underneath). Japanese food is very tasty and healthy. I love sushi.. There was a sushi place in Seattle called, “I Love Sushi.” I wonder if it is still there. I remember salmon was delicious there. I wonder raw fish could be included in a raw food diet. I love eating raw fish with rice and seaweed though. so simple yet so good…

On Sat I had a few? drinks and got drunk. I haven’t gotten drunk for a long time, so it was fun. I wasn’t trouble, I hope. Harper had to send me home, because I couldn’t stand still. My problem is that I love hard liquors. I wasn’t hang over next day at all, and I even got up at 9 and went to breakfast with my friend, David. He is from Singapore and in the similar situation with mine–he has to leave after summer because his visa will be expired. It is time for him to move too. He is thinking about going to Argentina where his friend is working as a community organizer. She asks for his help. He started learning Spanish from an Argentine woman whose husband is also a sushi chef at Wabi. It is nice to know there is someone who is having the same isuues. I am sure he will be okay, and I will be too.

It was a nice weekend and I slept a lot last night. I will be working a lot next week, but I think I will be okay. I almost finish the book, “the world according to Garp”. so many sad things are happening, but somehow, it doesn’t seem too tragic. I don’t know why.. I can’t wait to start Haruki Murakami’s book, Kafka on the Shore. I love Japanese paper backs. They are small enough to fit in a pocket, I think. But this one has two volumes and doesn’t look short. There is an English version too. Haruki Murakami to me is my high school days, although my life at the time was not as dramatic as his novels at all. I was 16 when I read Norwegian Wood. I have read many of his novels when I was in high school. It is very nice to re-read his stuff now when I am in my 30s. I even read Norwegian Wood a few years ago and felt totally different. I didn’t read his stuff in my early and mid 20s at all. At the time, I was reading more political based novels, like Wild Swan, Red Azalia, some North Korean stuff (non- fiction), and Amy Tan. I was very interested in China’s cultural revolution and the non-fictional stories of North Korean refugees, and I am still interested in these, but I was very into them at the time. I guess for me, reading Murakami is looking at myself inward and checking on myself. I don’t know if this makes sense, but that’s how I feel about his stuff. I feel like I have a phase of Murakami crave, which constantly comes and goes. I love sharing thoughts about Murakami books, whether you have read his stuff or not.

My blog tends to be long….I can’t make it short. I stop now.

Categories: General · food

sleepy, but can’t sleep

May 20, 2005 · 2 Comments

My Taiwan trip story is getting very long, so I will take a break now. I will write about it soon though. Well, I just went to see Star Wars with Harper and Matiss, and I am so tired, but I can’t fall asleep. My friend from Japan emailed me saying that the company she works for might be sold to a different company, and she was told that she won’t get any raise no matter what happens to the company or laid off. The circumstances are more complicated than what I wrote here, but she was very very shocked. She worked for the company for 15 years. 15 years! I didn’t know what to say. Life is tough sometimes. I think I am very sympathetic, so I feel anxious now and can’t sleep.

I don’t know anything about Star Wars, but I enjoyed it and started thinking how evil and good qualities co-exist as one unit. It is kind of ying yang, I thought. That is so Asian, and that’s okay, right?

Yesterday, I went to a facial with Becca at Aveda institute, which is ran by students, so it is cheaper. I paid $35 for Focus Facial + special eye treatment. It was about one hour and so relaxing. It makes me very happy when someone else is working hard on me like this and acupuncture. My skin looks great now. I bought some Aveda products too. I loved a hot stone massage which I got while I had a facial mask on. It was a nice treat. Sometimes, I need special treats.

I love taking care of my body inside and outside. I thought about why I am obsessed with my body stuff, especially inside/ health. Since I was a baby, I have tended to get sick easily. There are several emergency stories my parents told me that I was too young to remember. I wished I had been physically strong, but I learned to know how to take care of myself. I see some improvement. i.e. I haven’t been to emergency room for several years! I never skipped a class at Cornell and Art Institute. To me, that’s amazing. I almost couldn’t graduate from hight school because of my absences. I am getting better at preventing myself from being sick. I became very conscious about my body. Since I moved from Japan, I have been very conscious/ sensitive about myself. Perhaps, that was the main reason I was vegan for a couple of years. Now I eat fish, so I am not even vegetarian. I think that I went through the phases that I was becoming independent for real. Being far away from my country made me vulnearble, but it was a good thing, I believe. All of the good and bad things came out. This is one of my very precious experiences.

I think I can sleep now. Good night…

Categories: General

Taiwan trip and tea III

May 17, 2005 · 1 Comment

So the part II was about the second day since I mainly traveled on the first day and hang out with Chad. We went to see Dao temple and the night market nearby the temple. There are so many night markets in Taiwan, and they seem to have everything, I mean everything. We even found an Indian curry restaurant. Of course, pirated DVD and CD. It is a collection of many small stores and foodstands. I believe that it is an everyday thing. There are several big ones, and I like the one in ??(shilin). I had a very delicious vegetable steamed bun with Ella and Selena. You know those steamed buns you see in Kung Fu movies. But this one was smaller and vegan! How nice! very vegetalian friendly.

On the 3rd day, I did a lot. I took subway from Gongquan to Shilin to to go the palace museum again. I had an onion pancake before I rode a bus from Shilin station. It was a nice snack, because you can eat it while walking. The museum was nice and a lot of stuff to see. I liked porcelains and glasswares, expecially the one looks like Nappa cabbage. After the museum, I went back to Shilin station area and somehow decided to have a haircut. But I just had a shampoo since I had a hard time communicating with my hair dresser. Don’t give me wrong, they were super nice and the receptionist girl spoke pretty good Japanese. They were all curious about me, I mean, a Japanese girl who is traveling here by myself. They gave me a nice blow dry on my hair, and I felt very clean.

I went to a tea house called ??? (the 1st character means bamboo, and the second one means home town, and the third is a house or building–in my Japanese way of understanding). I think I again had a high mountain tea. I didn’t write about the tea on my notebook, but the foods! I had a fried shiitake mushroom and tofu and seafood stew with a steamed rice in a bamboo container. Oh so delicious! I wanted to try shrimp with drangonwell tea leaves, but too much for myself. I didn’t have much time either, because I planned to meet up with Chad and Ella.

Ella speaks very good English and Japanese, and her friend, Selena speaks very good Japanese and English, so we had no problem to communicate whatsoever. They have never been to another country, but their language level was amazing! I spend so much time in the U.S., and I finally speak good enough English for people to understand me. It seems to take me a long time–those pronounciation classes! I still cannot get over “R” and “L” stuff. I just can’t hear it sometimes. My Japanese ears don’t catch them.

Ella and Selena took me and Chad to Danshui ????by the river. There was a nice view and many people. It looks a good date spot. We ate yummy stuffed tofu, sour plum juice, shrimp roll, and a wax apple and we headed back to Shilin. Chad left for his house party, and it became girl’s time! After we walked around Shilin night market, which is big and fun!, we went to have a cup of tea. It was an English style tea house, and I had a rose tea. It was very delicious and fun. We talked a lot in English and Japanese. I think Ella is better at English and Selena is better at Japanese, so our conversation was very cute! I was very lucky to hang out with them. Both of them were going to their parents’ house for the Chinese new year’s next day, so I could hang out with them only one day…sad… There was a crazy party at Chad’s apartment. So many Americans and Taiwanese. It was fun.

The next day was Saturday, so Chad and Chris hang out with me. Not me, but they were hang over, and I had a yummy cold noodle and a stinky tofu (that’s what it is called for real, and stinky like something rotten or boiled egg) by Chad’s house. There is a tea stand by his house, and I wanted to get a hot green tea and I couldn’t find it on the menu. I always pointed to the green tea one, but it is always cold. I wanted hot one, so I wrote ??? (warm-green-tea) on my memo pad, and they understood me! I love that Chinese characters break the language boundary. We went to a nice dimsum place in the central part of taipei, and we went to the East where a few big department stores and movie theathers are. There were no food stands, and the restaurants in those fancy buildings area and they were closed early, and we went to some bar. I had a whisky and a pasta and met a group of boys who love Japanese culture (that’s what they said to me). Earlier that day, we went to the modern museum and a nice park and played in a maze. That was fun. We cabbed a lot. One time, my Chinese character skill worked in a cab ride. We wanted to go to Warner Village, those department stores and movie theather area I mentioned earlier. The cab driver didn’t understand English, so I wrote ????, which I copied from my Japanese guide book with my beautiful handwriting (j/k), and the cab driver understood ! I took calligraphy lessons for 6 years when I was younger, so my handwriting is not so bad…Thank god my Kanji (Chinese character) exams. I used to hate them, but I really appreciated them in Taiwan. We went back to Taiwan University area where Chad and Chris live. I found the sign said Tofu-pudding, so I placed a to-go order and ate it at Chad’s while we watched Princess Mononoke. very very Asian….. so much food, but so healthy and so small, so you can eat many things…

I found a nice tea house by his house, and the name is …. I can’t find a chinese character under my Japanese key because I don’t know how to read it in Japanese. Oh I have a Chinese character dictionary. I should look it up. I found it! but my Japanese key pad seems not to have the character. I am sure the chinese version does it. Anyhow the place has an amazing looking. There are bamboos and other trees by the entrance and the inside is very nice too. You have to take your shoes off to get on the floor. It was very cozy and the tea was great. I had ????a kind of Taiwanese tea coming from a specific region. I don’t know how to write in alphabet). I didn’t write about it, but I belive it tastes like a white grape. very light. The tea leaves get huge when they were in the hot tea pot. It is like a rehydrated seaweed getting a big in hot soup. Wherever taiwanise tea house I go to, I get to have my own boiling water pot by the table, so that I can add hot water into my tea pot as often and as much as I want. I love this. I get to make my own tea and drink it in my own pace. Isn’t it so creative? I love that Taiwanese people enjoy this process and obsessed with the details of tea blewing. Oh, I had a candied pinenut with my tea. It was so simple yet so delicious.

My tea craziness becomes very intense in Taiwan. I am keep writing about it. To be continued..

Categories: General · food · tea

Taiwan trip and tea II

May 14, 2005 · Leave a Comment

I went through my camper shoe box in which I put a guide book, maps, and a museum catalogue of my Taiwan trip. I didn’t realize that I didn’t write anything about my last day in Taiwan, probably because I was busy for tea shopping and nervous about taking a bus to the airport by myself. When I arrived Taipei, Chad came to the airport to pick me up, and we took a bus and subway to his place near by Taiwan University, but on my last day, both Chad and Chris were working, and Ella and Selena went to their parents’ houses for Chinese New Year. I left a day before the Chinese new year’s day. I wanted to stay longer, but I want to spend more time in Japan too, so I guess I had to compromise.

I am usually good at direction, so I learned the subway system and rode a bus by myself next day to go to the Palace Museum. I had a my first “official” tea at the museum tea room. Of course, I had a cup of to-go green tea by Chad’s house on the way to the subway station which is 3 min away from his place. How convenient!

At the museum tea room, I had Taiwanese Oolong called, ??????I don’t know how to say in Chinese or English, but Japanese–TOH CHOH OOLONG CHA) Japanese people use Chinese characters but pronounce them very different, and some of the words mean different, and the grammer is very different. I can understand or guess each character individually, but a whole sentence doesn’t make sense to me. Any way, I think a Taiwanese oolong is lighter then other oolong from main land China. I have had it before in NYC, but it was very nice to have a cup of Taiwanese oolong with a great view and in a great tea room in Taiwan. It came with a tea candy which is dark green and tastes like a green tea. The taste and the wrapping paper, both are so classic, like something my grand mother gave me when I was little. It was very nostalgic…weird, it was my first time to be here in Taiwan.

After the museum, I went to a tea house located behind Sheraton hotel. It is called ???? I don’t know how to pronouce it. I could do it in Japanese way, but it doesn’t sound right. I had a high mountain tea. It was floral, but very elegant. There is no flower petal in the tea, but it has a floral fragrance like orchid. It is very light, but slightly sweet like a pear. It is very refreshing. Taiwanese tea in general is very light and taste and texture get richer in 2nd and 3rd blew. At this tea house, a server lady was so nice and spoke English, but I was not sure we communicated well. I think that complimentary sweet comes with a pot of tea, and during afternoon tea hour, which I assume between 2-5 ish, you can get as mush sweet as you want. I had 3 different kinds of sweets: a yellow bean cake?????a white and black swirl bean cake, and a rice cake covered with roasted soybean powder. They were not so sweet and just so delicate and yummy and beautiful. Everything was so tiny like two bites. The server asked me which one I liked the most, so I said the yellow one, and she gave me another one. She was super sweet. I had to ask which one doesn’t have egg and dairy because I am allergic to them. She was very patient and understanding, and picked those sweets for me. This place is a hidden house in the middle of the big city. so quiet and comfortable. While I was sipping my tea, I looked though the museum catalogue and decided to go back to the museum one more time for sure. And I did next day. I wish there were a Taiwanese tea house in Chicago too. Ten ren tea in Chicago doesn’t have a tea room, but the one in NYC does, but very different from the tea houses in Taiwan. There are several Chinese tea houses in NYC. Jimmy and I went to the one, not Ten Ren, but I forgot the name! Saint something…. I had a ginger black tea with black tapioca pearls. He had a coffee with tapioca pearls. very unique! and very good! NYC is fun…

Okay, I think I have to write Taiwan trip and tea III then….. who wants to read this? I guess at least me.

Categories: General · food · tea