This whole travel arc is 
your reciprocal reviews of each other are so endearing 
and it cracks me up that this is a thing after meeting internet stranger irl because well -
Survivors 
Slam Dunk pilgrimage, of course! Malinkal had the smolder turned right up I see
but doesn’t everyone see, this is Big News on the Japanese learning blogosphere!!!
Unfortunately, this is my second time writing this post: we’re in a really sketchy hotel on Taiwan right now where the default DNS config doesn’t resolve half of the internet, I changed it to Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 and it works with WaniKani now, but I lost my post I was writing, including some of my favorite quotes of the Hibike book 
Oh well, here’s LEVEL 51 :DDDDD
Also, big progress on reading today, I’m at 63051/126114 characters now and the Sunrise Festival is over, now they’re preparing 「三日月のまい」 performance for the qualifiers of the national competition ^^
I read for something like 3-4 hours on the plane today at a really good speed IMO, but some characters will take a bit longer to become comfortable for me, sadly, I keep looking up the same words over and over again, the names such as 小笠原 most often xddd
Final day in Tokyo!
We took a train to Tokyo Skytree today, and when I mean a train, I mean an actual suburban train, because the connection would not bind from Nippori to Tokyo Skytree xdd
A Certain Friend Of Mine said that Korea is basically Japan if it became developed 20 years later, and there’s no better way to exemplify it than with the Tokyo Skytree, it looked like Seoul Tower but 20 years ago xddd
The views from top are without competition though ^^
For some reason, the tower has a collaboration with Toy Story now, and they spoil the plot of all of the Toy Story movies on the wall xdd
Looking down from the glass floor is really fun C:
Aaand as we went down the tower, it started raining… hard xddd
Visiting Asia over Monsoon funny moments ^^
We went to a Yakiniku restaurant in Asakusa to pass the time, this was my big recommendation for the day ^^
Yes, I’m channeling my Kanbaru Suruga energy with this grill xddd
Was really, really good, and much more affordable than I was worried 
And afterwards, went out to the district and finally saw the Traditional Japan 
inbetween the rain C:
We tried going to the Imperial Palace, but it was closed today, so just a short walk about Chiyoda and we found a Cafe Lish that looked like a manga cafe, not a 漫画喫茶, but a 漫画 and a 喫茶, it was great xddd
I never knew that, but there’s a bunch of really pretty bookstores/cafes in Chiyoda, so hey, would recommend!
And, on the way back, アメ横
aaand guess who mistook Haneda and Narita airports and needed to go back halfway through xddddd
We came to the airport less than an hour before the flight xdddd
Aaand we’re in Taipei now! First impressions, the hotel ripped us over really bad, but we’ll try to make it work ^^
Waking up in less than 7 hours to grab a breakfast
Also, for those that were asking, just barely, baaarely, managed to get the 雑誌 from the Nippori station, and guess what, the first puzzle is about Nippori!
See you tomorrow! Looking forward to fun adventures from Taiwan now! C:
here’s a bonus post as we try to solve our hotel quality dispute xdd
I wanted to write about this, but I ran out of time rewriting it yesterday ^^
謎めぐり is a pet peeve of mine because of how cute it is
The way how it works is by registering a Line account that gives you a narrator that walks you through the puzzles, gives you the vibe of the story and sometimes drops hints, very much Professor Layton-style (with Hint Coin system without actual coins!)
There are introductory puzzles that set off your adventure:
Over the course of the scavenger hunt, you visit five distinct stations on 山手線, and this time they’re mostly on the east side of the line
In addition to the main Heft, there are some other materials, kanji maps, transfer sheets that show you some hints on the top and some hints underneath, and they are super fun C;
The 山手線謎めぐり runs until the end of the year, plus the beginning of January, I will most likely not actually participate in it this year, but knowing what the stations and the puzzles are and being able to read much more this year than the last one is super nice!
If any of you happens to stumble upon Tokyo towards the end of the year, it’s one of the best ways to spend your time doing scavenging stuff! The instruction manual claims it’s 1h per station (4-5 hours in total), but last year I spent the whole day trying to piece stuff together by myself and asking other people for hints!
I LOVE SCAVENGER HUNTS THEYRE SO COOL
see you in a while xdd
Opposite sides of Tokyo as well oops
Usually Senso-ji is way too busy, but with the rain it looks like it was maybe nice!
Hotel beef 
A Scavenger Hunt? That’s so cool!!
I’m so proud of you for getting to your airplane in time間に合った! That was nearly tragic! It was a shade worse than my train station mix-up in Kyoto (because I able to get on the next Kyoto→Tokyo shinkansen 45 minutes later and they didn’t charge me extra, since I went directly to the ticket window, instead of running for the train-- Ugh!)
I’m sorry that you have to out up with a scummy hotel and water valuable vacation time and energy arguing. sucks! 
What, something this cool exists 
love it! Thanks for sharing all that about how it works
…and it’s just so funny how many things transfer from Japanese to Chinese, I can really read much more than I expected, even though the words sometimes look really stiff, formal or awkward xdd
I even found a manga in Mandarin and for a while there I was wondering how much of it I’d be able to read, and it turns out Traditional Chinese characters map pretty easily 
Also, a lot of things here already are in Japanese, like the automatic doors that open or close just have an 押す kanji on it and then hiragana afterwards anyway xdd
Well, fun day for learning, and then hearing the actual readings and being like “THATS EXACTLY LIKE ONYOMI IN JAPANESE” and “that sounds absolutely nothing like onyomi in japanese” xdd
Hotel dispute: they put us in a temporary room for one night for a “technical issue” related to the room we were supposed to be having, and the temporary room was in a terrible condition: cracks in the walls, terrible smelling AC, no ventilation and the air being really stiff, we managed to sleep the night and replace a room, the new room is a little better, emphasis on a little, we’re not giving the hotel more than 3/10 on Booking xdddd
Anyway, Taipei! It’s a very Goodbye 2006-coded city, so the camera that I use is even more appropriate for it ^^
As it turns out, the living quality here is incredibly bipolar, it’s either cutting edge skyscrapers or slums of Bangkok, or both at the same time xddd
Because the breakfast at the hotel was terrible, we saw a bakery and tried to get a fun bun, try to read the text on it in English xdd
Metro system looks like the country will be so modern in the not-so-distant future of 2010 xddd
We went to the first temple, Xingtian Temple, full of minigames!
you called me from a payphone they still got payphones it cost a dollar a minute… wait xddd
And here it was, finally, the sacred, Taiwanese Bubble Tea! 
(it’s pretty good tbh xddd
very much got reminded of Comebuy in Berlin, but at €1.5 per cup ^^)
I LOVE MY BLURRY CAMERA
So we found this electronics market, Guang Hua, that was very much 2006-coded as well, but the prices were really great, it’s just that I don’t need anything xdd
DONKI! Kimetsu no Yaiba!
We found a Christian store that was doing really cool merch, you can’t find anything like this in Catholic Poland xddd
Then the blurry camera went to the more touristy areas…
…and look, the Taipei Main Station is really cool!
We saw a 吹奏 parade in front of the presidential palace!
And yeah, it gets reeeally pretty in the center C:
Also, I have no idea what’s the deal with Exit No. 8, I also saw it in Tokyo as a book as well, it sounds like something I could like?
Ximending Walking District…
So today I introduced my mom to the concept of a Hot Pot, and it was great C:
Then it became dark…
I put on a Nett Hier sticker xddd
Amazing music shop right next to Red House btw xddd
And yup! That’s the part you see on Instagrams everywhere C:
We found a few night markets, all with a really cool aesthetic!
And then, temple hunt at night!
here’s Mengjia Longshan!
Very tasty offerings yees xdd
And out into the town again!
We ended up walking 35k steps again, and tomorrow we’ll do Taipei 101 ^^
Before I leave you though, here are crane pouches with Labubu aND A NAKED PEPPA FOR SOME REASON xddd
See you tomorrow! C:
If I wasn’t such a clumsy cat, I would have read this before spending nearly a minute trying to read the book in the photo 
Coincidentally, this is the second time I share this link today
Also, it’s based on this game:
I’m living vicariously through these adventures, both of you need to come to Seattle!!!
Ahhhh love the pictures! I want to taste the bubble tea and need that incense to remove my worries 
A counterfait furigana made in China
i hope that even without the divine intervention you’ll be able to circumvent your problems, prath, things will be fine 
C:
just in case, i have a friend in Vancouver right now, so we could always meet halfway through…
…in Boston if work summons me or something 
xdddd
it does look like a thing i would be very much into, i just need to finish my trip first and not walk so much you almost pass out first xdd
im, like, so weirded out by the だい and ほく kanji right next to one another forming the name タイペイ, but once you get used to it, you see it everywhere xdd
Here’s one of my favorite photos I took today and it’s in Japanese, so that counts as study too xdd
My post yesterday made a record amount of 17 likes in 24 hours I can remember, you guys must really like Taipei here ^^
Anyway, trying to catch up on the forum posts regularly, it takes a bit of time, but I’m reading all of the threads I contribute to ^^
Soo, Taipei!
We’re in a weird bootleg part of the town called Sanchong that looks really beaten up and sticks out on the scale of the town, but is definitely atmospheric ^^
Funnily enough, maps of the town center don’t even depict that region as a part of Taipei xdd
Today we’ve had some bread amalgamations, I treated my mom to custard buns and melonpan C:
Aaaand ended up going to Taipei 101!
Upon getting the ticket, you get free fish crackers, really good, but I’m pretty suspicious of the food covering at the front, it does look oddly combative xddd
Also, apparently the lift to the building goes at over a kilometer a minute
Aaaand here’s Taipei from up above! I’m surprised by how clear the visibility was today ^^
Taipei 101 has a lot of programming if you decide to climb the observation deck:
The big metal ball in there is a wind damper, a really heavy ball that makes the building not shake that much ^^
Also, an art gallery from an art competition in 2024 for the representation of the building that gOES HARD:
And after Taipei 101, we climbed the Elephant Mountain to the east of the city:
A lot of nature, very, VERY hot and moist, but the sights have been breathtaking!
The pic from the top of the op is from a firework observational deck there ^^
Then meet & greet events by a band called Seventoeight, very, VERY popular
And then saw some dancers dancing to a song called Rebel Heart - IVE, they probably weren’t the actual band though ^^
And then I FINALLY found the HDR setting on the camera xddd
It’s not the greatest, but it takes a lot of cool shots C:
Cute floor tiles…
We went to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall and KUSURIYA NO HITORIGOTOS WHERE YOU AT
(ahhh hdr pictures are a gamechanger ) xddd
I took my mom for Xiaolongbao today and fOR SOME REASON THEY PUT LIKE 5000 CALORIES ON THE TABLE FOR US
Really, really filling xddd
It’s not the bao I’m familiar with, though xddd
Was fried instead of steamed, so that one is on me, but we also had some mochi as a desert ^^
We found a cinema park in Taipei!
And yyy, DON DON DON, DONKIII, DONKIII OKEEI
And saw this absolute mad lad risk his life for a few pennies
I took a part in an 一番くじ! First time on this trip, in Taiwan xdd
And sighhh, Taiwanese Animate xdd
Really nice magazine selection though and here’s a yuri section in Mandarin ^^
And then we hit the night markets again!
There’s a lot of games that don’t appear in Japan or Korea in there, here’s a sample of a few ^^
Ofc, tons of food, including carmelized tomatoes for some reason??? I liked eating them, but it was really weird xdd
And yeah, 36 degree heat and climbing mountains has worn us out, so we just came back to the hotel early today ^^
We’re taking a plane in the afternoon tomorrow to fly to Hong Kong, so brunchy-related things still in Taipei, dinner in Hong Kong, I hope to find some biang biang noodles maybe?
But either way, Taipei is great and I’m having a ton of fun here, would recommend C:
See you tomorrow!
Ooh! Great pix!
I like how high contest art pic feature bubble tea and that one building
the ball thing piqued my science interest
I seriously doubt that I could keep up with you and your mother:
35,000 steps?
mountain climbing?
Phew! Wow!
Ouch, I feel betrayed in today’s block by the SRS xdd
Unfortunately, it was building in the background because of lower review counts lately, but today I just kept on mashing keyboard, and enter, and keyboard, and enter, accuracy rate, only 93% today.
I don’t know what dialect Denji is using in Chainsaw Man, but it took me a while to try to adapt to what he’s saying, and in terms of Hibike, today I took notes offline xdd
Here are some of my favorite expressions I fished!
火を見るよりも明らか - clear as day!
首をひねる - to tilt your head in confusion
わずかながら - just a tiny bit
袋叩き - group beating up someone or just gish gallop
頬を膨らませる - to swell your cheeks
厳密に言うと - UM STRICTLY SPEAKING,
眉間に皺を寄せた - to wrinkle up your eyebrows
Practical!
I’m in Hong Kong!
Took a little longer than expected because we missed the baggage dropoff for the flight, so we got reimbursed for our flight and needed to look for a different one, and that one was four hours later and a little more expensive. But I’m in Hong Kong, that’s all that matters ^^
Back to Taipei though, they have a public transit card system where they do a lot of partnerships with different companies to bring different collaboration brands to the cards!
I still can’t get over how affordable (and good) bubble tea is in Taipei, so another one today ^^
Below the Taipei Main Station, there was a Japanese bookstore with all sorts of artbooks and magazines and so on, really cool C:
It’s really cool to see a public transit system that just WORKS, no “this train will be delayed by 4 minutes”, it says it’ll arrive 13:31, it arrives 13:31 xddd
Of course I might just be really lucky being in Taipei, but I was really happy with using it C:
It wasn’t biang biang, but as we waited for the airplane, we had a tray full of interesting goodies, including mochi, buns with sweet potato and sesame, aaand beef soup C:
This bistro is so happy I don’t get it but I’m happy for it : D
The Taipei airport is huuuge
I played the first four notes of Toby Fox’s magnum opus and excused myself from the piano xdddd
Anddd yep, that’s us!
Also, wtf, why are Blackpink advertizing alcohol WTF xddd
Skyscrapers, tall buildings
And yyyYYYY, fun fact, Donki makes unique decorations for every place it shows up in, check the second picture! xddd
Aaand here’s the Hong Kong convention center ^^
I think the part of Hong Kong we’re in is way, WAYYY too car-trigger-happy, so I got lost on the way back because the next crossings would be above ground, 500 meters from where you want to cross, so I only got back to the hotel at 1:30am
But yeah, aesthetic C:
Will do the proper sightseeing of Hong Kong tomorrow, stay tuned~ C:
This is not a drill, Bunpro lessons are a thing xdd
One new N4 grammar point got added:
Also, new word on WaniKani!
And a bit unrelated to Japanese, but still made me laugh, this is now a toki pona corner xdd
HONG KONG
43.000 steps today!
if the amount of photos is a measure of how good of a day you’re having, then, yyyy
…this vacation has seen 2261 pictures with my funny handheld camera already
Today was the only full day we’ve had in Hong Kong, the place still definitely has a bright future ahead of itself ^^
Highlight one: an ice skating rink inside of a shopping mall
Also, funny flags in a shopping mall: the way how Chinese and Hong Kong flags have been organized is that after few rows you only see the Chinese flags, even though the Hong Kong flags are there xddd
And here is the famous @taiyousea in person, first time seeing the pacific over the course of the Pacific Asia trip xddd
ahhhhhh its like Danganronpa 2 but real
i finally have my long requested summer vacation xddd
Also, they had an alley for stars where you can see all of the famous Hong Kong people immortalized with their palms, mine are about the size of Michelle Yeoh, love her!
And here are the famous statues of Bruce Lee and Anita Mui, mvps ^^
Very, very hot from the sidewalk, so we went to Kowloon Park to cool down
Then we happened to find one of those Department Stores that just has everything, from Labubus, through USB-C cables and Mandarin manga, to Nintendo Switch games
Since @akatsukinoluna mentioned how 陰キャギャルでもイキがりたい already is super hard in Japanese, imagine how hard it is with just the Traditional Chinese characters alone
And Frieren Book Club in Mandarin when??? I haven’t even started Volume 7 xdd
Up north in Tong Mi…
We went for some dim sum together, for the first time ever for the both of us, and it might be the top3 foods of the whole trip after yakiniku and hot pot
really, REALLY good dumplings
…Blue Hour…
…turning into night as we make it to Temple Street Night Market…
I wanted to put in my Nett Hier sticker here, but someone went ahead of me xddd
And now some random shots from the town…
We made it to the Victoria Harbor again to look at the city at night…
Then took it to the other side of the city, where Central Mid-Levels Escalator lay: they’re the single longest escalator passage in the world with 800 meters of escalators, we only did like 500 meters though xdd
And yeah, slow and steady walk back to the hotel ^^
…i have a bonus for today’s post
When I was at Donki, I got myself a bath bomb, and it was one of those from a set of 6, I didn’t get what was there to choose from, because the bath bomb was just… blue.
…until you put it in the water. OMGOMGOMG THATS SO COOL YOU CAN MAKE IT LIGHT UP TOO :DDDD
I LOVE MASCOTS :DDDD
anyway, going to Shenzhen, China tomorrow: Hong Kong feels very 90s and 2000s, I’m really curious to see how a city created in, eee, tHE LAST 20 YEARS WITH A HEAVY TAIL IN 2020S LOOKS LIKE
Hope we get there safely ^^
See you tomorrow! C:
I love your night post pictures. And lately when you post and I look at the time I’m thinking when do you sleep?!
Eagle eyes. Very sneaky trick there
Wow I’ve gone from being only vaguely aware of Donki to seeing shops in several countries and now some epic bath bomb because of you 
Hope the next leg of your trip goes well 
Wait you had to fly over…
Oh. No wait that’s just from the west coast of North America 
Yeah it’s crazy when you think of it, it took sending @GolyBidoof to a timezone with 6 hours difference, so that we can finally have the updates posted in the evening at a reasonable time in Europe 
