Firstly I wanted to mention a few other cafes/restaurants that we went to that I never talked about. We had heard that there was a small "anime" scene here and we had already been to the underground mall with the anime merchandise, but I was curious if there was any maid cafes like what I saw in Japan. After looking online it definitely seemed like there was, or at least used to be some in the Ximending area so we set off for Ximen. The experience was almost as awkward as the cafes in Japan. The one that we found (and I think the only one around) was on the 5th or 6th floor of this building near where you can see the huge street crossing. The sign was not super visible but it had an anime maid on it so we knew it was the right place. The restaurant looked like it served light snacks as well as meals possibly in the evening. There was no entrance fee but there was a minimum purchase charge of about 100NT which a little less than $4. We ordered the tea and cake combo which came with a pot of tea and a slice of taro cake. We were the only customers in the place aside from one sleeping guy and mother with her child. Honestly this place was disappointing, much cheaper than a Japanese maid cafe, but probably because it was so shabby and the food was just okay. The maids were cute at least but their uniforms were kinda dirty which I thought was a bit unprofessional. They did draw cute pictures on the plates at least.
Another food related place we visited that is worth mentioning is the Dayan Cafe, well it's called a cafe but it's really more of a restaurant like many of the "cafes" here. The theme of the cafe is the Japanese Wachifield character Dayan. There's a giant statue of him outside the restaurant and a gift shop selling merchandise on the bottom level of the cafe. The exterior is very cute and resembles something you could see in Europe with it's small court yard and green door. The food was much more pricey at this cafe to our dismay, but the presentation was adorable. As usual We ordered drinks and dessert. My tea was brought out in a lovely tea set with a small side of cream and Yue's coffee had one of the character's faces on it as did our Tiramisu (which tasted perfect by the way). This place was definitely unique and there were tables with reservations on them so I suppose it must be popular as well.
Secondly, I wanted to mention the strange parking habits of the Taiwanese. I don't know if there is a law or something or it is just common knowledge to do so, but everyone parks in reverse here. No matter how small the parking spot or whether it be a parking deck or a parking lot, every car is facing forward. I've seen maybe 2 or 3 cars parked the opposite but that's it. It's not like everyone are great drivers here but it would seem they all know how to reverse park. Why this is I couldn't say.
Lastly, the employees must not get very long breaks here or something because we keep seeing workers taking naps at work. Unlike at home when we don't have any customers and are forced to try and keep busy, it seems workers here just sit down and get on their phones or they take a nap. We kept noticing people with pillow just sacked out at restaurants and we thought dang they must be tired after they eat but then they got up and put on their uniform and back to work they went! How weird haha! It makes sense I suppose since when people have breaks at home they may go out to their car and nap. Here they can't really do that so the only option is to nap at work.
Well that's all my blurps for today,
~byee
Hello! Today I wanted to talk about some of the cafes we have visited. Of course there's the quick coffee places attached to the 7-Elevens and the typical Starbucks that attracts both international and local peoples, but we have tried to pick some more quirky places with a bit of charm to get our coffee fix. This past week we tried a place called Vino Vino Cafe, that's set in what seems to be a more laid back street with some small boutiques and restaurants. In fact we ate at the Italian restaurant right by this cafe a while back which is what sparked my interest in this place. We arrived around lunch time and found out that they unfortunately don't serve their "special" coffee until night time but we decided to stay and have a light snack. We had a tuna sandwich and green tea. I was surprised by the tea though because it came in a tall glass and was foamy at the top giving it the appearance of beer! And here I thought everyone in the restaurant just liked to drink afternoon beer out of little twisty straws haha! This cafe was charming to me partly because it reminded me of some of the cafes in Paris. It had an open view facing the street with windows ajar letting in the breeze and soft relaxing music playing overhead. There was also a second floor where customers could sit in a more open area without windows.
