After three days of touring – two fully-loaded guided tours and one DIY two-spot tour – I was adamant to leave one day open to just do whatever the fuck I wanted. It’s a vacation anyway, and it’s high time I get some me time.
When I planned all of this in May, I ended up finalizing that my last full day in Taipei will be largely in Ximending. It’s because Ximending had two stores that I wanted to shop anime stuff in – Animate and Toranoana. And it largely affected which hotel I booked as well. Roaders Hotel Ximending is like nearly in front – just a short walk away – from the Animate store, and also just a few blocks away from Toranoana. I lucked out that I got a hotel that not only checked many of my other boxes, it also was near the shops I wanted. Sweet. I can easily shop at Animate, dump my shopping spoils in my hotel room, and move on to Toranoana.
So with that, morning came. I did kind of think about going for breakfast outside, but in my mind, I kind of crossed it off. For one, I had a calorie surplus from the burgers. I computed it from the previous night and I had like 300 cals I owed. And eating outside has some drawbacks. I remembered the breakfast joint nearby with the soy milk, that was a bit fatty and greasy. So I avoided a calorie bomb. And maybe saved a few Taiwanese dollars. I instead went down the lounge to eat the free breakast. I ate two halved sandwiches (one tuna and one egg) and downed it with iced Americano coffee. After showering and chilling at the room, I went out by 10AM. It was June 16, a Sunday, so their opening hours was from 10AM to 10PM.
No biggie, a short walk from the hotel. I still dressed in a good t-shirt and a pair of jeans.
Inside, I was treated to a BIG display of items brought over from Japan. Loads of doujins. Loads of trinkets. Official anime merch. Manga and light novels – none in English as far as I could tell. Games. Music OST CDs. Loads of stuff. And I felt my wallet beg for mercy.
I had a budget though. But I knew that unlike my Japan trip years ago, I had lost reason to buy stuff I will barely even peruse anymore. The 2019 me would’ve bought loads and went out of the store with two big shopping bags. The 2024 me has to be choosy. I can, I had the money, but added question at the end, is if I should.
So with that in mind, I spent a good two hours inside. I inspected every display, every section, every bookshelf. I had a mini shopping list in mind. First were FGO stuff. Second were anime stickers, pins and keychains. Third were accesories. There was a secondary reason I went around the store with a keen eye – I wanted to see what’s up and trending in Japan when it came to anime. Sure, this is a branch store but the merch had to come from Japan (mostly).
After two hours, I basically tapped out. Feet were a bit aching and I was hungry. What did I end up buying?
- Lots of FGO pins and keychains. They had a section at the back for secondhand items, and man, Japanese sure kept their secondhand items pristine. A vast majority of them were in brand new condition. But the only drawback was that the section had a low display and some items were in these baskets placed in the ground, mixed and assorted with other items in the same genre. So I spent a lot of time bending and/or squatting to get a good look at what I could find. I got me some pins and keychains of Nitocris, Okki, Artoria, Mordred, Scathach, Musashi, Astolfo, Nobbu, Ushi, Shuten, Ibaraki, Raikou, and a lot more. These should fit in nicely as part of my bag decor as rotating pieces.
- At least six FGO doujins. I spent a lot of time in the doujin section looking at which ones to buy. I did plan to bring them back to Singapore as reading material, but I was mighty worried if I bought the raunchier stuff, I might be in trouble if some fickle inspector sees my bag contents. In 2019, I did buy manga porn at Book-Off but it only stayed in PH. I had zero concern in that immigration inspection anyway. So with those in mind, I bought wholesome doujins. Three comic-style anthology series and three romantic ones. I’m a sucker for those sappy stuff anyway.
- A couple of random merch pins in a section row. I saw some that looked cool and put the ones that I really liked in my basket, and after researching later, I actually got VShojo merch – a set of pin and sticker from Zentreya, and a pin of Ironmouse. Honestly, I never got super interested in VTubers and never researched it deeper than “oh, nice”. I mean, I never got into Hatsune Miku stuff either anyway. After some ‘net digging later in the hotel, I now knew well enough at least. It served me later.
- A couple of anime and gacha pins. I had an Evangelion NERV pin, a couple other anime stuff that looked cool, and one from Honkai Star Rail – a discounted pin of the Trailblazer (female).
For lunch, I was in no mood to go somewhere far. The day was hot, it’s noontime and the heat was blazing. My legs were tired anyway. So I whipped out my phone and looked for any restaurant that’s open within walking distance.
Luckily, a restaurant was within eight blocks from my hotel, and they serve beef noodles. So I trooped to Lao Chang Muslim Beef Noodle Restaurant. Fortunately, they were not yet full of patrons, so I went in, got a sear and ordered braised beef noodles, and a side of beef jianbing.
I also ordered beef dumplings afterwards as a “fuck calories” side.
Briathrail // Albert 2MNG 
Leave a comment