Got up this morning to a lovely breakfast at our hotel, the Deja Vu, which is right in the heart of Tapei. We went for a long morning walk with Jess’s mom & grandmother around the surrounding neighborhoods and through a subway shopping complex. Every alley is packed with stores and signs advertising the wares sold inside jut out of every space possible. You could live here your entire life and never see every nook and cranny We ended for lunch at the Sogo department store, a massive shopping Mecca, with three locations in just about ten blocks. The food court has all kinds of greatness. I got some kind of sizzling beef and egg dish here that was pretty darn good and only cost 5$

After lunch we went to the bank to exchange our money for NT, the Tawainese standard. While there a loud siren went off and all the people hurried into stores, cars stopped and the stores shut their doors, keeping everyone inside, and making the streets strangely empty. A security guard informed us it was a drill for national defense. Seems there is some constant fear of the Chinese invasion, and its better to be prepared than not. Seeing a city of bustling millions stop and go silent for about 15 mins is strange and eerie for sure.

We took the Subway to another area later where Jess hit a letterpress print store MB More. She had corresponded with one of the artists and he took us a few blocks to the last remaining type foundry in all of Taiwan. Jess had plenty of time with the owner and hopes to include him in her upcoming book. She bought some chinese type, but thankfully nothing super heavy.

Before we knew it was time for dinner, and he had another great meal with Jess’s Mom and Grandmother. We parted ways after that and me & Jess just wandered the streets around our hotel looking at all the neon, and buying candy. (I also got a blind boxed Star Trek ship, which turned out to be the Shuttle). The neon here makes Times Square look pretty minor by comparison, lights up the streets, which far as I can tell are busy all night long.

All in all a great first day here. Tomorrow we have a big family lunch to go to, and I have to figure out how to politely decline food, or I will either be super heavy after this trip, or really really full.