3 posts tagged “2008 taipei”

NOTE : some pix could only be viewed by family..

PART 1     PART 2

 

after checking in at the hostel and bringing our luggages to our room, i bought orange juice and water from the convenience store downstairs.. its supposed to last us till tuesday... but the orange juice was soo good i was buying everyday hahaha... after a few minutes, cathy and i went down and... seems like we forgot something from the room (i forgot the thing we forgot ahahaha)... so we went up again...  in the elevator we saw 3 ladies...  when those ladies went out the reception floor,,, i told cathy "the girl looks like she"... so we went out to follow them... she and i have been texting in the philippines we even talked on the fone but... since we only saw each other for a few mins during jun's bday bash,,, its understandable if we dont recognize each other ne hahaha...

cathy : sheryl..

she : ui!

cathy : (pointing to herself) nurikocam

me : (pointing to myself as well) vylette/hazel...

hahaha twas like an eyeball ya know hahaha... so she told us how they got lost in going to the hostel... she introduced her companions... lyn and she's friend K... ive been texting lyn also but unlike she, i have no idea how she looks like hahaha...

so we just chatted for a few minutes and she told us they might go to night market that day... so we told them we'll be seeing them there if ever..

so cathy and i headed towards the mrt station... we were to meet mandi at danshui...and go to national palace museum..

 

 

we saw this outside the hostel.. i find it cute so i took a pic of it..  

 

 

 

 

 

 

at the mrt station we saw Vaness' pic haha my fave f4 member tho i was only on f4 mode for 2 months...

 

 

 

 

 

at one fo the music-video stores... we saw arashi and news posters...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we bought mrt passes... i was expecting a card-like pass just like in HK,,, but... they were actually chips hahaha kawaii... machines for this are everywhere in the mrt station... so you can buy them easily..

 

 

 

our supposedly 4pm meet-up with mandy was super delayed to 5.30-6pm ahaha mandi texted and said that national palace museum is already closed... *phew* what a relief since from danshui, we didnt know how to go to national palace museum ahahaha the bus routes are all in chinese,,, we didnt know who to ask huhuhu... since one night market is located in danshui, cathy and i thought of going there instead since 6pm was too early to call it a day har3...

 

 

walking outside the mrt station, i lauged when i saw this signage... cathy didnt laugh,,, which means she's still innocent? nahhh i doubt that probably she doesnt know the term har3... so those who will laugh are dirty-minded har3..

 

 

 

 

 

we asked a woman and luckily her husband can speak understandable english... so twas easy for cathy and i to go to night market... but... how come the night market looks different? seems like not the usual night market tourists frequent...

it started to drizzle... until it rained really hard... (ohh!!! now i remember!!! this was the thing we forgot thats why we hafta go back to our room earlier hahaha)... we had no choice but to stop for a while since our feet are sooo wet already plus we really had no idea where the hell we're heading ahahaha... we saw a teriyaki boy resto somewhere... but we dont remember where... so we just went to this small resto becuase we saw omurice in the list of food theyre offering... inside..

me : excuse me (the lady looked)

me : do u have omurice (she just looked at us and her companion... uh-oh this is gonna be sign language again..)

i motioned for her to follow me outside,, and i pointed at the omurice pic hahahaha

she gave us 2 orders... they only have cold tea for drinks... im not a tea person so i just sipped a little... cold tea and soup was free... cathy and i just had to pay 70ntd each (105 pesos).. which isnt bad considering that one order is enuf to feed us both... i love the soup seems like ginger was in it... the lady serving us was in her mid 30s or early 40s we were the only customer... and when we paid... we were giving her a tip but she declined... still we insisted but she declined again... we insisted once more,,, and she declined it again... so i thought it was better for us not to give tip anymore rather than go thru another sign language session again har3...

  

 

 

 

Us after a hearty meal... (viewable by family only) 

 

 

 

 

the rain stopped (thank gudness) so we continued with our night market... some of the things we saw...

 

 

also... ive been in taipei the whole day already and this is the first time im seeing a gas station lols...

 

 

 

notice there are heaps of motorbikes parked? :) in the phils many people are using motorbikes also cuz gas is cheaper compared to driving a car.. but not as many as those ive seen in taipei har3... 

 

  

 

 

                                                    the food stands..

 

 

 

 

 

originally cathy and i planned to try taipei's street food even when we were still in manila... but we were still full with our dinner (which by the way we didnt get to finish..)

pix of us in the food stands and night market..(family view only)

 

just like in most asian countries' night market,,, u negotiate with the price via calculator har3... i guess even if most asians dont understand english,,, they understand when one says "how much".. sometimes they can give you the amount in english but most of the time,,, they type the amount in the calculator... so if you think its overpriced, you give "your price" thru the calculator also until u both agree witht he price hahaha..

whenever i go to other places, i make it a point to buy everyone in my family souvenir items...keychains, coasters, shirts, magnets, shot glass, or anything that has that place's name written on it... and this is usually found in night markets.. to our surprise we only saw 2 stalls selling taiwan/taipei shirts.. the lady was giving it at 300ntd/shirt (450 pesos)... waaahhh twas pricey... so we said we'd just go back and started walking away... she called us and motioned her hand as if saying "il lower the price for you" then she typed 250 (375 pesos) on the calculator hahaha still twas pricey ne... so again we said we'll just go back.... then she called us again and did that hand thingy and typed 200 (300 pesos) on the calculator... we said thank you we'll just go back again... she didnt stop us anymore this time,,, which means thats the lowest price she could give us ahahaha.. before heading home, we went back to her and bought shirts kekekk

pix of us @ the nite market (i bet we looked weird taking pix of ourselves there since there werent many foreigners in that place..)

we saw a store selling unofficial asian idol items (unfortunately i forgot to take pix of it *darn*)... there was matsujun and arashi mousepad.. some pictures, mugs, kattun keychains, bi keychain, fahrenheit... f4 wand jay chou available there also... but cathy and i didnt buy... (we need to resist temptation...)

funny how both sides of the night market has a direction... like when cathy and i were trying to squeeze in ourselves, we found it difficult since everyone was walking towards us... thats when we relaized that we should be on the other side of the street ahahaha i dunno if theres any ruling with this... but its amazing how organized they are ahahaha..

unlike in HK and bkk night markets... there's only one long street and then u need to turn the corner and there's another long street of stalls... in taipei,,, its like there's an intersection... like a "t" so you need to walk one side and then return and walk the other side again until you finish all 4 sides then you go out and enter another "t" hahahaha twas kinda confusing and tiring but... we considered it as exercise so... 

 

 

i took this pic of a man holding a signage of the store he's employed ahaha he's using a stepper so its hard not to notice him.. i think he noticed i took his pic cuz of the flash and he just smiled... i guess his job is tiring ne...

 

 

 

 

we were told by the lady from whom we bought shirts that mrt is up to 12mn already so by 11.30, cathy and i were rushing to the mrt station when we spotted mco hahaha... we got tired with all the walking and rewarded ourselves with a creamy ice cream from mcdo...

 

 

 

 

took this pix while waiting for the train.. view of the night market from the mrt station

pix inside the train (family view).. cathy had to take 3 shots of me ahaha since 1st 2 flash was reflecting,,, so we switched places (notice the different background? haha)

the taipei railway station at night..

 

we got back to the hostel around 11.50pm (weeee exactly 12hrs after arashi arrived in taipei har3) we couldnt sleep yet,,, we needed to prepare our penlights and banner and fit the yukattas so we know who gets to wear the violet and ho gets the white one... cathy was asleep already by the time i finished bathing... my such a deep sleeper hahaha she wasnt awakened by the sound of hairdryer hahaha... i slept around... 3.30am... that morning will be a very tiring one...

will continue next time...

 

NOTE : Some pictures are viewable only by people i added as family here in vox.. if you're from lj and i know you personally,, kindly send me a message in lj and il upload the pix if you want to see it or... u can register and have a vox account also ahaha

PART 1  PART 3

twas just a short trip from terminal 1 to terminal 2,,,  terminal 2 is much bigger than terminal 1
 

of course we had to have our pix taken... (viewable by family only)

we knew we were on the right location cuz we saw some fangirls holding uchiwas already har3 and this was just before 10am i wonder how early they got to the airport... or how many of them actually slept there haha.. twas a public holiday that day in taiwan (october 10 > double 10) so these fangirls didnt have skul *bletch*... we decided to try the 2nd floor waiting area...  since there were a number of fangirls already at the first floor,,, it would be difficult to squeeze in ourselves to get a glimpse of the boys... plus, that time there were only around 5 people on the 2nd floor,,, so we stayed there...

fans waiting at the 1st floor..

the PS (Philippine Stalkers har2) without me.. (again viewable by family only)

as the arrival time  draws near, more and more fangirls are arriving as well :)

this is how near (actually its kinda far, but, its near compared to how far we are in the concert venue from the stage har3) we'll see the boys when they arrive (left is actual view, right is zoomed... ive been practicing taking pix already haha)..

i swear i have never been this time conscious in my entire life har2... always checking the time and the arrival info board (is that what u call it? haha)

most of the fangirls have their uchiwas, some were in AAA 2, Time, DAL con tees... and we... have nothing ahaha we even discussed what to shout just so the boys would notice us... "pikachu", "hentai", etc... okei time to bring out the tarpaulin har3... and the sloppy arashi uchiwa we made hahaha... im surprised krissy has a philippine flag :) *clap clap* cathy and i thought about this before but.... we doubt arashi knew which flag it is so.. :)  (we were positioned from arashi's view, left to right, krissy, mandi, chrissy, me, cathy) we held our props in this order (again left to right in arashi's view) : philippine flag, arashi uchiwa, tarp with philippines written in katakana... so it would read... arashi philippines har3...

for a couple of times, we would hear fans from the 1st floor screaming,,, and we would be looking at the arrival area,, but no one came hahaha.... krissy held the flag, she was also to take a vid of arashi's arrival, mandi was to take a vid too, chrissy was to hold the tarpaulin together with cathy as well as the arashi uchiwa, i was in between chrissy and cathy and i will be taking pictures... but.... arashi is sure to walk ne? what do we do? ahahaha cathy was to get hold of the tarp and i was to be in charge of her luggage and my luggage and we were supposed to run to the direction arashi was walking...

you could feel tension was up in the whole arrival area when the arrival indicator light blinked for ANA 1081... arashi arrived!!!!!!!!!! and they were on time!!!!!! so imagine how focused people are on passengers going out of the arrival door... we could tell some were fangirls also (raki raki ne? they get to be on the same flight with arashi waaaahhh).. false alarm screams continued for a few more times... then chrissy suddenly screamed after these guys went out..

apparently these 6 boys are MAD members there are actually 11? or 10 of them... which means that the others went out without people noticing them hahaha... if cathy and i are addicts just imagine the addiction level of chrissy and krissy!! they even know the names of these boys hahaha...

and the moment we've all been waiting for!!!!!!!!!!!!!

gomen super blurry i sharpened it a couple of times already but still its blurred hahaha my hands were really shaking ya know hahahaha they got out before 1pm (dont mind the time in my pics, my time is advance ahahaha) first i saw was jun... then sho cuz sho's clothing colour is different from the others.. and i swear,,, jun pointed at us!!!!!!!!!!!!! waaahhh!! he probably read the tarpaulin clearly!!!!!!!!!!!! here's a vid of their arrival (credits to http://www.im.tv/vlog/personal.asp?FID=5127520)

the above video takes time to buffer with my net connection which is cable internet, it took about 3-5mins for the whole vid to buffer,, but the video is the clearest vid ive seen... but for those who have slow connections, u might wanna try this one,,,, (credits to pattywei @ youtube)

notice that jun waves with his left hand,,, and then there's a part he uses his right to point at something ,,, waaah that was the time he pointed at us ne.... 9th second on the vid har3 its too fast but the excitement  of it could still be felt up to now har3... watching the vid, i saw that aiba was  actually looking our way too... but i didnt see him right away since i saw jun first, i was focused on him..so when they were walking, a lot of people were surrounding them, taking pix, vids, or probably even interviewing them... we ran towards the right side of the 2nd floor so we can see them again, and that they can see the tarp again... (my sincerest apologies to those people whose feet were ran over by our luggages hahaha...)  waaahhh jun saw it again!!!!!!  it was him i was after since he was the one i saw who noticed the tarp.... then i checked out the other members before twas too late.... sho looked real hot... hairstyle's so kakkoi argh i said this before and il say it again... he's the kind of guy u wanna bring home to mama ahaha so i shouted real loud "sho! sho! SHO!!!!" then i was taken aback.... i was forgetting aiba was my ichiban lols... so i quickly searched for aiba, who was just in front of sho ahahha "aiba! aiba! AIBA!!!!" they were nearing the corner already... the moment they turn i wont see them anymore until the concert... so i checked out ohno and nino... i saw ohno walking just behind sho.... waah ohno doesnt seem to be that small hahaha.... "uh-oh where the hell is nino? cathy where is nino???!!!".... then the moment aiba turned to walk on the corner of the hall... "cathy,,, is that nino? beside aiba?" cathy confirmed twas nino waaaaahhhh twas too late huhuhu i didnt get to see his face huhuhuhu... seeing 4 out of 5 members isnt bad its good actually... but still...... it aint complete huhuhuhu

as per cathy,, she saw ohno looking our way also... she was the only one who saw this... and she really felt that it was her that riida was waving at... and whaddya expect? she became an instant ohno fan ahahaha she even bought uchiwa the following day which wasnt part of her original list of con goods to buy ahahaa

fans were still screaming even as arashi left the airport already, some of them hailed taxis and followed arashi all the way to taipei arena (or did they go eat xiao long bao at din tai fung first?)...

we went down already... to the area where arashi was (1st floor) still there were sooo many people.. the girls look contented and satisfied ne? waiting for arashi while standing for almost 4 hours......................!!!!!!! all of us can say... twas worth all the wait and the varicose veins we'll probably have ahahaha

this was jun's view (as well as the rest of the group's view) of us when they went out of the door.. (date is different cuz i took this pic when we went back to the airport on monday, 13 oct, for arashi's departure)

this was their view the 2nd time they saw us (we still believe they really saw us ne ahaha)

here are some pix i took at the arrival area of terminal 2

we realized that we were really tired... so we checked where to buy our tbus tickets going to hostel actually twas only chrissy and khrissy checking it since we trust them so much... we just let them check where to go, where to buy, which bus to take ahahaha

 

 

this is where we bought bus tickets... from the airport going to our hostel we had to pay ntd 125,,, travel time was 50minutes...

when we got off the bus we could see the taipei railway station already and we knew our hostel was just nearby...

before walking any further, we had to say gbye to mandi since she's staying in a different hostel....

following the directions we have,, we saw that our hostel was on the other side of the street...eeekkk!!!!!!!! how on earth are we gonna cross? we didnt see any pedestrian lane... argh!!! since we couldnt think of any other way,,, i suggested a "longer way" (u know the exact opposite of shortcut hahaha) going to the hostel... we need to go down the mrt station and go up on the other side of the street... after successfully going down one flight of stairs, there was another one waaaahhhh we were really dead tired and we still had our luggages to mind... so i checked... i think there were 3-4 flights of stairs all in all before we got to the ground... from there,,, we had no idea where to go... we had to ask some people who werent really english-speaking and we were like deaf and mute that we had to point at the map and they had to explain to us with sign language ahahaha i swear twas really difficult ahahaha

 

while krissy was asking a chinese woman for directions i took this pic of the mrt station.. hahahaha

 

 

 

 

 

i swear we looked stupid carrying our luggages... and as if going down the flight of stairs carrying our luggages wasnt tiring enuf.... we have yet to go up waaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!?!?!?!?! and twas around 2pm already i think?!?!?! and we've only eaten bfast huhuhu right there and then i had this feeling im gonna lose weight in taipei ahahaha..

 

 

 

i lost track of how many flights of stairs we had to go up and down but i took a pic of one flight of stairs... this was the last one before walking to the hostel... going up is much tiring compared to going down since ure against gravity and imagine doing so with our our heavy luggages waaaahhhh

 

 

 

 

alas! checking-in at our hostel...Taipei Key Traveler's Hostel...

our room...

its my first time staying in a hostel... but our hostel was good enough for budgeted travellers,,, and the rooms are also big :) we had no tv in the room but there was a fridge and as if we can still watch tv hahaha

oh and yeah tehre was a filipina staff at the hostel we explained how we got there...so we asked her if there was an easier, less-tiring way to cross the street... and ... she pointed at a pedestrian lane thru the window waaaahhhh!!!! and from where we got down to mrt station... twas just a minute or two walking distance !#$"^&*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thats all i can say ahahaha

 

~ end of part 2 hahaha will be posting again for the other parts... ~

 

 

 

 

 

Editor Content

NOTICE : our pix (pix with our fezes haha) can be viewed only by people i added as family (people i know personally)...

PART 2   PART 3

Friday, October 10, 2008... the day we were going to Taipei but it seemed like my mind was in Taipei already since Monday, Oct. 06 :)

Last weekend before going to Taipei (Saturday Oct. 04), cathy and i met up with our other friend, kat (who couldnt make it to taipei) to... envy her ahahah jk... just to talk and she gave her money for con goods also.. and... well wishes ahahaha

after meeting kat, cathy and i went to greenhills to buy cathy's yellow shirt and me to buy a pair of jeans (been losing weight so my clothes are kinda loose yebah!).. then we went to megamall... to buy things needed for making uchiwa (illustration board and neon paper) and light sticks.... and other things needed for our trip...

Monday, Oct. 06,, been checking for money changer who can give us the highest exchange rate for our philippine peso... gosh ntd rate fluctuates everyday... 2 weeks prior to departure twas ntd1=php 1.4... then week of departure twas ntd 1=php 1.7, 1.6 argh!!! luckily we were able to exchange it @1.5php=ntd 1

Tuesday, Oct. 07, cathy mentioned that in AAA Taipei 2006, there was this big black cloth and japanese characters were written on it...  that's when i thought that we should just have a tarpaulin instead of uchiwas (to write philippines in kanji)... since tarpaulins can be easily carried compared to uchiwas...  and i already asked eiri before how to write philippines in jap (since this was what we planned to put in the uchiwa)... so... everything will be ok haha.. called cathy and she agreed lols... she fixed the characters until wednesday morning...

Thursday, Oct. 08, met up with cathy in the morning... she told me arashi is arriving in taipei at noon the following day (i had this feeling twas late evening).. and that they were leaving for japan on Monday, Oct 13 around 9am... so as soon as i got back to the office, i checked for JAL and ANA flights from tokyo to taipei hahaha cathy said someone mentioned that they will be on a different terminal... but i didnt give much thought about this.. and so i got the flight details already... as per katie chances are, theyre taking ANA,,, but to be sure, i printed both airlines' flight details hahaha.. that afternoon i got the tarpaulin!! sugoi!!! ahahaha i asked my officemate CV to go to one end of our office garage while i go to the other end to check if the tarp can be seen clearly hahahaha...

 

our light stick (butterfly kirei ne) and our tarp..

 

after leaving office that day, I went to my friend's place in Marikina to pick up the yukatta we were gonna wear for the 1st nite con (i got the other yukatta the week we applied for visa)... then i fetched cathy at Mcdo Q. Ave/Edsa (where you can see the rejoice  billboard  ahaha >> she too was shocked that alan looked like nino there hahaha)..

 

my brother wrote this on the whiteboard in their room... sweet ne? before we left i found an envelope on my doorstep with pocket money from dad (argh why only now ahahaha) and their letters for me (i made it a habit since i was a kid to write a letter to any family member who's gonna be away for some time...we do it up to now... and they do the same to me whenever i leave :d)

 

 

 

we got home around 8-9pm... had dinner... then we went upstairs to my room... we're gonna distribute the things we're bringing.. so we were opening her Team Philippines luggage... but.... it wouldnt open!!! ahah ahahahaha cathy used the luggage lock wherein u just put the zipper in and work with the combination ahahaha i swear she was panicking since all her things are in there ahahaha and if ever we don't get to open it,,, going home to get things to cavite is way too far ahahaha she called her brother, her cousin whose hubby owns the luggage... but still no luck...  so i just got a hairclip and forcibly opened the luggage (hah feeling mcgyver :p)... but she didnt have padlock... luckily i had extra ahaha cathy what u gonna do without me hahaha

then we started working on the uchiwas ... ooppss rather I and only I started working on the uchiwas while cathyw as on the fone talking to kat.. we couldnt think of what to do witht he uchiwas... write AIBA? NINO? or their names in kanji? argh too difficult since we're both not artistic... so we just settled with doing arashi in kanji (too bad forgot to take a pic of it... left it at the hostel room.. twas sloppy anyways har3)...

we watched a few mins of AAA... before going to bed around 1am...

woke up around 3.30... woke up my dad before leaving at 4am... our house is kinda far from the airport... so cathy and i slept on the way there... arrived at the airport a few mins before 5am... 

i knew beforehand that there will be other fangirls in the same flight... teeny and em (whom i met already during matsujun's party... the sakuraiba sisters har3..)... then krissy and crissy (i only remember how crissy looks like from the matsujun party)... since our flight was at 7.50am... cathy and i had lots of time to loiter ahahaha... we first bought some food... 

 then we were taking pix of the plane, the airport, etc... when we heard someone mentioned "megaupload"... then "pikanchi double".. uh-oh another fan... there were 3 of them... who were they? ahahaha we had no idea... then i asked cathy to text and ask vicky (she was source E in this post of mine hahaha) her flight details... and yeah... twas her that we saw together with 2 other fangirls, sheela (whom i knew from aibaka) and mandi (she doesnt maintain vox or lj.. just multiply).. and so we chatted... after a few more mins,, i spotted teeny and em... so they joined us... then... i spotted krissy and crissy also... i was telling cathy we should approach them... so we did... ahahaha  

 

 

see how many filipinas watching the con? ahaha and this is just within our flight... there are others hahaha (as of last count 22)...

 

 

 

 

so all of us chatted and chatted and chatted... but u know... i still feel like there's this wall between us since its the first time meeting the other fans.. anyways, cathy and i brought up the topic of waiting for arashi's arrival... crissy said... theyll be on terminal 2 and that they have the details on how to go to terminal 2 lols but... they don't have the flight sked... *chajan..* i have the flight sked ahahaha combined effort ne? so twas decided... we were gonna wait for their arrival..we boarded the plane as scheduled but we departed earlier than 7.50...

ETA at taipei was 10.00 but we arrived 9.30 (argh hafta wait longer since arashi's arriving at 11.50 or was it 11.55?hahaha)

notice that terminal 1 is kinda small... :)

newspaper and beverage vendo machine at terminal 1...

our navigator krissy had to look at this map.. we didnt have much time to lose to go to terminal 2..

The PS (nope not paksyet ahahaha) Philippine Stalkers... leaving terminal 1 to go to paradise oopss i mean to terminal 2.. looking at us no one would think we just met that day hahaha icebreaker : arashi stalking hahaha

only 5 of us will be waiting for arashi... since the other fans are on packaged tour, someone's fetching them at the airport... gosh this is the first time im not on packaged tour and im sooooo loving it that our time is ours mwahahahaha...

okei i hafta end my post here nyahahaha... will be posting again later on so as not to bore you har3...

I forgot to include this one in the first part of mypost... this was the plane we took from Manila to Taipei... twas rather small compared to other planes used for itnernational flights... and when we got inside... it really is small ahaha similar to those planes used for domestic flights.. and there were heaps of empty seats hahaha... no wonder people were really curious whatthe hell im gonna do in taipei hahaha its not a usual tour-destination country after all...