2018-11-08
Slow start into the day.
Went to get some nice taiwanese tea. Found out, that one of the places to shop is just around my corner. It was down to earth shops with no fancy tourist or gift packaging – you only pay for the quality of the tea.
So bought 1 kg of different oolongs at Wang tea and went to Lin Mao Sen to get some nice traditional, but cheap clay tea pots. Bought 3, including a more modern strainer.
Changed room at the hostel and then went for record hunting after checking out a japanese department store. Went to Da’an and looked for Senko Issha. A little bit hidden, it first looked like some kind of living room while entering. But wow, it was a living space with a very kind owner selling his records from there. While searching for old taiwanese records, the music he was playing caught my ear.
Some really nice japanese folk – I asked him about it, and my first counter recommendation was Tomokawa Kazuki.
Well…it turned out that he is not also a big fan with his shop named after one of his songs, but also had booked him 2 weeks before here to play in Taipei.
Damn!
I couldn’t find some vinyl of interest to me, but after having a very nice talk about music I bought some limited and rare Kazuki CD. It compiles the years when he was on the japanese label Psychedelic Speed Freaks, great era and highly recommended. Imagine some sort of screaming and drunk poet, shouting about the dark and evil sides of life.
Was also told, that there is a nice concert here on sunday – with a noise musician, who was so brave to enter a local folk music competition.
Afterwards went to another record shop which was disappointing, a bookstore which also had only CDs, so went to the small night market while I was there. Ate a very nice Banh Mi (vietnamese baguette) there.
So back to the big one night market just around the corner of my hostel. Had some cuttlefish balls and seafood rice and went back to the hotel.
When arriving there I noticed a group of people sitting at the table and speaking japanese. In fact they were some artists from Okinawa, so approached them, had a beer and a really great great talk with them. One of them, a guitarist, even knew Tomokawa and citypop. Thank you guys!
They’re also doing some kind of exhibition tomorrow, if i can make it I’ll visit them.
Finished of the evening talking to a japanese scuba instructor, advising me to visit Hokkaido. Noticed and on my bucket list.
Sidenote: had to buy a couple of short USB cables. Travelling with them on the bicycle causes a lot stress through bending, resulting in broken connections. Be sure to take enough spare ones with you.
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