On our third day in Taiwan, we stopped by Hsimenting, a hip shopping/hang out area packed with droves of young people. I was pretty surprised to see the considerable influence of Japanese pop culture on Taiwanese youth — it almost seemed as if we were walking through Harajuku (minus the goths and the rockabillies) or Shibuya (minus the kogal and the drug dealers).

Later in the day we took the train up to Danshui, but because it was overcast we weren’t able to witness the sunset for which the area is well-known. It was still a nice time though: we walked along the wharf, visited a night market and stuffed ourselves silly with scrumptious Taiwanese specialities (unintentional alliteration, I swear).

I’m not a very big fan of posed photos (especially when I am the one doing the posing), but these ones actually didn’t turn out all that bad (except for the stupid grin on my face). Anyway, here you go: