Archive for the ‘Taiwan’ Category

Today Was a Good Day

Saturday, May 30th, 2009

  So my last entry was about a bad day in Japan. Today was a very good day. We went around with our friend who speaks Japanese. he is still a gaijin (foreigner) like us but he knows quite a bit of Nihongo(Japanese). Our friend actually went to college with us. But anyways it was such a good day that as I write this I am still drunk! hehe that’s ALWAYS fun.

Today we went to the Gumyoji Market. Once again it was just like a day market in Taiwan but I was able to buy some authentic Japanese green tea, something I could not get in Taiwan. But even before we went to the Gumyoji Market we went to a Japanese restaurant that served Chicken cutlet with cheese. This place was interesting because they actually fried the cheese into the chicken. So on the surface it looked like plain old chicken cutlet but it actually had melted cheese on top of the chicken but under the batter. This was somewhat cool, but once the novelty wore off it was pretty much chicken cutlet with cheese. So if you are someone who loves chicken cutlet then you would love this crap. I, on the other hand, do not like chicken cutlet so it was not that great.

Later on we went to a better Japanese Sushi place than the one that my girlfriend and I attended in Yokohama. It was good but it was nowhere near as good as what we could get for the same price or less in Taiwan. And I know, this place ONLY served sushi so I was forced to eat raw fish for din din, how fun…

After dinner was when I got drunk. It is a place called Rex Bar in the suburbs of Yokohama. It is probably a 5 minute walk from the subway station. The owner actually let my girlfriend go behind the bar and make 5 AMF’s (Adios MotherF*****s) and then later he let her make 3 Hawaiian Ice Teas. It was a really cool experience. The fun part and the most painful part was this…

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The answer is yes. That does say Blair’s After Death Sauce. It is probably the second hottest substance on the planet. Guinness Book of World Records says it is the hottest sauce in the world but I beg to differ. The special hot sauce at Don Antonio’s was way worse in my opinion. But still, I was sucking on ice cubes for about 30 minutes after I put a large amount on a tortilla chip. This sauce is something that should not be taken lightly. It is actually sold in the United States, so it is kind of odd that I would discover it in Japan but whatever the world is an odd place.

After we finished eating chips with this death sauce it was way after the last train. We walked from the Gumyoji Subway stop back to my friend’s apartment. It was a hour long walk haha. Luckily in Japan there is no law against public drunkeness because I was obviously drunk and so was our friend. And the funniest thing is that we, 3 obviously drunk people, walked right by a police officer and he thought nothing of it! Another crazy thing is that 2:00AM is not the last call here. Bars stay open until friggin 5:00AM! so us leaving at 2:00AM was actually early for a Saturday night haha. Basically bars here stay open until first train which is at 5:00AM, what a wonderful system.

Tokyo Disney Sea

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

Yesterday I went to Tokyo Disney Sea. We were going to go to Tokyo Disneyland also but since it is the same as the Disneyland in Anaheim we decided against it.

I never thought I would be saying this about anything Disney related but I really liked it. The basic idea is that instead of different “lands” there are different ports, harbors, and Islands. Most of the ports correspond to different Disney stories like Mermaid Lagoon. Mermaid Lagoon, of course, is a port that brings things from the little mermaid to life. Personally I thought Mermaid Lagoon was quite stupid but I do have some pictures.

When you first get into Disney Sea you see this dumb looking globe and if you are like me you are probably thinking “this is wack!”

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but then you get to see this!

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And then I started thinking “wow this place is actually very nice.”

The reason why I stated that Mermaid Lagoon was stupid is because it was made exclusively for people aged 11 and younger. Since I am not 11 or younger it was stupid for me. But here are some pictures anyways.

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That was the Mermaid Lagoon from outside and then two pictures of Ariel’s Grotto which is in Mermaid Lagoon. When I channeled my inner 11 year old I decided that this was actually pretty cool.

We only went on three rides, Indiana Jones, Journey to the center of the Earth, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. But for me Disney Sea was not about the rides. I was perfectly content to just walk through the park and look at all the things that Disney took the time to construct.

After we walked around Disney Sea we took the monorail back to Ikspiari which is Tokyo Disney’s shopping area. It is a really nice mall with every kind of shop and food you can imagine.

Tokyo Disney was cool, the only crappy part was the fact that they didn’t have red vines either! arrg I give up no Red Vines for me unless I order them from Ebay. There should be a small gallery attached to this (not sure because I am a WordPress newb haha) so take a look! peace out!

The Taipei Zoo and What Not

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

The Ranting Jamaican is now pissed that there are no Red Vines AND no Good & Plenty or any other kind of black licorice on this island called Taiwan (formerly Formosa). But You know what? I just spent $30 bucks for three one pound bags of Red Vines so in 10-14 business days I will have an ample supply which will probably last about a week. I am SO EXCITED for the terminator movie and I will be chomping down on these Red Vines while I watch it, if they ever get here. Anyways that is unimportant! The subject at hand is the Taipei Zoo!

Oh my lord the Taipei Zoo was amazing they had all kinds of monkeys, chimpanzees, flamingos, Lions, Tigers, Ligers (haha just kidding no Ligers), Emus, Arowanas (That’s A fish), Owls, Zebras, and random other animals. The one animal I left out was the GORILLAs!!!!! they deserve separate mention because they are friggin amazing and I want to be the 800lb Gorilla in the room when I grow up!

Anyways the animals were great and majestic and whatever but the best part of this zoo is what is the best part of Taiwan in general. When you go to the zoo everything is interspersed with the Taiwanese Jungle. It’s not like the LA zoo where it looks all fake and crappy and there are a bunch of freeways and smog all around it. You actually feel like you are in the jungle as the picture below illustrates.

This Orangutan looks like he is in the jungle but he isnt!

Taipei is really built up so you can’t see the large tropical looking trees in the city except in a few parks but in the outskirts of the city and especially in places like Keelung you can really see how much wild terrain is left here. but yes back to the zoo!

I was pretty much dissappointed by the Panda’s they were REALLY boring here is what they were doing!

Rivetting!

I was very dissappointed in these panda’s. They really really let me down. but after the boring boring panda’s the fun started with the nocturnal animals. It sucked though because it was too dark to take pictures. But I have never let something like a lack of light stop me! here is a picture from the nocturnal animals exhibit.

It took about 10 shots on manual focus to get one good one haha

The zoo was great and as I said the best part were the gorilla’s! and I got a picture of them too (although it is a crappy one)

Look at him...he loves it!

But yes the Taipei Zoo (which is actually outside of Taipei) is a very nice zoo indeed. Hopefully I will get a chance to compare it to the San Diego Zoo some time (if Swine Flu allows haha). oh! one last picture!

haha. this was one of the nocturnal animals. You gotta love that one.
haha. this was one of the nocturnal animals. You gotta love that one.

In Summary, I loved that zoo, I am still pissed that there are no Red Vines in Taiwan, and I want my next pet to be a Formosa Weasel. Peace out Ya’ll.

oh and check out this link it is amazing! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MorR04iLtMw. This man is my new role model. Except I am probably the only Jamaican over 18 years old that will never smoke weed.

zip it up and zip it out!