participating in the local economy

I have photos of our Friday night rampage through Taipei, which I’ll post when I have access to a computer with English Windows. I’m on one for public use right now, in the basement of the Meiji-Gakuin guest house. Everything is in Japanese, which I can’t read. I feel like I’m caught caught in a high-stakes round of the card game Memory.

On Saturday, the ever-generous Wenchi Lin took Wayde and I on a media shopping tour of the city. We visited two Eslite locations, and I bought a whole bunch of cool stuff, including a Hou Hsiao-Hsien boxed set, and half a dozen cds of Taiwanese music. Wayde found some Taiwanese hip-hop, which he’d been seeking since his arrival. Eslite is an amazing store. It carries a vast selection of local and international music and movies. We met Fred and Roy afterwards. They’d gone to the electronics market and bought matching mp3 player recoders. Both Wayde and I were very envious, but now we don’t have to be because Wayde was able to buy two through an electronics shop near our hotel. The joys of consumption!

Sumeeta made us a delicious curry dinner at her home later that evening. Yes, we are spoiled. It was a successful end to a successful tour.