of markets, massages, and meandering

This past week and a half was pretty eventful. I hit up a couple night markets and shopping districts, went to a BJJ tournament, and found a few parks. Oh, and managed to get sick :/

I think it was around Thursday that I went to Rao He Night Market, one of the better known night markets in Taipei. Like many place I end up visiting here, I didn't find it on purpose. I was actually planning on going to a smaller night market, one that was closer to where I was meandering that night. After asking for directions, I ended up walking across town to Rao He, but not before wandering the underground market (no, not like the black market...it's just basically like a strip of underground area between a couple subway stations that have independent markets/shopping places). While I was making my way through the underground market, I stopped by a massage place....$100 (or, $3.30USD) for 10 minutes? Sure! I gave the lady my money, and said "press hard." Next thing I knew, some guy was digging his elbows into my rhomboids with a little more "oomph" than grace. He was making conversation about how he was going to visit California this summer, and how his eyesight wasn't great. After getting pummeled for 10 minutes, I declined his upsell for another 10 minutes, and thanked him for loosening up my neck/shoulders. He gave me his business card and encouraged me to come again. I looked at it.....and then at the sign on the wall...."Blind Massage"....great. That explained a lot.

Onto Rao He.  I definitely should have gone with an empty stomach. They had a lot of my favorites there...taiwanese crepes (keh li bing), the black pepper beef bun thingies (hu jiao bing), oyster omelette pancake thingies (oh-ah jien), a new favorite bubble waffles, fruit snow/shaved ice (bao bing), and much, much more! They also had some games here and there...mostly carnival-esque; ring around the bottle neck, pop the balloons, etc. It was a good was a good way to spend a couple hours.

Friday, I dropped in on an 11am jits class that was mentioned to me the day before. Turns out, it was an advanced class. They let me stay, thankfully. 2 hours of drilling advanced techniques and movements! I'm grateful that they're letting me continue going to that class :) Loved it!

Sunday was the BJJ tournament. Taiwan BJJ (where I'm training) decided to hold an in-house tournament. All 3 TBJJ locations as well as another gym (Tough MMA) showed up with competitors. I think there were around 50-60 competitors, total. Not a lot compared to SoCal, but it was a good number. We round-robined it, so the tournament lasted a good 4 hours. Everything was done very officially, from the weigh ins, to the timing, and the refs. Thankfully, Makoto took a some time during a class (an entire hour, actually) to go over competition rules so we knew exactly what counted for points, advantages, DQ's, and the like. A very brief overview of a couple new rules were covered at the tournament before the matches started. Taiwan BJJ Taipei did really well, pulling off quite a few first places. I won't play the "shoulda/woulda/coulda game," but I wasn't one of the ppl who got first. Lesson learned: don't get caught in the hype; wasting adrenaline pre-match makes you gas out really quickly. Lost by 2 points. Gift-wrapped the other girl, though. That was cute.

Dinner was in Beitou at a hotsprings/resort. The owner of TBJJ was kind enough to put the proceeds from the tournament towards the dinner, so that made it a lot easier on our wallets (even though $300, or about $10USD is already a great deal on a tournament!). After all the food and excess beverages, we only had to chip in about $200 ($6.50USD) extra per person, making it a grand total of under $20 for round trip transportation, a tournament, dinner, and (for those who stayed) hot springs. Since it wasn't going to be the public hot springs and everyone was going to be segregated by gender (where everyone goes in their birthday suits)...and there were fewer women in our group staying for the hot springs than there knuckles I have on one finger, I decided to head out after dinner with a few of the people who had to go home because of early Monday morning responsibilities.

On my way back, the subway announced one of the stops as the Shilin Night Market, which is the largest night market in Taipei...and I hadn't gone there yet during this trip to Taiwan. So, just as the doors were going to close, I gazelle-leaped out of the subway car and made my way to the crowded streets. Navigating this night market by myself was a little different than what I remember the times I went with my mom. I actually had to remember my way back to the subway. This night market, instead of just being a one-dimentional row of booths, spanned a few square blocks (along with all the little side streets between), and a building or two. I didn't get to explore this one as much as I'd liked to (still hadn't showered, and was carrying a sweaty gi, among other things, in my very full backpack), so I'll have to go again (oh darn...hehe).

Monday, I decided to spend the afternoon at Wu Fen Pu Shopping District. It's this area where it's basically just....clothes shopping. A lot of the street vendors get their clothes from this area, so I thought I'd check it out. It was nearby Jits, so I thought I'd be able to hit up some nogi afterwards, or some KB. WFP turned out to be a lot bigger than I thought it was. I definitely didn't end up going to jits, or KB, so I hit up Rao He again on my way back to the subway. WFP had just about every style of clothing you could imagine, except for what I normally wear (which, as you all know, are just plain boot-cut jeans with a fitted t shirt). One thing to also keep in mind about Taiwan fashion.....you know how in the US, the mannequins are so small that even though the store workers take the smallest sizes and have to pin them on the mannequins to have them fit? Well, the Taiwanese just take regular sizes and put them on the mannequins...no pins required. shirts, pants, dresses, everything. It's normal to be mannequin-sized here. In fact, if you wear a medium or up (which, in the US, would be size 4 in jeans, or a small in shirts), then you are considered big, and will have a hard time finding form-fitting clothes that you can wear. Jeans/skirts/shorts, by the way, like their tops, are only sized by XS, S, M, and L. Since I actually have musculature (and an ass, thankyoutaekwondo, I have to wear at least a stretchy medium out here) Out of the entire district (probably had at least 300 stores), I only found one that had a medium. One store. and they only had one item....which was a jean skirt. Nobody carried larges. I didn't bring any bottoms for the summer weather, so I bought the skirt.

When I got home, I tried on my loot, per usual. This was my first encounter with quality control, or lack thereof. I tried to unbutton the skirt...the button wouldn't undo, and the skirt ripped a little. Hmm...so I just said screw that, and just slid the skirt on. Yay! It fit my butt! A little loose around the hips, but that's fine. Then I started to shimmy my way out....RRRRIIIIIPPPPPP!!!! ......oy.... you.have.got.to.be.kidding.me. Apparently it wasn't real denim. I've had t shirts that were harder to rip. Yea, so.....I got to take that skirt and pretend to be the incredible hulk :) Good use of the $190 ($6USD) I spent on it. Everything else was fine.

Wednesday, I decided to go to a park and check out the river. I ended up going to 6 different parks and a couple botanical gardens, hopping a couple fences, scaling a wall, walking about 30 yards barefoot on some really pointy rocks (voluntarily), and discovering a David Garrett concert, all while accumulating a couple giant blisters on the bottom of both feet. A couple of the parks were actually quite nice...one of them reminded me of a smaller version of Central Park in NYC. One thing I noticed, though, was the number of elderly people exercising. I don't mean running or climbing walls or anything. Just....moving. If anyone is wondering how asians (in general) look younger, live longer, are thinner, and healthier than most of the rest of the world....it's because they tend to stay active, no matter the age, and watch what they eat. I even saw someone who may have been in his 70's doing flips on a bar like my girlfriends and I did when we were in elementary school.

Ironically....I caught the latest cold that's been going around...hopefully it will only be another several hours before I'm healthy again. UFC is Sunday morning!! Going to the Brass Monkey to watch!

Stay active, my friends. Stay healthy :)