food – Page 19 – Roving Sun

December 28, 2023July 23, 2025

Sun Yat-Sen and Chiang Kai-Shek Memorials

After having breakfast at the Grand Hyatt, we visited the National Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall again where we saw the change of guard twice and looked through the museum spaces inside. After an excellent beef noodle soup lunch, we visited the huge Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall before having Singaporean chilli crab for dinner at Jumbo Seafood in Xinyi. We ended the evening by walking back to the Grand Hyatt, enjoying the Christmas decorations and lights on the way.

December 27, 2023July 23, 2025

Tea and Temples at Maokong

The weather forecast looked good again today so we headed to Maokong, a mountainous area just at the edge of Taipei, after breakfast at the Grand Hyatt. We ended up checking out a few temples, enjoyed the scenery, and bought some local tea as Maokong is a historic tea producing area.

December 26, 2023July 23, 2025

Sandiaoling and Shifen

After waking up at the Grand Hyatt Taipei, we had a nice buffet breakfast downstairs. We decided to head out to Sandiaoling for a waterfall hike based on today’s favorable weather forecast. Afterwards, we spent the afternoon at Shifen where there is a much larger waterfall as well as an extremely busy old street area. We ended our day back in Taipei at Taipei 101.

December 23, 2023January 27, 2024

ANA First Class from ORD to NRT

We had the opportunity, thanks to United MileagePlus, to upgrade to First Class on ANA flight 11 from ORD to NRT while on our way to TPE. The flight was fantastic, both in terms of the seat and service provided. There were some pre-flight reservation issues that threatened to derail the flight, though luckily we had planned a long enough connection at ORD that it was not an issue.

December 6, 2023January 21, 2024

Tokyo Imperial Palace East Gardens

After waking up at the Hyatt Place Kyoto one last time, we returned to Tokyo via Shinkansen. We had some time before our flight from Haneda so we visited the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, near Tokyo Station. After a nice lunch nearby and some more snacking at the ANA Lounge at Haneda, we end our fantastic 11 night trip to Japan!