Surroundings of the National Taiwan Museum of Comics (國家漫畫博物館) @ Taichung City in Taiwan

While looking at Google Maps for attractions near our accommodation at Taichung City, Tea Way Hotel, I chanced upon an interesting place; National Taiwan Museum of Comics (國家漫畫博物館).

Now, I am not much of a museum lover although I do love comics books in my teen years and my grasp of traditional Chinese characters actually came from comic books printed in Taiwan. Hence, I decided to check out the place during my morning jog!

What appeared in front of me was more like a cluster of Japanese buildings but it might surprise you that the museum was constructed on prison grounds hailing from the year 1937! 

My intention was only to show you the surroundings of this open concept museum, with 20 buildings (one 1 is new), that has no admission tickets! Surroundings only because my jog was at 8am; way before the operating hours at 10am! 

Good thing for me as it was so quiet and peaceful and I literally have the whole museum grounds to myself. It was kind of weird though; don't Taichung people exercise in the morning? Or it is more an evening thing?

The grounds were so nicely manicured; you would have thought the buildings were all newly built. Comprising an area stretching 90 meters by 200 meters, the only thing lacking might just be people dressed in traditional Japanese attire to bring me back to the 1930s. 

Given that Taiwan was colonized by the Japan for 50 years, culture and even building architecture were somewhat affected, and I am just glad that Taiwan decided to keep these buildings, rather than demolishing them to remove any traces of colonization, deemed to be shameful in some countries. 

I am not an artsy person and don't really get this.

Does it mean the land shall be open for all? 

Looking more like a temple, I understand it was the Budokan Martial Arts Hall, which was "used by prison officials for martial arts training, including swordsmanship and judo". 

How I know? The information pillar above.

Themed activities.

p.s. this was in 2025.

Okay, I am not exactly alone with a group of elderlies exercising using the tai-chi technique. Anyway, I am not too far off from taichi exercises; someone just reminded me I am reaching my give five zero soon! 

The majestic trees and bamboos; while nice for an outsider, I always feel that it can be quite eerie to have trees towering over the house, especially when night falls. Coming from a person who has lived in the village, I had to admit urban life is totally for me. 

OMG, this reminded me of those traditional Japanese dwellings in mangas! Imagine seeing characters of crayon shin chan and doraemon sitting / standing on the wooden patios.

This had an outlook of a prison; dull, without many windows.

p.s. it's actually the information center.

Remnants of a gate, with even a letter slot, that used to contain a house? Even though this is the National Taiwan Museum of Comics, I thought it would be nice to touch on the history, and maybe even before and after pictures for comparison.

Spot the cats! These elements actually liven up the museum concept, and could appeal to visitors who accompany friends to the museum, yet not entirely interested in comics. 

They could also take pictures with these silhouettes of warring parties. From the wordings on them, it appeared that comic companies are the main sponsors, likely in the likeness of characters in comic books published by them.

A scene from the comic,  Ichthyophobia (怕魚的男人).

Author: Li Lung-chieh (李隆杰). 

While the museum concentrates on Taiwanese comics, I would recommend this place for those who are keen to immerse themselves in Japanese buildings built almost a hundred years ago, and enjoy the chillax environment. Of course, visiting in winter is definitely an advantage. 

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Address

No. 33, Linsen Rd, West District, 

Taichung City, Taiwan 

Map

As above.

Website

https://www.ntmc.gov.tw/home/zh-tw

Museum Directory

As above.

Click HERE for 11 Days, 10 Nights Taiwan Trip: Summarised Itinerary for Chiayi Alishan (嘉义阿里山) - Kaohsiung (高雄) - Tainan (台南) - Taichung (臺中)

Miyahara (宮原眼科) @ Taichung City in Taiwan

More than ten years ago, on my first trip to Taiwan, I chanced upon a most interesting building at Taichung by the name of Miyahara, a supposedly optical shop yet the items for sale were unrelated to the eyes.

Step in and it's like a scene from Harry Potter, albeit with Asian influences. This would likely be a wizardry world in Japan and the things lacking would be flying books and swimming fish lanterns, amongst others.

A donation box that looked like it had been there forever.

Maybe in existence since the time the building was built.

For a moment, I thought the shop had pivoted to selling books, and they looked like some classical novels, yet with names that were food related. Maybe recipe books?

A closer look revealed that they were pastries, cookies that doubled up as food souvenirs you can bring home! And boy were they quite pricey, and I didn't recall seeing much samples! Regular readers would know me; I would usually need samples before I buy! 

There's actually a cafe on the upper floors but reservation was full. So I thought I would just make do with the shop's most famous product; the ice cream takeaway counter for Miyahara! 

But the queue was too long, although not as long as back in 2014, when it was at least triple the number. Now, I like ice cream but I hate to queue. The love for ice cream wasn't strong enough for me to dispel the hatred for queuing.

I was lucky though; a staff member recommended that I travel a short distance to a sister branch of Miyahara, called The Fourth Credit No 72, which would have much lesser queue, with ample seats for me to enjoy the ice cream! Let's go! 

 

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Address

No. 20, Zhongshan Rd, 

Central District, Taichung City, 

Taiwan 

Map

As above.

Click HERE for 11 Days, 10 Nights Taiwan Trip: Summarised Itinerary for Chiayi Alishan (嘉义阿里山) - Kaohsiung (高雄) - Tainan (台南) - Taichung (臺中)

Fresh Cheese Corn (起司瀑布) @ Hanxi Night Market in Taichung [Taiwan]

I love buttered corn kernels in a cup and every night market in Taiwan, it's mainly ears of corns which didn't appeal as they were a handful to eat, as compared to dumping spoonfuls of already peeled corn kernels into my mouth.

Hence, my eyes were drawn to the above stall. Literally called the cheese waterfall with a picture of a corn, I was motivated to order with the three key Chinese words on the signboard; aromatic, rich and tasty!

Our order was freshly made and even though I am not that big of a cheese fan (meaning I don't feel that adding cheese to everything is a godsend); it was so therapeutic to see the strings of cheese being skillfully pulled, and combined, and pulled again.

Video for your viewing.

For NT$80 (about S$3.20), some would argue this was too pricey but from a personal perspective, I love the layers of saltiness, cheesiness and sweetness with bursts of natural corn flavor as I chewed through. Very nice even though I can't discern any taste of seaweed! 

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Address

Section 1, Hanxi E Rd, 

Hanxi Night Market, East District,

Taichung City, Taiwan 

Map

As above.

Pricing

One Serving - NT$80

Click HERE for 11 Days, 10 Nights Taiwan Trip: Summarised Itinerary for Chiayi Alishan (嘉义阿里山) - Kaohsiung (高雄) - Tainan (台南) - Taichung (臺中)

Obongzip 오봉집 Korean Restaurant @ Tanjong Pagar in Singapore

Compared to blogs, I admit vlogs have a lot more allure, with the ability to capture attention immediately. Even I would refer to vlogs on new restaurants, before making a decision to check them out.

One such restaurant was Obongzip 오봉집, a Korean restaurant that hailed from South Korea, which has over 300 outlets and opened its first branch in Singapore late last year.

Needless to say in food-craze Singapore, the queue was long when we arrived at about 6.30pm. Putting in an on-site reservation (time-slots were unavailable online), we were only brought into the restaurant at about 8.20pm! 

There were just the greatest Kon, Alex (the small eater) and I; hence, the Obongzip Special platter would be the best option since it comprised the three signature dishes of Obongzip; fire grilled spicy octopus, bossam pork and spicy buckwheat noodles. 

Complimentary water, with serviettes hidden under the table. 

That's the way things should be for ALL restaurants in Singapore! 

Together with the platter was a sizeable bowl of seaweed soup and a range of side dishes! Served on birthdays, there were large pieces of seaweed said to be beneficial for health and the only thing needed improvement was that it should have been served piping hot, instead of lukewarm.

Rest of the side dishes didn't generate much surprises; not lousy for sure, just not breathtaking enough for us to shout wow! So, let's now dive into the main dishes! 

Fire-grilled Spicy Octopus - selecting mild instead of hot a

nd extra hot, the spiciness was just right for us and complemented perfectly with the grilled aroma of the octopus, combination of which was so delicious; the words that came out were "wow, wow"! I would gladly eat this one dish for dinner! Yum yum! 

Pork Belly Bossam - now, this was one dish I see often on menus in Korean restaurants but the seemingly boiled pork honestly always don't look and feel that appetising. So, this was my first time (I think) eatingh bossam.

Turned out this was even better than the fire grilled spicy octopus! I was absolutely blown away when I paired the pork belly with the accompanying kimchi. By itself, the pork belly was tender (and fatty) with your usual pork flavour.

Main star was the kimchi, which was unlike any kimchi I have had before; with a crunchy texture and a spiciness that wasn't tongue numbing yet had that undeniably tempting sweetness! So unforgettable was this dish; I will be returning back to Obongzip very soon, with my dearest mom of course! 

Spicy Buckwheat Noodles - called makguksu, this dish was your typical "buckwheat noodles tossed in a sweet, tangy and spicy house sauce", mixed professionally by the staff on duty.

Being a fan of buckwheat noodles, this was a unique version that I would define as refreshing! Flavorsome would be the first word that came to my mind and I so love the addition of nuts; nuttiness with extra crunch! 

Grilled Tteok - looking like a puffy golden pillow, many diners would immediately whip out their phones when this dessert is served to their table.

A spectacle no less; with the eyes almost popping out from our sockets when the sticky mochi stretching so high up! Another thought that was going through our minds; it would be hard for us to finish this dessert! 

With a crispy shell that held so much Korean rice cake inside, it's a carbohydrate-heavy meal that would further stuff our already stuffed tummy. And I heard from Alex that he was full, before this dessert was  even served.

On its own, there wasn't much taste for the grilled tteok and we benefited greatly from the saucer of sweet sauce (malt sugar we believe) where we happily dipped the pieces of tteok in before putting them into our mouth. While this was worth a try, especially when you have a larger group, the mochi lost their melty elasticity when it cooled, and it could be very jelak.   

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Before and after! Will definitely be back for the Obongzip Special platter! And kudos to the Greatest Kon for gallantly cleaning up the grilled tteok! It was too much for Alex and I; former of whom just took one piece, I believe.

Address

77 Tanjong Pagar Rd, 

Singapore 088498

Map

As above.

Instagram Page

https://www.instagram.com/obongzip_sg/

Pricing

Obongzip Special - S$108.00

Grilled Tteok - S$28.00

(Subject to Service Charge and GST)