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.