Main Station Mania

Taipei Main Station fascinates and scares me. This is the hub of the subway, or MRT, in Taipei, as well as the primary bus station and regular and high speed train stations for Taipei. All of this is connected in one enormous maze. Additionally, there are 3 (!) shopping malls that spur off from Main Station like the arms of a hurricane. There are at least 12 ways to exit the MRT, at least 4 floors, and



an incomprehensible document mapping all of this.









The underground shopping malls connected to Main Station are chock full of cheap consumer goods of almost every type. Their main advantage is they are, well, underground. To wander here is to avoid the humidity, rain, heat, and sun that form Taipei's weather. And they are connected to the MRT - so they are convenient. These malls are full of 'crap' - inexpensive clothes, bags, sunglasses, and wallets.




There are piles and shelves of shoes - knock off Converse in every color; sandals with fringe and baubles, heels that shimmer with plastic coating, flip flop style shoes with fake flowers attached between the toes...








You will eventually get caught in a rain storm in Taipei, and in the underground mall you can acquire umbrellas of every color, style, and size - sun shades with UV protection and rain umbrellas with teflon. Especially 'girly' ones with ruffles around the edges, or your masculine dark plaid.





You can buy stickers galore, books, play games, have a fortune teller read your fate, DVDs and video games, and one of my favorites -every sort of hair clip and barrette you have ever seen. They are all really sparkly - bedazzled with rhinestones, flowers, bows, etc. There are also, of course, food stores. They sell some kind of bun down there that smells vaguely like Cinnabon, but worse, and just like Cinnabon, I think they pump it through the air vents in the entire mall so you can smell it miles away from the actual store.

The shoe stores down there are irresistible to me because it is rare to find something over $10 US. This kind of shoe pile seems to draw me in like some people are drawn to beautiful women, new techno-gadgets, or fried chicken. Its like I HAVE to look. There is always the promise of some cheap-o shoe that is simply perfect - a must have.



The reality of the shoe stores all over Taipei is that they are mostly full of shoes I think look pretty (sometimes) on display, but that I would not actually want to wear. Consider the trend in shoes and hair baubles the same - the frillier and more sparkles you can add to it, the more desirable it becomes.



Or sometimes, the shoes are just plain ugly.













So, despite the fact that I cannot help but look at the display of cheap-o shoe hedonism, I rarely actually buy any cheap-o shoes. They are mostly so useless as to be better to look at than to try to wear - much less on the streets of this city.