West Door?

On Saturday I went to the Ximen area. It's another giant shopping area thronged with young people. There are several blocks completely devoted to pedestrian traffic. A couple in green and brown plaid said they liked my glasses and asked if they could take my picture for L-Girl Magazine. I'm in Taipei for less than a week and already starting my young women's fashion modeling career.





I've been noticing the word California used in a lot of places. I think I've seen at least a couple California Grills, but Ximen took it to the next level:





The numerous "department stores" in Ximen are interesting. The structure is similar to department stores in the U.S., with big floors connected by a central escalator. But here, instead of the entire building being owned by one company, the floors are partitioned into little competing shops. In one building, the first three floors were mostly clothing with some collectibles, the top floor was a cacophonous video arcade called "Tom's World", and the basement was a food court, with the usual night market fare. In another building, an entire floor was devoted to wedding dresses. Well, half the floor; the other half was deserted. The next floor up was another video arcade, this time called "Dino's World". The top floor was a movie theater, and just by chance I stumbled on the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival.

I also spent some time looking at the clothing. It seems like it's almost a requirement that every t-shirt in Taipei includes some bad English. Here are some I found in one randomly chosen store:

"Vamripe // Sport Men Fashion // Free Encyclopedia" [Goosebumps font]

"PACKER SHU DA RC REAL CURVE VASTNESS SUE DA 55 STATE SCREAM NOW 2COOL4U RACING SWUFOOLS AIR-D8 MAKAYELI RACING"

"Unite Party // View Evil Angel Releases for the Selected Month!!! Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., May., Jun., Jul., Aug., Sep., Oct., Nov. // Dec., 2006, 2005, [...], 1990 // STOMP"

"CHRISTIANITY: Meima my face in your magazines make it look whiter than it apple antpolo"

"Excuse me... Which way to the sky?"

I guess the last one isn't bad English, but I liked it anyway. I wonder where text like this comes from. Some of it is probably just a bad translation job. The second one sounds like something you'd get in your spam inbox. But it seems like so many people wear shirts like this here, some of it must be intentional.