I left the house one evening with $900NT in hopes of adding a multitude of necessities and accessories to my dorm room.. Then I stumbled upon DAISO, a Japanese store where every item costs $39NT. That’s cheap, right? So, this is the result of this venture – an example of what you can get with around $500NT.

*points above* I don’t know why, but I couldn’t resist buying these jelly hearts for my bathroom walls. I guess a small splash of colour here and there makes the bathroom a little happier and brighter? You get twice the amount shown in the photo, and they all aren’t bad quality.

Although, it didn’t have the cutest bins I’ve ever seen, DAISO still has some pretty cute bins. Below is my new bin, I got it because I thought it was quite cute but now I’m wishing I got an even cuter one. Oh well.

The same goes for stationery. If you want a wider range of stationery, visit a store that specialises in stationery. Otherwise, the things I found at DAISO were decent enough. The folders are good quality, as are the little books I got. However, if I must get more, I will go to a different store.

DAISO has most things you would need, including kitchen and bathroom cleaning products, storage crates, trays, boxes, and bags, personal health and beauty products, kitchenware, snacks, decorations, etc.

More things I have to mention are the kitchenware and decorations. I got a really cute little glass which was good for $39NT, so now I’m really tempted to get the tall glass and jar versions of the same thing. But no, I will resist! Anyway, below the next photo you will find my final list which totaled to $585NT, or $20AU.

Final list:

• 3 Dust cloths
• 1 Set of jelly heart stickers for the bathroom
• 1 Small drinking glass
• 1 A4 plastic container
• 1 Pencil case
• 1 Plastic sleeve folder
• 2 Notebooks
• 8 Coat hangers
• 1 Comb
• 1 Haircutting scissors
• 1 Laundry basket
• 1 Tote bag

One of the stores I discovered whilst living near Taipei Main Station was Bread First.

I won’t talk too much about this one because I don’t have the actual address, phone number or price range. It’s near Taipei Main Station, but if I get the exact location and contact information I will edit this post and put them here.

So, about Bread First? It’s a Japanese bakery that sells quite a wide variety of different products including pork floss buns, egg tarts, cheese dogs, green tea cake rolls, etc. I can say the prices are pretty good, I got over 10 items for not much over $100NT.

A great thing about this store is that the bread is really nice, it’s always soft and full of flavour. So, yes, I recommended visiting it and trying a couple of different types of bread, buns and pastries.

On February 20, I moved into the 臺大水源舍區. I live in building A, right next to the building with the Starbucks and 7-11. Apparently the dorms are new, only about a year old, which would explain why they look so nice. I don’t have any photos of the building itself yet but it’s on my to do list.

Basically, you get a room with a fridge, bookshelf, desk with two drawers, chair, shoe rack, tall two door cupboard, bed frame, sink, toilet, shower, towel rack, and a mirror. What does that mean? It means that you have to buy your own mattress and bed covers. The dorm can provide them for the prices shown below, you can venture to the nearby 7-11, or wander around the nearby shops where you can find a few bedding stores.

Set items: 2 pillowcases, 1 pillow, 1 quilt, 1 quilt cover, 1 cushion cover, 1 cushion
Price: $3,100NT
Separate items & Price: Mattress ($1,000NT), Pillow ($350NT), Quilt ($2,000NT), Bed sheet ($350NT)

They also let you borrow cleaning items for cleaning your room, and have garbage collection points for you to throw away your trash and recyclables. I haven’t seen the stuff they let you borrow but I think I’m going to buy my own stuff anyway.

What else can I say? The rooms are pretty nice, a clean and simple style, and not too small either. You get a gas heater for you water and an electricity card to slot in neat the entrance ($500NT card with electricity at $3.7NT/kilowatt).

Also, on the ground floor of my building (A), there is a small gym, lounge, kitchen and dining area, and two more areas with tables and seats. Of course, there’s also a reception desk with someone there 24/7, and mailboxes (although if you get sent a parcel, it’ll probably be held by reception).

Only recently I got my hands on the SE T707, and it turns out that it is a pretty nice phone. So here it is, quickly reviewed by me for you, with my own photos (because everything always looks better than it really is on the official website).

Brand: Sony Ericsson
Model: T707
Colours: Mysterious Black, Spring Rose, Lucid Blue
Size: 93.0 x 50.0 x 14.1 mm / 3.7 x 2.0 x 0.6 inches
Weight: 95.0 g / 3.4 oz

Networks: GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900, UMTS/HSDPA 2100
Connectivity: Bluetooth, Google Maps, Modem, Synchronisation PC, USB mass storage, USB support
Memory: Phone memory 100MB, Memory Stick Micro (M2) support up to 16GB
Screen: 262,144 colour TFT, 240×320 pixel, and a 128×36 pixel external screen
Camera: 3.2 mega pixel, up to 3.2x digital zoom, Geo-tagging, Send to web, Video light and recording

Website: Sony Ericsson T707
Price: $7,200-8,500NT

I bought this phone after a while in Taiwan to hold out until the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is released at the end of March / beginning of April. I was surprised that after only a day I actually began to really like this phone. It is quite simple in design and features, but I would recommend it for anyone who wants a really nice looking phone for simple tasks such as making calls and messaging.

If you plan to use it for all of its features thoroughly, then you need to be warned that there can be some lag even if it’s only a week old, and the photo quality isn’t that great. All the connectivity items work perfectly however, the battery life isn’t great either. Be prepared to charge it every second day or so if you are going to make use of it every day, right from the beginning.

During my visit to Taipei 101, I stumbled across a Nine West store having a sale, so naturally I decided to enter and see what I could find. I did not leave empty handed.

Address: 台北市信義區市府路3號B1樓
Taipei City, Xin Yi District, Shi Fu Road, No. 45, Floor B1
Phone number: 02 8101 8361
Price: Approximately $3,000+NT

A well known American brand in a well known Taiwanese shopping mall situated at the base of the world’s second tallest tower. Nine West is one of the cheaper stores you’ll find inside, but not as cheap as Giordano, Adidas, Nike, or Esprit. However, it being so close to Versace, Gucci, Prada, and Armani justifies my calling it a ‘cheaper store’. But I guess that’s completely beside the point.

The staff are nice and very helpful, of course, and can speak Mandarin and some English. Like a lot of places, they don’t actually have all the shoes in the store, so be sure you really want to try on a certain size before you send one of the girls running off to fetch them for you.

Nevertheless, the shoe sizes range up to at least a US9, however the larger sizes are obviously going to be more scarce. During a sale, you can also get the shoes for half price or something similar. Pictured above are my new boots, a US size 8 which I’m finding to be a little bit too big for me, but nothing too troublesome. They were originally $4,800NT but I got them for around $1,600NT. Pretty good.