Day 9 – Kaohsiung’s Pier 2 & Studio Ghibli Exhibition

Second day in Kaohsiung. I woke up a bit late, check out, and then took the MRT to Yanchang Station to go to the exhibition halls in Pier 2.

I should have went to the end of the Orange line to SiZiWan instead because then I can walk around the other side of Pier 2. Nevertheless, I just made a detour there.

The first thing I did at pier 2 was to find a place to eat lunch. There is a fancy restaurant called Pasadena but I wanted something a little cheaper. Luckily, there were a few family own restaurants just across from Pier 2.

Pier two has many exhibitions as well as a stage for performing artists from all around the world. Most require admission or ticket but sometimes, they are free.

When I went, there was a free photography exhibition.

Outside are also some permanent statues that are now familiar with Pier 2.

Kaohsiung now has a light rail. It is work in progress…

The main point of today was … the Studio Ghibli’s Exhibition! It turns out it isn’t in Pier 2 but in the Kaohsiung Science and Technology Museum…

I contemplated skipping it but alas, I just took the MRT to Xinyi Secondary school and then took a taxi there because it was too far to walk. Taking a bus from Pier 2 to the Museum would require 1 hour. Taxi was 95 NTD …. grr

Back then, if you pay for a special exhibition, you can go into the museum for free but now you can’t. Therefore, the 350 NTD I paid was only good for Studio Ghibli, but it is still good!

The exhibition has 3D models of the most famous scenes from the Ghibli movies.

Fan service!

There was also an exhibition for the popular Japanese anime – “Your Name?” but that is another 280 NTD.

After the exhibition, I took a bus back to the train station and head on down to where my homestay parents from 4 years ago used to live.

There is a new mall at the Caoya MRT station! Even the station now looks better..

Anyways … Maybe the homestay reminded me too much of my own parents, I just sat, ate and cried. It has been a while, even one of the pet dog has died 😦

… with that, I go back to Hualien. I was very happy to have bought a Tze-Chang Hao train from Kaohsiung to Hualien … I even got to catch up on my readings.