Family Mart
Last year I was fortunate enough to spend two weeks in Tokyo doing a series of gigs with the Kevin Windross Band – a remarkable adventure indeed and one I hope to repeat one day – but that something to elaborate on another time [1].
The convenience store chain “Family Mart” ended up being a big part of the side story of those two weeks. We’d usually return from a gig around midnight and forage at the Family Mart opposite our hotel – amongst other things they did a pretty good line of pre-packaged Sushi which tasted pretty decent and gave the (hopefully accurate) impression of being somewhat healthy.
Fast forward to two days ago and I find myself in Taipei and sure enough, there are Family Marts everywhere – prompting a post to Facebook declaring that the catering for any upcoming Kevin Windross Band tours of Taiwan was all sorted now :)
Family Mart in Taipei
What was kinda funny though was after an lovely catchup lunch with some of my friends from my Canonical days I remarked that Family Mart had been a staple while gigging in Tokyo. I was reminded by them that the shop in Taipei 101 that I had frequented virtually every day of my previous visits to Taipei was in fact a Family Mart. No wonder it felt curiously like coming home when we first hit the one near our Tokyo hotel…
I wonder if we should approach them about an endorsement deal ?
[1] As an aside, our intrepid bassist, Brendon has been writing up his impressions of the adventure here. For the feint of heart I will forewarn you that there are some rude words, but it is an excellent and amusing read and thus far commendably accurate.