[Hikari's Izakaya Diary] FFK Was Exhausting, But I Never Compromise on Food (12/24/2023)

For this year's FFK in Kaohsiung, *that woman* finally arrived... she came all the way to Taiwan. I'm talking about our Malaysian boss, Muqing. My one and only mission was to make sure we didn't drop the ball on food—I absolutely needed her to validate my culinary taste.

Okay, jokes aside—when the SODAART crew visits the south, taking them out for amazing food is a given. (I completely forgot to take photos though, so you'll just have to use your imagination.) For our first night, I took Liv, Muqing, and Mian to the famous Renwu Roast Duck. I've been eating there since I was a kid, so I told everyone to eat as much as they wanted... but somehow I was the one who ended up polishing off the leftovers. Guys, I'm telling you, when you gain weight, it's always because your friends enable you! On our last day, right before Muqing had to catch her train, we swung by for round two, but unfortunately, they were completely sold out. Oh well, it just gives her an excuse to come visit again.

Then came FFK itself. Honestly, the turnout this year was absolutely insane compared to last year—easily double the crowd, and I can say that confidently since I was there last year too. It was incredible seeing so many people show up for the biggest ACG event in southern Taiwan. What really stood out to me was the sheer variety of Taiwanese VTuber booths this time around. It wasn't just the major corporate groups; indie VTuber merch was everywhere. When I recapped FFK last year, I predicted that VTubers would take up a much larger slice of the Taiwanese ACG community in the coming years. It's awesome to see it happening, but you can definitely feel the competition getting fiercer. Fingers crossed that SODAART keeps growing into a massive group so we can host more exclusive live events in the future.

For dinner, we hit up a mutton hot pot spot. Thank god Muqing had requested it beforehand, because while Kaohsiung was blisteringly hot at noon, the temperature dropped so hard at night I swear my hair was falling out from the cold. I had specifically hunted down this restaurant, and even the boss gave it her stamp of approval! For anyone wanting the name of the place... I might drop it later if I'm feeling generous, lol. (Oh, and for lunch, I took Liv to Dan Dan Hamburger—always order the #5 combo, accept no substitutes!)

By that point, I was dead on my feet and still had to ride my scooter all the way home. The next day, I slept straight through the morning and didn't head out to the venue until noon, lol. I did bring Dough Dough donuts for the crew on day two, though. If you've never had them and find yourself in Yancheng District, do yourself a favor and get some. They hit the spot!

For our next dinner, I finally took the boss to get the stinky tofu she'd been hyping up. I just want to make a public service announcement to all of Taiwan: if your stinky tofu is fried, cut into little pieces, and *then* served, please don't even call it stinky tofu. The one in the picture? *That's* the real deal. Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, with pickled cabbage stuffed right in the middle. You get that perfectly crunchy exterior with a juicy, mouth-watering center.

After that, I showed everyone around Yancheng and we made our way down to Sizihwan. Along the way, we grabbed Gangyuan Beef Noodles, Fuquan Snow Ice, and Huada Milk Tea... basically an itinerary purely designed to make us gain weight. Since we rarely get together like this, we also hit up the Pier-2 Art Center, KW2, and went up to Mount Chaishan to see the macaques. I say "I took everyone around," but to be fair, I wasn't the one driving, haha.

I won't bore you with the rest of the trip's details. Even though it was exhausting, I honestly had an absolute blast. It's been a long time since I've just traveled around and hung out with friends like this—definitely hasn't happened since I started out as a VTuber. It really reminded me what an amazing group of people I get to work with. I love being part of SODAART, and I'm already looking forward to our next meetup.

Although I guess our stream collabs technically count as meetups too, lol.