Hayashi Department Store (林百貨) in Tainan

In Tainan, one of the main highlights and must-visits is a department store; the Hayashi Department Store. Before you start wondering why you would wanna go to a department store, of all places, while you're in Tainan, the building was built back in the 1930s by the Japanese and is the first department store in Tainan- ever (second after Kikimoto Department Store in Taipei City). It is locally known ad Lim's Department Store (林百貨 or also the "Five Stories House") so we had quite some fun looking at all the "Lim" merchandise (context: my BF has the surname Lim). The Department Store, back its days was the grandest of its kind, and was the first building to have a lift, so people used to go to Hayashi just to take the lift- even when they couldn't afford anything there. That makes the lift in Hayashi the first ever, and the oldest in Tainan, and is still functioning and open to public! 

With five floors, it was the tallest building in Tainan for a while and it didn't end up well during WWII. It was damaged during air raids. Machine gun bullet holes can still be found on the rooftop structure!

On the rooftop, which still exists today after restoration and reopening in 2013, is a Japanese shrine. 

One of Tainan's rare Japanese Shinto Shrines sits on the rooftop of Hayashi Department Store

Hayashi is a full functioning department store now with the ground floor selling Taiwanese delicacies such as pineapple tarts and herbal soup ingredients, while the other floors sell bags, clothes, trinkets and there are also restaurants and cafes on the higher floors. 

I found an interesting blog article written here back in the 2013 before the building was restored and reopened, with empty spaces here.

Definitely a must-go if you're in Tainan! Give it around 3 hours to fully explore the entire building, you won't regret it. :)