Lunar New Year 旧正月 Day 9

The last day of my Lunar New Year vacation turned out to be the most disappointing. I had been looking forward to doing some hiking in Tak'eng (Dakeng) 大抗 with Steve today. But wouldn't you know it - after finally persuading Steve to go with me, I woke up at 6 this morning to the sound of rain coming down. So much for our plans to go to Takeng. To add insult to injury, I discovered that our blind cat Chiou-chiou 球ちゃん had relieved himself on the floor in Amber's bedroom, no doubt because he had been unable to find his way to the litter box out on the front patio. Feeling disappointed about not going to Takeng, I elected to stay home while Pamela and Amber went out for lunch and some shopping with some of Pamela's relatives visiting from Hsilo (Siluo) せいら 西螺. In the afternoon, I finally got myself out of the apartment, first to do some walking in Chung-cheng (Jhong-jheng) Park 中正公園. After that, I went for a ride on my scooter into the hills surrounding Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原. On Tungyang (Dongyang) Road 東陽路 I followed some stairs leading up from the road up to some abandoned graves, before the combination of fading sunlight, spiders and mosquitoes led me back down to my bike and onwards to home. I'm actually looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.

今日は最後の旧正月休みの日だった。友達のスティーブと大抗でハイキングをするつもりだけど、今朝雨が降っていた。ハイキングをキャンセルしてしまった。残念だね。午後に天気が晴れになったからひとりで中正公園に行って散歩をした。それからスクーター乗りながら古い墓を発見した。でも今日はよくない日だった。

Lizards were everywhere in Chung-cheng Park
中正公園にたくさんトカゲがいた

A fight over a parking space. Lots of yelling, pushing and shoving, but no punches were thrown.
駐車場でけんかをしていた

　

A view of a distant minsu, a private home providing lodging for travelers
民宿

A turkey strutting his stuff along Tungyang Road
七面鳥

The steps leading up to the old graves
古い墓

Lunar New Year 旧正月 Day 8

Amber and I ventured into downtown Fengyuan (Fongyuan) とよはら 豊原 this afternoon to meet a former student of mine, Jane, for coffee. Afterwards, Pamela picked us up in the car, and we took our cat Chiou-chiou 球ちゃん to see the vet. The doctor confirmed our worst fears - our cat is going blind in both eyes. Other than giving him eye drops to lower his high ocular pressure, there's really nothing we can do except to try and make the last years of his life as comfortable as possible.

アンバーは午後カフェでジェーンと会った。

　

豊原駅の向こうにいる。

豊原の中心

獣医クリニックで。球ちゃんは目が見えなくなってしまった。かわいそう。

Lunar New Year 旧正月 Day 7

Finally, a day that stayed sunny the entire time. No clouds, no rain. I didn't do much today. In the morning I went for a walk in the hills overlooking Chung-cheng (Jhong-jheng) Park 中正公園. That was followed up in the afternoon by a visit to another park near our apartment, with Amber, Pamela and my mother-in-law. As always, Amber enjoyed the time spent outdoors.

On the way to Chung-cheng Park, I took a short detour to take these pictures of signs utilizing Japanese.

日本語で書いてある看板

This bizarre sign is for a slot-machine parlor. Casino gambling is illegal in Taiwan, so who knows what goes on in these kinds of places. The writing is a mixture of Japanese and Chinese, おさるの超五空の家 "O-saru no Ch'ao Wu-k'ung (Chao Wu-kong) no ie". さる is the Japanese word for "monkey" 猿, with the honorific お attached. "Chao" means "super", while "Wu-kung" is the name of the Monkey King in the novel "Journey to the West", which I've just read about on Wikipedia (The Monkey King is known as 孫悟空 in Japanese). 家 means "house" or "home". Because the hiragana "no" の is widely used and recognized in Taiwan, the sign could also be read (and probably is by the locals) as "O-saru no Ch'ao Wu-k'ung no chia (jia)", "chia" being the Chinese for "ie". So the name of this establishment is "The honorable monkey Super Wu-kung's house". Yeah, whatever.

A few doors down from the super simian establishment is a cafe called "Toho" 東宝. And I know it's called Toho, and not "Tungpao (Dongbao)", because the name is written in hiragana underneath, とおほう. Actually, though, the onyomi 音読み for 東 is とう, and not とお. Toho is the name of a major Japanese film studio, but methinks there is no connection to this shop.

Lunar New Year 旧正月 Day 6

Despite the overcast and sometimes rainy weather, Amber, Pamela and I enjoyed an afternoon out with Steve and his family (wife March, daughter Zoe and son Eli). Today was a very "Taiwanese" outing for us. Our destination was a small, private zoo located out in the middle of nowhere. Well, in a small town called Fangyuan 芳苑, in Changhua (Jhanghua) しょうか County 彰化県, to be more precise. Out amongst the rice fields, some enterprising farmer has collected a number of exotic animals, including hippos カバ, lions ライオン, monkeys 猿, bears クマ and a North American bison バッファロー, plus some more mundane creatures. For some strange reason, several dogs and a cat were also on display in cages. Unfortunately, many of the animals were kept in cramped, filthy enclosures, and I felt especially sorry for one monkey with a chain around its neck. Someday I'll teach Amber about treating animals in a humane manner. But at this age, it's enough for her to enjoy seeing different animals up close. And enjoy she did, especially the horses 馬 and ponies 子馬/ポニー. Fearless Amber wasn't afraid to reach out and touch the critters.

田舎に小さな動物園で

After the zoo, we drove into the historic town of Lukang (Lugang) ろっこう 鹿港. Lukang/Rokko is chock full of historic buildings and temples, so of course we didn't bother with those and visited the "shell" temple instead. The "shell" temple is called that because the primary material used in construction was...seashells. Lots of 'em. Call it tacky, gaudy けばけばしい and kitsch キッチュ, but the kids enjoyed it, and that's all that matters.

貝殻で建設した道観

Of all the NBA players' photographs you could choose to put in a shell-frame, would you choose Danny Ainge?

After leaving the "shell" temple, and saying goodbye to Steve, March, Zoe and Eli, we headed into central Lukang to have dinner (oyster omelet カキオムレツ) and mingle with the crowds, before returning home to Fengyuan (Fongyuan) とよはら 豊原.

鹿港の夜市

Lunar New Year 旧正月 Day 5

Yuanhuan Road, the loop road around central Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原, is a lot more interesting to walk in a counter-clockwise direction. That's mainly because of a large strip of parkway that borders most of the northern section of the road. It took me 90 minutes and 8400 steps to walk the outer part of the loop this morning.

Two statues. In Japan, you often see statues of nude women in front of public buildings. In Taiwan, I guess it's well-hung men in their jockey briefs. At least that's the case with the figure on the left, which can be seen in front of the Fengyuan Culture Center 豊原文化会館 (yes, there's culture in Fengyuan!). The man on the right is none other than Sun Yat-sen 孫逸仙 (中山樵), the father of the Republic of China. The inscription underneath Sun reads "T'ienhsia wei kung (Tiansia wei gong)", or "The World is for all". As long as you're Chinese?

The Fengyuan branches of the 908 Taiwan Republic Campaign ９０８台湾國運動, and the Taiwan Solidarity Union 台灣團結聯盟, two organizations supporting Taiwanese independence.

This small sign caught my attention as I was walking by. Located in front of an old house, it's for a group promoting exchanges of some sort between Taiwan and Japan. No further information is given as to what kind of activities this society is engaged in.

Later in the afternoon I took Amber over to a nearby park to give her some fresh air, and a chance to stretch her young legs.