Where art thou NHK?

I woke up this morning and turned on the TV to find that the local Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原（とよはら） cable TV provider has once again undertaken an unannounced reshuffling of some of the available channels. This seems to happen at least once a year, and always affects the NHK channel. This time the Japanese broadcaster has been shunted from its previous position at Channel 96 even further into the hinterlands at Channel 107, just after all the Buddhist channels. Why? Who knows?! The last time I checked at Steve's apartment in T'aichung (Taijhong) 台中（たいちゅう） it was on something like Channel 20 there, so I guess the Japanese expat TV audience isn't very large in the Fengyuan area when compared to Taichung. Unlike the commercial Japanese TV channels also aired on the cable TV package (some of which appear to have been moved as well), NHK's programs aren't subtitled in Mandarin 中国語, which no doubt makes it irrelevant for most Taiwanese viewers. (As a side note, the high quality but bland programming offered by NHK wouldn't appeal to many people here even if the shows had subtitles, at least when compared to the absolute crap that passes for entertainment on Taiwanese TV. Commercial TV in Japan is pretty awful as well, but a lot of shows in Taiwan are really bad imitations and/or ripoffs of Japanese programming. It's crap taken to the next lowest level).

And why does this matter? Well, I'm not Japanese, but I like to watch NHK at times for its broadcasts of Japanese baseball and J-League soccer games. I also enjoy the programs that show the scenic beauty of Japan. But most of all it's because Amber loves the Monday-Friday noon hour children's programs which are, needless to say, a heckuva lot better than the made-in-Taiwan kiddie shows I've seen so far. The picture quality on the channels in the 100's isn't as clear compared to the ones in the lower digits, though that's probably more a reflection of the poor condition of our old TV set. At least NHK is still around. Who knows where it will end up in the next reshuffle?

Flowers 花

Pamela's sisters paid a visit today, driving up to Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原（とよはら） from their homes in Hsiluo (Siluo) 西螺（せいら）, so this morning we drove over to my brother-in-law's house to greet them. Everyone then went out to a local beef hotpot restaurant for lunch, which was followed by a visit to a flower farm in the neighboring town of Houli 后里（こうり）. Afterwards, the in-laws decided to go to a hot springs 温泉, but as it was getting near 4 o'clock and with a tired little girl on our hands, we decided to call it a day and headed home. The story in pictures:

Before heading off to the restaurant for lunch, Amber and I took a walk to a local Seven-Eleven, where Amber checked out the headlines in today's Taipei Times newspaper. Seven-Eleven is featuring Japanese-style "ekiben" 駅弁, boxed lunches bought at train stations, and often containing local specialties. According to the poster, you can choose one of two kinds of ekiben: a chicken-and-rice 鶏めし box from Hakata Station 博多駅 in Fukuoka 福岡; or a tonkatsu (pork cutlet) 豚カツ meal, supposedly from Nagoya Station 名古屋駅. In any case, they have got to be an improvement over what's usually available from convenience stores in Taiwan, most of which I find either tasteless or just plain inedible. (Although considering what usually happens to Japanese food in Taiwan, I'm not getting my hopes up about these ekiben)

After lunch, while everyone else drove back to the house for some quick karaoke カラオケ before leaving for the flower farm, I pushed Amber in her stroller, which gave me an excuse to indulge in my guiltiest of pleasures in Taiwan: milk teas ミルクティー purchased from a chain of tea stands called Balance. At NT15 (45 cents or ￥50), it's 700cc of sweet pleasure that unfortunately adds inches to your waistline.

At last, we drove to the flower farm. At first, this place seemed to embody the worst of mass tourism, Taiwan-style: huge tour buses disgorging throngs of loud visitors, who then proceed to stuff their faces and sing karaoke (god, how I hate karaoke in Taiwan), all the while puffing on Long Life cigarettes and chewing betel nut 檳榔 (the men, anyway). However, once past the ticket barrier (which serves to keep the riff-raff out, I guess), the crowds thinned out, things became quieter and the flower fields turned out to be prettier than I expected.

Amber enjoys some of the flowers

A monster carp 鯉

Some family portraits amid the flowers

The lavender fields ラベンダー野原 were especially nice. 北海道っぽい！

One of life's simplest but most enjoyable pleasures, and one which I hope Amber will get enjoy on many occasions as she gets older

An experiment in hiking ハイキングの試み

I'm working on Saturdays now. It's just one class, 90 minutes in the afternoon while Amber is taking her nap, but I still wish I didn't have to do it. One of the things I used to do on my free Saturdays was to go for hikes in Tak'eng (Dakeng) 大坑, so today I decided to find out if it was still possible to do so. The good news is it is! By waking up at 7, leaving home before 7:30 and having a quick breakfast at McDonald's, I was able to reach Takeng and begin a hike by 8:30. The bad news is there are a lot more people on the trails at that time compared to the late morning/early afternoon walks I used to do. You can't have everything, I suppose.

This morning I chose to go up the No. 2 Trail, which I did, reaching the top in about 35 minutes. I didn't take any pictures of the scenery on the way up, as I've done so many times in the past. But there were some insects out and about, such as this caterpillar 毛虫 and these ants アリ:

The top of the No. 2 Trail was predictably crowded with hikers taking a break or having breakfast. A quick ten-minute walk up some steep staircases brought me to the beginning of the No. 5 Trail.

The No. 5 is a ridgetop trail, and is a fairly level walk for the most part. It's also the least busy of the five trails in the area, so I was able to find some occasional peace and quiet this morning.

The most enjoyable thing about walking the No. 5 Trail this morning was seeing the Tung trees in full bloom. Blossoms could be seen everywhere along the trail, and the ground was carpeted with them in some places.

あちらこちらアブラギリの花が見られた。

At what I assume is the highest point on the No. 5 is an obelisk オベリスク, erected in 1979, commemorating the 90th anniversary of the establishment of T'aichung (Taijhong) 台中（たいちゅう）as a city. The monument also informs us that the name of the mountain upon which it stands is Erhk'eshan (Erkeshan) 貳科山 ("Two Branches Mountain"), and that it stands 775 meters (2543 feet) in elevation. There is also an inscription on one side that reads "Jen che yao shan (Ren jhe yao shan)" 仁者樂山, part of a Confucian saying that people of high moral character love mountains. That's me folks!

The No. 5 Trail comes to an end at a small agricultural road. A short walk past some orchards leads to a section of trail that joins up with the main hiking routes in Takeng. It was there that I took this picture of a Tung tree in all its glory.

More views of blooming Tung trees and distant settlements could be had on the way back to the No. 2 Trail. In all, it took me 90 minutes to make the loop, including the time spent stopping to take pictures.

On the way back down the No. 2 to the parking lot, I was lucky to get a glimpse of some monkeys 猿, a rare sight in the mountains of Takeng (though actually the third time I've seen some there). One, in fact, crossed the trail in front of me. I stood for a long time listening to their sounds and movements in the brush nearby, and was able to get a photo of one hiding in the foliage (even if the picture does look like a shot of the hidden gunman in the grassy knoll at Dealey Plaza!).

Alas, my fellow hikers didn't share the same reverence for the monkeys as me. Especially grating were the kids screaming "Monkey! Monkey! Monkey!" (in English!), egged on by their even more obnoxious mother. One man stopped to have a look, but neglected to turn off his blaring radio before doing so. And then there were the three OL-types who stopped to take a break next to where I was standing, blathering away on topics of interest to young working women, and completely oblivious to the grunts and clicking sounds of the monkeys in the trees just a few meters away from them. Yet another example of how I am disconnected from the ways of Taiwan and its natives?

I was back at my scooter before 11:30, 3 hours and 9000 paces later, and back home for lunch by 12:15. Conclusion: if I can drag myself out of bed early enough, I can still enjoy the great outdoors before going to work. Now if I can just find a place where I can be alone...

Flower-viewing 花見

No, it wasn't cherry blossoms 桜 we went to see today, but tung blossoms. Every April, the flowers of the Tung tree アブラギリ bloom, and fall to the ground in what the locals call "April (or May) Snow". So off we went to the nearby town of Sani (Sanyi) 三義, in the neighboring county of Miaoli 苗栗県（びょうりつけん）to see what all the excitement was for ourselves. So did half the population of Taiwan, it seemed. It was a long, slow crawl from the freeway exit and through Sanyi town, where at least Amber knew best how to use the time to maximum efficiency

Fortunately, Pamela had done her research, and had selected a trail away from the center of Sanyi and the descending hordes. Once we had driven through town, the road cleared up. Our destination was far from desolate, but the crowd size was tolerable, and everyone was in a good mood.

After stopping off for lunch

we found the entrance to the trail, parked our car along the side of the road, and started a gentle 2-kilometer (1.2-mile) walk uphill that ended in a large tea plantation. Amber walked most of the way, and didn't seem at all tired from the effort.

Tung blossoms were scattered on the ground all along the road, and everyone was stopping to pick them up, with many making wreaths 花輪 with the petals.

The sight of the scattered blossoms on the ground, in fact, was much more beautiful than the flowers blooming in the trees above. From a distance, Tung trees in full bloom are a pretty sight, but up close, the flowers are too high up to fully appreciate

After taking a break at the top (where Amber was more interested in stones than the pretty flowers)

we headed back down to the car. Amber managed to develop a fan following along the way

Back in the car, we decided not to head back into Sanyi and the resulting gridlock, opting instead to keep going straight on the road where we had parked. After making a quick stop to check out the scenery

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and driving through some nice, almost American or Hokkaido-looking rural scenery, we eventually reached the coast and the small town of T'unghsiao (Tongsiao) 通宵. Just north of Tunghsiao is one of the tackiest sights you're likely to come across in Taiwan. Just off Highway 1 is a garden built by a wealthy businessman in memory of his mother. Free to the public, it's a bizarre collection of religious imagery, with displays relating to Buddhism 仏教

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Christianity キリスト教

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Taoism 道教 and Confucianism 儒教, and Chinese Nationalist 中国国民党/Republic of China 中華民国 propaganda

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along with some stuff that is just plain strange

There was even a poem written in Japanese, called 私の心, "My Heart"

The large number of gangsters 暴力団員 there with their families and girlfriends only added to the overall weirdness of the place. Fortunately, the ocean is just behind the garden, and the view of the setting sun over the Taiwan Straits 台湾海峡 seemed like the proper way to finish off a nice afternoon.