Have mercy 観音山の写真

A few photos from a morning walk in the area around the mountaintop Guanyin (Kannon) 觀世音菩薩 Temple in Taichung (Taichū) 台中:

A small temple built into the side of a hill, looking like something from "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari". For some reason, plastic colored bowling pins were hung along the covered corridor:

The Guanyin Temple complex off in the distance:

These statues at the temple appear to be arhats, those who have achieved nirvana:

Even on the edge of the city, people are crammed into the modern, Taiwanese equivalent of tenement blocks (for the middle class, no less):

Why was there a vehicle, made up to look like a ship and representing the city government of Keelung 基隆 parked by the side of the road? And what is the apparent connection to Double Ten Day 國慶日?:

Back in the material world, the Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ carried an article the other day that should give pause for thought to any Chinese patriots determined to restore the beloved Diaoyutai Islands 釣魚台群島 to the bosom of the sacred motherland (U.S. reassures Japan that defense pact extends to Senkaku Islands):

"With Japan, China and Taiwan trading barbs over sovereignty of the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands 尖閣諸島 in the East China Sea 東シナ海, the United States has reiterated that the islets are covered by the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty 日米安保. 'The Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security signed by Tōkyō 東京 and Washington in 1960, which states that it applies to the territories under the administration of Japan, does apply to the island,' Larry Walker, a spokesman for the American Institute in Taiwan 美國在台協會, the de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei 台北, said Saturday. But Walker said the United States reserves judgment on ultimate sovereignty of the islands, which have been under Japanese administrative control since the reversion of Okinawa 沖縄 to Japan from U.S. administrative rule in 1972...The comments came after China on Thursday expressed 'strong dissatisfaction' over remarks by Prime Minister Tarō Asō 麻生太郎 that Japan and the United States would work together to deal with any attack by a third country on the disputed islets, which are claimed by China and Taiwan."

I guess those Taiwanese officials who were stating last year that war was an option over the Senkakus were unaware of the obscure security treaty.