Sunday, July 31, 2011

Finally!

It's about bloody time. LiveJournal appears to have finally worked out its server issues regarding image insertions on blog entries. Maybe. I hope...


Squint, and you may just be able to make out the Japanese writing on the sign for this boutique near Sanmin Road 三民路 in T'aichung 台中


By "Japan's Type Pork Chop", do they mean tonkatsu 豚カツ? And if so, do they cook it in too much batter, and offer ketchup as a condiment to go along with it?


Sanchōme 三丁目「さんちょうめ」, self-proclaimed purveyors of "cheap barbecue" 平價燒烤

Amber and I went to Taichung's Metropolitan Park 臺中都會公園 yesterday afternoon. In addition to riding her bike around the park, my daughter also polished off an ice cream and vanquished a giant ladybug:



The park is noted for its giant phallus, the most important of the icons venerated by followers of the region's fertility cult:



The weather was clear enough for nice views of the city, though not pristine enough to provide a glimpse of the mountains on the opposite side of the basin from the park:

Saturday, July 30, 2011

It's OK, no one will read this anyway

It has to be the heat and humidity. Or a case of the post-Okinawa 沖縄 trip blues. After all, when I left Naha 那覇, the sky was a beautiful shade of azure which lasted all the way until the island of T’aiwan 台灣 was in sight, when it suddenly faded to a paler hue tinged with yellow, and the ground below looked to be a dull green. Or perhaps it’s that fact the Seattle Mariners have forgotten how to win a baseball game. Then again it could be the result of the insomnia I’ve been suffering from for several months now, which in itself is probably due to stress.

It certainly doesn’t help that Live Journal has been having internal server issues that have made posting an extremely frustrating experience. Whatever the cause, I’ve been feeling cranky recently. And when that happens, it’s time to vent. Consider yourself warned.

Recently a website affiliated with CNN International called CNN Go published a list it called the “World's 50 most delicious foods”. Such pointless subjective listings are usually a waste of time, and this one is no exception. Not surprisingly, it has the Taiwanese blogosphere up in arms due to the fact there is only one dish among the 50 with any connection to Taiwan, the notorious stinky tofu 臭豆腐 (at #41), and here it is identified with Southeast Asia and not Formosa. It would be nice to see the netizens of this island getting worked up over something that actually mattered, but what’s revealing is the cultural myopia on display here. A quick look at stinky tofu’s Wikipedia entry reveals, among other things, the following:

“It is a popular snack in East and Southeast Asia…in Hong Kong, stinky tofu is a trademark street food…”

If Wikipedia is correct (admittedly, a big “if”), then stinky tofu isn’t quite the “Taiwanese” dish we so often think of it as being. Would your average Hong Konger associate stinky tofu with Taiwan? Come to think of it, would anyone outside of East and Southeast Asia even know what stinky tofu is, let alone make a connection between it and Taiwan? Taiwanese bloggers need to take a break from this island periodically and try some authentic non-Chinese/Taiwanese dishes before they start getting themselves all worked up over perceived “slights”.

Another inevitable result of these listings is the equally predictable reaction from certain resident Westerners here. When a chance arrives to show off one’s knowledge of Taiwanese-related minutiae, these folks waste no time in doing so before the window of opportunity closes. On a certain well-known and (deservedly) popular local blog reporting on the above story, you can find several comments made by people listing plenty of “worthwhile” local dishes. In several of the cases, the Mandarin (or preferably Taiwanese) names are employed, but few descriptions are given for those of us unenlightened souls who might not have a clue as to what is being promoted, in an attempt to demonstrate to their fellow ex-pats just how acclimatized they have become to the local culture (bonus points are earned for including the Chinese characters for said dishes). Just how much (or how often) the posters actually enjoy these foods is questionable; after all, some of these poor souls have been known to sing the praises of Taiwan Beer 台灣啤酒, which immediately earns them a couple of minutes in the penalty box for violating the rules of good taste. My favorite recommendation was this one:

“(S)ea urchin sashimi (which I know is Japanese but you can get it here, fresh and local)”

 As least he/she knows the origin of the dish. However, what they fail to point out is that sashimi 刺身 in Taiwan is often served half-frozen, and with at least three times as much wasabi ワサビ as you would get in Japan, thus wiping out any hint of the subtle flavorings that Japanese cuisine is known for. If sashimi was brought out to the table in Japan the way it’s presented in many establishments here, the server would be charged with a felony and would likely do a spell in prison. But I digress...

I honestly can’t think of any local dishes that would belong on a World’s Top 50 food list. For one thing, I’ve only been to a small number of countries, so no doubt there are an untold number of amazingly delicious foods out there that I haven’t tried yet (right, Taiwanese bloggers?), making it difficult for me to assemble any sort of reasonable compilation. But mainly I find most things here to be bland variations on the same old noodle/rice/fried food themes. Comparing Fengyuan 豐原 with Yokkaichi 四日市 in Japan, for example (two ordinary cities where I am living and have lived, respectively), the former certainly has more places to eat, but the latter by far had a much greater variety of foods to choose from. Not only did Yokkaichi offer an extensive range of Japanese cuisine, it also had a much greater choice of non-Japanese dining establishments, running the gamut from the French café where Pamela and I once celebrated our anniversary to the local branch of Denny’s デニーズ. To paraphrase an old saying, Taiwanese will eat anything…as long as it’s Taiwanese.

While many of the locals may be (blissfully?) ignorant of the world at large, what excuse do some of our erstwhile happy foreign residents have? I often get the impression that for a few expats here, Taiwan is the only place in East Asia where they have lived. Sure, they may have visited Hong Kong, Japan or South Korea, but they have never experienced normal life in those places to the extent that they are doing here in Taiwan. As a result, some of them tend to assume either that Taiwan is somehow “uniquely” unique compared to its neighbors, or that what must be true in Taiwan is also the case in the rest of the region. Examples of the former are more numerous, though cases of the latter are often manifested in political discussions. How often have we read in blog postings or comments entries that refer to “Taiwan’s unique history”? So Hong Kong, which was transformed during the period of 155 years of British rule from a small fishing village into a dynamic city and economic powerhouse, isn’t special? And Korea, which saw itself divided by the forces of the Cold War into two states which are almost completely different from each other in terms of political and economic systems, isn’t remarkably different? What about Japan, which for nearly two thousand years has taken first Chinese, and then Western, influences, and turned them into cultural forms which are distinctly Japanese? Apparently, these places just don’t have what it takes, culturally or historically, to set themselves apart from that most special of dynamos, Taiwan.

A recent review of the Taiwanese film Night Market Hero by a Western writer started off by stating that night markets are “(u)nique to Taiwanese culture”. Is that so? Then why does the Wikipedia article on the topic remark that “they also exist in other areas inhabited by ethnic Chinese such as Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Thailand, Philippines and Chinatowns worldwide.”? The review also states the following:

“Italy is Italy, the Greek island are the Greek islands, but there is nothing quite like Taiwan's famous -- and infamous -- night markets.”

You certainly can’t argue with that assertion – the antiquities of Western culture to be seen in Rome or Athens can’t hold a candle to the fried, greasy food and tacky, cheaply priced (and made) clothing that you find in a typical 夜市 (oops, there I go showing off). I do hope our humble scribe was just trying to be humorous.

Work your way through the Taiwan-centered English-language blogosphere, and you’ll find endless references to the friendliness of the Taiwanese people, the beauty of the natural landscape, the opportunities to engage in fun activities and so on. All of which are true, of course, but not exclusive to this island, either. Take the “friendly” locals, for example. I have had the pleasure of meeting a lot of genuinely kind and helpful people in Taiwan, but I have also encountered my fair share of rude, boorish and inconsiderate jerks (and I don’t just mean operators of motor vehicles, either). Some of this so-called “kindness” strikes me as a (not too) subtle reminder that we are, and will always be, guests here, no matter how long we have stayed in Taiwan, or how much of the language we’ve mastered or even when taking into account the families we have started here. I’d rather be treated indifferently, or even ignored, by the locals, because at least it would mean I would be getting the same treatment as anyone else. Besides, the optimist (deep) inside me likes to think that people all over the people are naturally kind to visitors to their land. Hospitality goes hand-in-hand with xenophobia.

At least those of you who can’t get enough of all that “kindness” from the Taiwanese have reciprocated in kind on many occasions, right?

I’ll admit to that it isn’t for nothing that the Portuguese named Taiwan Ilha Formosa. However, while I also love the mountains here (to take but one example), many have been the time when it was hard to make out all that beautiful scenery through the smog…um, pardon me, I mean “haze”. Having spent time in Hokkaidō 北海道 and the Japan Alps 日本アルプス, not to mention just recently returning from a visit to Okinawa, I’m not prepared to attach any superlative endings to descriptions of scenery in this country (and I’ve been told that South Korea has some pretty stunning natural attractions of its own). I had to laugh a while back when some bloggers were campaigning to have Yushan 玉山 named as one of the new “7 Wonders of the World”. Yushan? Just because it may be the highest mountain in northeast Asia doesn’t make it a “wonder”. In terms of aestheticism, for example, how can Yushan even begin to compare with Mt. Fuji 富士山, especially the latter’s almost perfect symmetry and the numerous references to it that have been found in art and literature throughout the centuries? Size doesn’t always matter.

In short, there’s nothing wrong with getting enthused about things Taiwanese, but don’t forget to put your observations into some kind of proper perspective. Get out and spend some time in the rest of East Asia so that you’ll have a better understanding of this country’s pluses and minuses, especially in relation to its neighbors.

And for god’s sake, stop waxing lyrically about Taiwan Beer – there are actually decent local microbrews out there if you would just make the effort to find them.

Peace out…

P.S. If you moved to Taiwan after having lived and worked in China, you are largely excused from much of the above rant.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Meeting Chagall

For those of you who don't read Japanese, the writing on the packet says "Blueberry Sōmen" (thin Japanese noodles made of wheat flour, and served cold in the summertime). I found these today in a small store that stocked imported Japanese foods. I haven't tried them yet, but I expect they will taste, um...different?

The president is turning on the charm offensive again when it comes to Japan:


"T'ái​wān 台灣 President Ma Ying-jeou 馬英九 has called for a Japan-Taiwan partnership to help penetrate fast-growing Chinese markets.

Ma expressed high hopes of future economic deals between Japan and T'ái​wān such as an agreement on mutual protection of investment.

'Economic cooperation between Japan and Taiwan could be more systematized,' Ma said in an interview with Shoichi Oikawa, an executive adviser to The Yomiuri Shimbun, at the presidential office in T'ái​pěi 台北 on Thursday.

Taiwan companies are versed in Chinese markets while Japanese firms boast high levels of technology, Ma said of the two sides' respective strengths.

'If [Japan and Taiwan] jointly go into the markets, we're more likely to succeed,' he said.

In June last year, China and Taiwan signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement 海峽兩岸經濟合作架構協議, equivalent to a free trade deal. If cooperation with Taiwan firms is strengthened, Japanese companies likely will find it easier to enter Chinese markets.

There has already been evidence of this: A Japan-Taiwan partnership helped Japanese companies enter Chinese markets in information and telecommunications technology and machine tools fields...

Meanwhile, Ma appeared to highly regard the Japan-U.S. alliance. 'In the past 60 years, it has served as a foundation for stability in East Asia,' he said.

Since he assumed the presidency, Ma has called on Japan to exhibit art works from Taipei's National Palace Museum 故宮博物院 as part of the two sides' cultural exchange, saying: 'Although [such an exhibition] was held in the United States, Japan has yet to have one. We're hoping Japan will hold it in 2013.'"

The China Post 英文中國郵報 also reported on Ma's interview with the Yomiuri Shimbun, although the paper chose to focus on what the president had to say regarding the Senkaku Islands 尖閣諸島 issue:


"President Ma Ying-jeou has ruled out the possibility of Taiwan aligning with China in dealing with issues related with the disputed Tiào​yú Islands 釣魚台群島.

While making this stance clear in an interview with two major Japanese newspapers Yomiuri Shimbun and Nihon Keizai Shimbun 日本経済新聞, Ma also expressed his hope that the sovereignty dispute over the uninhabited island group can be resolved through peaceful dialogue with Japan...

The (Yomiuri) recalled that shortly after Ma took office in May 2008, nine Taiwanese patrol ships and private protest vessels entered Tiaoyutai waters. At the time, the Yomiuri said, the Ma administration adopted an apparently strong attitude toward the issue.

But Ma later softened his stance and seriously considered steps to strengthen relations with Japan as he came to understand that frayed ties would do no good to Taiwan's security and economic well-being, the Japanese daily observed."

The perpetually factually-challenged China Post also provided this historical background information on the dispute:

"The United States took control of the island group after World War II and handed them over to Japan along with Okinawa 沖縄 in 1972."

What the Central News Agency 中央通訊社 fails to inform us is that the U.S. seized control of the islands from Japan, which has administered the Senkakus ever since annexing them in early 1895 as a case of Terra nullius. Welcome to the wonderful world of revisionist Chinese nationalism.


I had always told myself I wasn't going to be one of those parents who tried to force "art" or "culture" on his kids, but reality has a way of rudely intruding upon ideals. With an exhibition of paintings by the Russian-French-Jewish artist Marc Chagall currently on display at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts 台灣美術館, I gave in to the temptation to introduce my five year-old daughter to the world of high culture.


Not surprisingly, Amber wasn't all that impressed with the paintings, though she did like some of the ones depicting clowns, as well as the one depicted on the admission ticket ("The Birthday"). It was obvious that she wanted to be outside in the sunshine, riding her bike and hitting plastic balls with her plastic bat, but to her credit, she was patient and well-behaved during the time we were walking through the exhibit. I found myself feeling a little disappointed with the exhibition - it seemed a little small, and the majority of the paintings dated from the Seventies. I admit I don't know much about Chagall, but I do know that he came to prominence before World War II, and I would've liked to have seen more of his works from the prewar period (interestingly, the majority of the paintings on display at the art museum appear to have been loaned from collections in Japan). Still, kudos go out to the museum for providing the opportunity to see works from such a well-known master, and even minor Chagall is far superior to what was being displayed by local artists in honor of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of China 中華民國 (cue the yawning).

And, yes, if the art museum has another exhibition featuring a noted Western (or Japanese) artist, I will probably drag Amber there again.

波ちゃん may have been only mildly interested in Chagall, but she really enjoyed the storybook area in the basement of the museum. For parents of expatriate or bicultural kids, this is one of the best places in T'ái​chūng 台中 to take your children to, and the selection of English-language titles is quite impressive. More kudos.

No kudos go out, however, to the overpriced restaurants that line the Art Museum Parkway. The editors of Compass Magazine, as well as wannabe hipsters and members of the nouveau riche, may like this neighborhood, but Amber and I found a nice little cafeteria a block over where we ate very well for less than half the price.


The rest of the afternoon was spent at a large park in the southern part of Taichung, where Amber enjoyed working up quite a sweat riding her bicycle, throwing a Frisbee and swinging her bat and hitting some balls. Art, literature, food and exercise - quite the well-balanced day だろう.

Friday, July 22, 2011

The Process of Unshaftification

Even bureaucrats can, on occasion, recognize the error of their ways...


"The government will expand an emergency relief payment program to cover undergraduate students from T'áiwān 台灣 studying in the disaster-stricken Tōhoku region 東北地方, after having earlier denied such payments, according to Japan's de facto mission in T'áiwān.

The Interchange Association 財團法人交流協會 said in a statement issued Tuesday that applicants eligible for the one-month payment must demonstrate an excellent scholastic record and financial difficulty in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami 東北地方太平洋沖地震 that devastated the region's coastal areas in March.

The policy shift was made after Taiwanese undergraduate students studying at a private university in Tochigi Prefecture 栃木県 lodged a protest earlier this month.

After the disaster struck, the education ministry 文科省 had asked universities in affected regions to solicit applications for the one-month relief payments of ¥125,000 ($1590/NT45,815) for eligible undergraduate students studying at their own expense in the country, treating them the same as students on government scholarship programs."

(Kyōdō News 共同通信社, Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ)

Monday, July 18, 2011

Another milestone reached...

...when my daughter made her first visit yesterday to an amusement park. Thanks to the fact that one of my wife's co-workers drives a Suzuki スズキ, we were able to visit the Yamay Resort 月眉育樂世界 overlooking the town of Hòulǐ 后里 for the ridiculously low admission price of NT150 ($5.20/¥410) each (there was some kind of Suzuki promotion taking place on Saturday, and Suzuki drivers were eligible for the special discount). The tickets were good for not one, but two parks - the Mǎlā Bay water park 馬拉灣主題樂園 and the adjoining Discovery World 探索主題樂園. Amber has actually visited Mala Bay before, to enjoy the water slides and wave pool (and we were fortunate this time in that we were able to get in a full morning of fun in the water before the daily downpour came down just after lunchtime). But Discovery World was a new, um, discovery for my five year-old as it was her first time to see roller coasters and other such rides up close. Alas, being under 120 centimeters (47 inches, or 3'11") in height meant that Amber was unable to go on many of the attractions, much to her initial disappointment. However, it turned out that Discovery World has a very good kids area filled with child-size coasters, flying elephant rides, motor cars and the like, and my daughter took advantage of almost everything that was she big enough to go on (several times on some of them). Did she enjoy herself? I think the pictures below speak for themselves...


The evening culminated with some kind of fountain and light show involving a lot of costumed dancers. I was completely lost on the storyline (and I wondered if the Russian cast members really knew what they were supposed to be dancing along to), but in any event the climax involved a lot of water being sprayed on the crowd (thank god we were prepared!). The woman on the right is Yoko, my wife's colleague and the woman whose car made this entire day possible for all of us.

Friday, July 15, 2011

An island of Rodney Dangerfields

I’m surprised this story hasn’t received more attention here in T'áiwān 台灣, especially on the local blogosphere. Just the headline alone from this Kyōdō News 共同通信社 article that appeared in the Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ last Sunday should’ve generated some discussion – “Students from Taiwan denied disaster funds. Lack of official ties with Taipei nixes ¥125,000 relief payments.”:


Students from Taiwan studying at universities in the disaster-stricken northeast at their own expense were barred from applying for emergency funds that the central government made available to foreign students, according to sources.

The education ministry 文科省 said they were ineligible 'because of the lack of diplomatic relations with Taiwan'...

To support foreign students studying in Japan at their own expense, the education ministry decided to take an emergency measure to treat them equally as students on government scholarship programs, according to the ministry.”

It seems that only those foreign students “who have nationality of a country that has diplomatic relations with Japan” are eligible for scholarships from the Japanese government to help cover the cost of their studies at Japanese universities. The government has determined that foreign undergraduate students enrolled in universities in the Tōhoku 東北地方 and Kantō 関東地方 regions are eligible to receive relief payments of ¥125,000 ($1580/NT45,570) for one month. However, this assistance comes with the aforementioned “diplomatic relations” proviso that applies to students on Monkashō scholarships, meaning that those among the 1800 Taiwanese undergraduate student population in Japan who are going to schools in the affected areas are prevented from getting any assistance.

The situation takes an even more ridiculous turn when the article reveals that:

The relief program also covered graduate students and those from Taiwan were also apparently eligible. Twenty-five Taiwanese graduate students received payments through the Interchange Association 財團法人交流協會, which serves as Japan's de facto embassy for Taiwan.”

So it seems that those Taiwanese who are studying in Japanese university undergraduate programs at their own expense can’t get any financial help in a time of crisis due to reasons related to international diplomacy (a decision apparently made by the Education Ministry, and not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 外務省), but their counterparts who are fortunate enough to be enrolled in graduate programs at (presumably many of) the same schools ARE eligible for assistance, despite the lack of official ties between Japan and T'áiwān.

The mind boggles when it comes to the workings of the Japanese bureaucracy.

Just why the “diplomatic relations” clause is a requirement for government aid in the first place is a mystery. Japan maintains official relations with virtually every nation on the planet, save for two – our perpetually picked-on Republic of China 中華民國, and the much-despised (and deservedly so) Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Was the requirement a result of pressure from the Chinese government in Beijing, and, if so, why? Or was it aimed at North Korea? Japan has a large population of resident Koreans 在日韓国・朝鮮人, a number of whom are associated with the pro-Pyongyang Chongryon 朝鮮総聯 organization, so it’s certainly not out of the question that the exclusion might be aimed at North Koreans in Japan. The latter are considered “permanent foreign residents” (as are the pro-South Korean segment) rather than Japanese nationals, despite having been born and raised in Japan, and, in most cases, speaking Japanese as their mother tongue (as opposed to Korean). Chongryon-run private schools at all levels, including Korea University 朝鮮大学校 in Tōkyō 東京, do not receive any subsidies from the central government. Elements within the Japanese government may have felt that the scholarships for foreign students could have provided a loophole for those North Korean residents to receive the same, so they might have come up with the diplomatic recognition requirement as a way to prevent that from happening. So it’s certainly plausible that Taiwanese students may be the unfortunate victims of the complex relationship between Japan, its resident Korean population and North Korea.

Whatever the reason (and much of this is pure speculation on my part), it just seems extremely unfair. There’s the risk that all of this could have negative consequences down the road. As the article notes:

The ministry could face criticism for its inflexibility, as people in Taiwan have been among the most generous donors to Japan following the March 11 quake and tsunami, contributing around ¥17 billion ($215 million/NT6.2 billion.”

The story has already generated at least one outraged letter to the editor at the Japan Times, who points out that:


“…the Japanese government will deny relief funds to Taiwanese students in the Tōhoku region, because Japan does not recognize Taiwan. And yet Japan had no problem at all with accepting millions in donations from Taiwan.

This kind of double standard casts a very bad shadow on Japan. If Taiwan can donate money for disaster relief in Japan, why can't Taiwanese students in Japan receive the same type of aid as other foreign students? For shame!”

The window of the restaurant, Sol Kitchen, where Amber and I had dinner this evening. The menu was almost entirely in Japanese, with Chinese translations of the items placed in parentheses. I ordered the taco rice タコライス, one of the signature dishes in Okinawa 沖縄.

The aforementioned taco rice. It wasn't bad, but without salsa sauce, it was drier than the dish I had on Taketomi Island 竹富島 a couple of weeks ago. In any event, Amber ended up eating most of it because the beef curry rice ビーフカレーライス she ordered proved to be too spicy for her.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Take me out to the dance

I've got some catching up to do since I finished posting all the pictures from my recent (and much needed) vacation break in Okinawa 沖縄. While I had a great time there, it was most unfortunate that I had to miss a performance by my daughter's kindergarten class as part of her school's graduation ceremonies (Amber still has another year to go before enrolling in elementary school, which is what happens when your birthday falls in January). The show was scheduled long after I had made the flight reservations and booked my accommodation, so I was unable to change my itinerary. As it was, I only missed her dance by a few hours as it took place on the morning of July 3, and I returned to T'áiwān 台灣 from Japan 日本 later that afternoon. Fortunately, my wife recorded the performance, and thanks to the miracle that is YouTube, I can "share" it with the rest of the world. Sharing is good...


Those of you of a certain age might remember the tune :-) BTW, neither I nor Amber take any responsibility for the "Will you marry me?" "Yes, I do" exchange that takes place at the beginning of the performance. I was out of the country at the time, remember?

Last Saturday the Kaminoge family took in a ballgame. Amber had a great time enthusiastically blowing her horn, as you can see (and hear) for yourself:


For those of you interested in the outcome of the game, here's the Taipei Times writeup on the contest, from Sunday's edition:

"Peng 'Chia Chia' Cheng-min’s 彭政閔 two-run blast in the top of the seventh broke a 5-5 tie to lift the Brother Elephants 兄弟象 past the Sinon Bulls 興農牛 in a 7-5 final at the T'áichūng Intercontinental Baseball Stadium 臺中市洲際棒球場 last night.

In a contest that featured four lead changes, it was the Bulls who drew first blood with a pair of runs on a first-inning homer by Cheng Da-hong 鄭達鴻 off Elephant starter Orlando Roman.

However, the men in the golden uniforms rallied by plating a run in the second, before skidding ahead 3-2 with two runs in the third, courtesy of an RBI triple by Chang Chih-hao 張志豪 and Chou Si-chi’s 周思齊 groundout to short that drove in Chang on the ensuing play.

The Elephants added to their lead by two in the fifth on RBI doubles by Chia Chia and Chou to make it 5-2, only to see the lead squandered away in the bottom of the same inning when Cheng pounded out a two-run single with the bases loaded, before Chang Jien-ming 張建銘 knocked in the tying run on a fielder’s choice to second that made it 5-5.

Roman was credited with his eighth win of the year, while the loss went to Sinon reliever Chen Huan-yang 陳煥揚."

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Okinawa Getaway: Days 8 and 9 7月2日と3日

After a week of enjoying the sun (when it wasn't cloudy or rainy), sand and reefs of Okinawa Prefecture 沖縄県, my last full day there was a more somber one. Okinawa, of course, was the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War, and visitors to the main island 沖縄本島 owe it to themselves to take a little bit of time away from the beaches and shops, and pay a visit to one of the war-related memorials. Which is why, following breakfast on the morning of my final day in Naha 那覇, I walked over to the Naha Bus Terminal 那覇バスターミナル and caught the No. 89 bus going to Itoman 糸満.

It was an uninteresting ride through Naha's seemingly endless suburbs to the Itoman Bus Terminal 糸満バスターミナル, where I transferred to the No. 82 bus. It wasn't long before I was being dropped off at the Memorial Peace Park 平和祈念公園, located on Mabuni Hill 摩文仁の丘, where the final battle of the Okinawa campaign took place. Upon entering the park, the first building of note to be seen is the Peace Memorial Hall 平和記念堂:


Despite its striking white tower, there apparently isn't much to see inside according to my guidebooks, so I skipped going in, and instead saved my money for the Okinawa Prefecture Peace Memorial Museum 沖縄県立平和記念資料館:


The museum covers what happened during the Battle of Okinawa 沖縄戦, but its main focus is on the suffering the people of the island endured during the fighting. Up to a third of the civilian population perished in the invasion, and the museum's displays place much of the blame for that on the Japanese government and military. Okinawa was sacrificed in order to forestall an American attack on the home islands, and men, women and children were forced to shelter in caves with the Japanese troops in appalling conditions. Babies were smothered to keep them quiet, people were shot for speaking the local dialect 沖縄方言 and not Japanese and, of course, many were killed or severely injured by bullets, shells and grenades. Most tragic of all, however, were the stories of civilians committing mass suicide under the urging or coercion of Japanese soldiers, who told the Okinawans of the terrible things that would happen to them if they surrendered to the Americans:


Other displays in the museum cover the postwar period, when Okinawa was under American administration, and paints a less-than-rosy picture of how the U.S. did little to live up to its democratic ideals while governing the people of the Ryūkyū Islands 琉球諸島. It makes it very easy to understand the resentment Okinawans feel toward the Japanese and American governments over the continuing U.S. military presence on the islands:



The view overlooking the park from the roof of the peace museum:


After taking in all the displays in the museum, I went outside and walked over to the Cornerstone of Peace 平和の礎. Here there are granite monuments inscribed with the names of the over 240,000 people who were killed during the fighting on Okinawa Island. To the park's great credit, the names of all the dead - Japanese and American military and Okinawan civilians - are listed. Here and there, people could be seen laying bouquets of flowers in front of some of the monuments, a very touching scene on this still and humid morning:



This monument lists the names of Taiwanese who died in the battle:


Ernie Pyle was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American war correspondent. He was killed by Japanese machine-gun fire on April 18, 1945:


The Memorial Peace Park, with its peace museum and Cornerstone of Peace, is most definitely worth a visit. After nearly three hours there, I boarded a No. 82 bus heading back toward Itoman. Before reaching the bus terminal, however, I made one more stop, where, after a tendon 天丼 lunch, I visited the Himeyuri-no-tō ひめゆりの塔. Whereas the Peace Museum describes the suffering of the people in a broad sense, the Himeyuri-no-tō brings it down to a more personal level, telling the tragic tale of the Himeyuri students, high school girls who were mobilized as nurses at the start of the American invasion. The students dealt with the wounded in gruesome circumstances, as they moved from cave to cave, and many were killed by bullets and shells. The worst came after the nursing units were dissolved on June 18, 1945. Even more girls died after being left to fend for themselves in the caves, with some getting caught in the crossfire, and others committing suicide after believing the propaganda that was fed to them about how they would be raped and killed by American troops. In all, 227 students in the Himeyuri corps did not survive the war. Their story is told in a well-laid out museum, complete with photographs and excellent English language captions.

The cenotaph in the front of the museum, where visitors can lay flowers:


The entrance to the museum is just after the cenotaph:


Of all the photographs of the girls who died, this one touched me the most. Most of the pictures were taken from formal school portraits, with the girls looking serious or shyly grinning. This one, however, showed an image of a much younger girl with a sweet smile, who shouldn't have suffered and died the way she did (and of course none of them should have - they were just students, and as the museum points out, mobilizing them for military service was against all codes of international law). May you rest in peace, Ranko Kokuba 国場蘭子:


What a senseless waste of life it all was - soldier and civilian, Japanese and non-Japanese.

It was a quiet bus ride from the Himeyuri-no-tō back to the Itoman Bus Terminal. It wasn't long, however, before I found myself back in the present world, i.e. Naha. Before returning to my hotel for a rest, I visited the F.C. Ryūkyū FC琉球 soccer team store, and picked up a T-shirt and a key holder. I'm a sucker for stuff like that:


On my last evening in Naha, I explored once more Kokusai-dōri 国際通り. Starting out on foot from the Tōyoko Inn 東横イン, I walked the other side of the road from the night before, heading east this time:


Bottles of Habushu ハブ酒, containing the bodies of deadly Habu snakes 波布 being soaked in the local awamori 泡盛 firewater:


The view I had of Kokusai-dōri from my restaurant table. My final dinner in Okinawa consisted of rib steak and Orion Beer オリオンビール. Not a bad life, eh?:


I pulled up a bar stool at a brewpub called Helios ヘリオス, and sampled four of their craft beers for ¥900 ($11.15/NT320). From left to right, I tried the Wiezen バイツェン; Lager 酵母入りラガー; Pale Ale ペールエール; and Porter ポーター. As none of them were anything at all like T'ái​wān Beer 台灣啤酒 (for one thing, they all had flavor), it was hard choosing which one was best:



At the end of Kokusai-dōri, I came across a neighborhood festival taking place on the grounds of a local Shintō shrine 神社. It's images like these that I always treasure from the times when I was living in Japan:


Instead of hopping on the monorail and returning to my hotel, I decided to walk around some of the adjoining streets. It was while doing so that I came across the Sōgen-ji Ishimon Stonegate 崇元時石門, the only survivor of the mausoleum for former kings of the Ryūkyū Kingdom 琉球王国. Another reminder of the senseless destruction the Second World War brought down on Okinawa:


Because it was my last night in Naha, I kept on walking, all the way back to my hotel via Kokusai-dōri again. One final look back at the beginning of the thoroughfare...:


...and then it was time to pack my bags, and turn in for the night. The next morning I had breakfast, checked out, rode the monorail to the airport, then flew from Naha 那覇空港 for all of one hour and ten minutes back to T'ái​wān 台灣. I was reunited with my wife and daughter by the early afternoon.

A few mementos from the trip: some brown cane sugar 黒糖 candy, a miniature bottle of awamori and some packets of Okinawa Soba 沖縄そば:


It had been 18 years since my last visit to Okinawa, so you could say this trip was long overdue. Of all my recent vacations in Japan, this has probably been the best one so far. From swimming in the reefs at Yonehara Beach 米原ビーチ to meeting some really friendly people on Ishigaki Island 石垣島, I came back from Okinawa with a lot of great memories that I will treasure until the day I'm gone. Hopefully, one day I can make it back - there are still more islands left to explore!

沖縄んかいめんそーれー! Until the time I can hear those words again...

Bye-bye Okinawa バイバイ沖縄 - Sadao China 知名定男

Okinawa Getaway: Day 7 7月1日

This was the day I bade farewell to the island of Ishigaki 石垣島 after having stayed there five days. As my flight to Naha 那覇 wasn’t due to depart until 11 am, and with Ishigaki Airport 石垣空港 being just a twenty-minute bus ride from the downtown area, I had some time for a final walk around.

This sign on the wall of the covered shopping arcade expresses the residents’ thanks to the Taiwanese people for the support they gave to the Japanese in their time of recent crises:



The public market:



Proof that T’áiwān 台灣 isn’t very far away. I was headed in the opposite direction, however:


A last look at the city of Ishigaki 石垣市 from the window of my Japan Transocean Air (JTA) 日本トランスオーシャン航空 flight to Naha Airport 那覇空港:


It was a short flight from Ishigaki to Naha (just 55 minutes), and as it was lunchtime when we landed, I sought out a restaurant in the domestic terminal building, and sat down to yet another soba 蕎麦 meal. This time I had Sōki Soba ソーキそば, thick white noodles with pork spare ribs:


After lunch, I rode the Yui Rail ゆいレール monorail line to Asahibashi Station 旭橋駅, the closest station to my hotel, the Tōyoko Inn 東横イン那覇旭橋駅前, where I had stayed my first night in Okinawa 沖縄. It was too early to go up to my room, but I was able to register and leave my bag with the front desk, and then set out to see Naha’s most well-known area (at least for domestic tourists), Kokusai-dōri 国際通り.

Kokusai-dōri (“International Street”) is a 2-kilometer (1.2 miles)-long road lined with souvenir shops and restaurants. It’s busy most of the day, but especially comes alive in the early evening, when the sidewalks are teeming with Japanese families, young friends traveling together, foreign visitors and American Marines on leave from one of their many bases on the island. The entrance to Kokusai-dōri was just a short walk from my hotel, but I elected to begin my exploration at the opposite end, so I rode the monorail three stops to Makishi Station 牧志駅, and started from there.

It wasn’t long before I came to the entrance to the Heiwa-dōri 平和通りcovered shopping arcade. This street, and the adjoining Ichibahon-dōri 市場本通り, both evoke images of a Japan that is in danger of dying out in the modern era, as the country grows more and more suburbanized. There was a time not long ago when most people would take the train or bus to their local downtown areas, and do their shopping from small mom-and-pop stores in the covered arcades. Now, however, large shopping centers built on the outskirts of urban areas are drawing the customers away, and all over Japan you can the sight of shuttered stores in these once-shriving districts. All seemed well in Naha, however, no doubt as a result of the thriving tourist trade:



Halfway down Ichibahon-dōri is the Dai-ichi Kōsetsu Makishi Ichiba 第一公設牧志市場, a two-story market with seafood, fruit and vegetable and household goods stalls on the first floor, and a number of small restaurants upstairs specializing in fresh seafood. The foods on sale here would not seem out of place in Taiwan, but here in Japan it all seems very exotic. I decided to come here later for dinner:




Leaving the arcade, I returned to Heiwa-dōri, and then followed the arcade to its end, going away from Kokusai-dōri. Where it ended, the Tsuboya 壺屋 pottery district began. My Rough Guide book states that this area has been the center of local ceramics production since 1682, though none of the current buildings there date from anywhere close to that time. Though I don’t have a particular interest in ceramics, I was still surprised (and disappointed) to discover the Tsuboya Pottery Museum 壺屋焼物博物館 to be closed in the middle of a Friday afternoon at the beginning of the summer vacation season. However, there is a traditional climbing kiln on an embankment next to the museum that can be seen at any time. My guidebook says this kiln dates from the 1880’s, but according to a sign in front, it was actually erected in the 1680’s:



These days, many of the shops in the Tsuboya area specialize in the production and sale of Shīsā シーサー guardian lions:



At the end of Tsuboya-yachimun- dōri 壺屋やちむん通り, I turned left and made my back to Makishi Station, and returned by monorail to my hotel, where my room was now ready.

The view from my hotel room. That’s Asahibashi Station in the upper-left part of the photo:


After resting for a bit, I was getting hungry, so once again I rode the monorail to Makishi Station, and returned to Kokusai-dōri, and, eventually, the Dai-ichi Kōsetsu Makishi Ichiba market. At one of the restaurants on the second floor, I sat down to a plate of fresh sashimi 刺身, which along with the accompanying bowls of soup and rice, was pretty good value at ¥1200 ($14.75/NT425):


After dinner, I spent the remainder of the evening walking west along Kokusai-dōri, in the direction of the Tōyoko Inn. I spent some time browsing in some of the stores, and picked up some souvenirs for myself (namely a very cool Okinawan-style shirt-sleeved shirt) and my daughter. Most of all, I enjoyed watching all the people going back and forth. Despite all the activity, the vibe was, well, fairly mellow, at least in comparison to similar scenes in Taiwan:





Relaxing with my buddy, Joe Yabuki 矢吹丈, star of the boxing manga 漫画 and anime series アニメ “Ashita no Joe” あしたのジョー, while drinking a cup of shīkwāsā juice シーくぁーサージュース:


Haisai ojisan ハイサイおじさん - Shoukichi Kina 喜納昌吉