Later, ghosts

Today was the last day of Ghost Month 盂蘭盆節, and all over Taiwan people were laying out offerings of food and drink on tables in front of their homes and businesses, and burning "ghost money". The Diore swimming pool, where I went after lunch this afternoon to swim a few laps and enjoy the spa facilities, was getting into the act as I was leaving. I wasn't able to stop in time to take a picture of the bar hostesses sending their ancestors off, but I did get this shot of a betel nut girl being interrupted in her efforts to alleviate the sufferings of the ghosts by a customer on a scooter demanding his fix:

Some things never change

I make no secret of my being a Japanophile 親日, but I nonetheless try not to put on the blinders or rose-tinted glasses when it comes to looking at what goes on in the country. Take Japan's attitude toward the conservation of marine resources - please! It's bad enough the Japanese continue to hunt whales under the flimsy "scientific research" premise, buttressed by dubious claims of "culture" (not to mention hilariously ridiculous comparisons to cattle ranching), all to satisfy a small but vocal nationalist clique. Now it's the turn of the Atlantic bluefin tuna to be put at risk. Despite the ever-increasing prices for the fish at sushi restaurants in Japan, despite the dramatically declining stocks in the Atlantic (by up to 80%), despite the irony in having buy fish from the other side of the world in order to maintain the "traditional food culture" line, the so-called "reformist" Hatoyama administration 鳩山由紀夫 worked overtime to defeat the proposal to have Atlantic bluefin tuna fishing and trading banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). If and when the day comes that tuna is no longer on the menu at sushi and sashimi restaurants, the Japanese won't have to look far to find out who was responsible. The nearest mirror will suffice quite nicely.

Some things are not endangered. I took this photo of a betel nut seller talking to a customer. The picture clarity would've been better had I not been such a coward:

When the chips are down...

I have an interesting schedule on Tuesdays. Mornings I teach three year-olds at a kindergarten. Afternoons find me in the mountains on walks lasting between two and three hours while the evenings are taken up with a group private lesson with three or four young adults. Today's hike was in the Dakeng area again, and the mountain was alive with fauna. There were colorful insects everywhere, lots of lizards running around (some of whom seemed willing to pose for snapshots), I sighted two long gray snakes slithering through the underbrush and, at the end of the hike, a pair of monkeys appeared and sauntered along the pathway. The photo ops were numerous so, naturally, in accordance with the precepts of Murphy's Law, it didn't take long to realize that I had somehow forgotten to put the memory chip into my digital camera, and there was simply no more space to store pictures. Of course it goes without saying that the next time I head out to Dakeng, this time with a fully armed camera, there won't be a lizard, monkey or snake in sight!

Perhaps to make up for the afternoon's oversight, I took the camera with me this evening (with memory card) and took my first betel nut beauty photo:

 

I wasn't going to post this as I don't think it's that good, but my wife likes it!