Bob and Bing on the Road to Taichung

I have Tuesday afternoons free, and usually take advantage of the time by going for walks in the mountains. This morning, however, turned out to be an unexpected holiday as well, thanks to a government inspection of the kindergarten where I teach. It's one of those "Taiwan things" - foreigners are not allowed to teach young children, yet everyone knows it goes on. Hundreds (if not thousands) of Westerners are employed at kindergartens promoting English as the medium of instruction, and these schools can, in fact, sponsor working visas for foreign instructors. What the government is afraid of isn't clear (I'm not sure what dangerous ideas I could be imparting on the young minds I mold on weekday mornings), but when it comes time for announced-in advance inspections, the non-Taiwanese teachers are either told to hide (in empty rooms, basements, nearby parks...anywhere is possible) or, as was the case today, to take part of the day off. Of course, the logical thing to do would be to allow qualified foreign language instructors to teach young children in regulated, supervised environments, but this is Taiwan, so ridiculous restrictions are imposed, and then flouted by virtually everyone. It's things like this that make me glad my residency visa comes through marriage.

I had planned to spend this afternoon doing a bit of sightseeing in T'aichung 台中, and that's what I did (only with a bit more time on my hands). This morning I paid a visit to the city's foremost tourist attraction (for the locals, anyway), the National Museum of Natural Science 國立自然科學博物館. Like most things about Taichung (or Taiwan, for that matter), my feelings are mixed on the museum. From the outside, the building does nothing to inspire the approaching visitor. Most of the displays inside are directed towards children, and it was no surprise to see a constant stream of school children being led around the museum by guides today. Having visited before both with students and my daughter, I skipped the exhibits covering things like paleontology, zoology and biology, and instead made for the quieter displays located further inside the large building. In these rooms, one can learn about traditional Chinese medicine, early advances in Chinese technology, paleolithic Chinese cultures and Chinese spiritual beliefs, among other things:

Do you detect a pattern? It appears that the museum was established for the purpose of reminding Taiwanese people that they are "Chinese", and therefore should be proud of all that Chinese culture and tradition entails. In all fairness, however, the science museum also has Taiwan-specific displays, including one on the contributions of Japanese botanists to the study of flora on this island (alas, it was still in the process of being set up, and thus wasn't open yet). Yes, you can learn a lot about many aspects of what it means to be Chinese...if you can read characters, that is. With a couple of exceptions, there wasn't much labeled in English (though there may be English-language audio guides available). The room covering Taiwan's aboriginal peoples was one of those exceptions, but was surprisingly small considering the importance of the native peoples on the settlement and development of Taiwan. The other was a temporary exhibit containing photographs taken of Lukang 鹿港 in the 1960's by a doctor who was working there at the time. The pictures themselves provided a fascinating look at daily life in what was then a poor Taiwanese town, before it was discovered by tourists, and the explanations in English were very well done.

Following lunch (where the hordes of school kids were noisy, but surprisingly not obnoxious), I took a walk through the botanical gardens behind the museum. The grounds are dominated by the tropical rainforest conservatory (with its giant dragonfly outside). Having been there before, I gave it a miss this time, but the grounds both here, and outside the main museum buildings, make for a nice stroll, and a respite from the hubbub of the streets outside.

I then walked from the science museum towards Taichung art museum, along a series of parkways that have seen better days, unfortunately. As I had some personal business to attend to while in Taichung, I decided to save the art museum for the next time I play tourist, but I made a circuit of the grounds before returning to my scooter parked in front of the national science museum. 

By the time I'd finished doing what had to be done in Taichung, the weather had turned cloudy, cool and windy. Back in Fengyuan 豐原, the winds were so strong that a woman and her two small children were blown off their scooter and onto the middle of the street. Fortunately, everyone was fine, and I helped pick up the bike. Neither of the children were wearing helmets, of course, and the incident occurred while the woman was attempting to make a left turn on a red light, in front of oncoming traffic.

This is Taiwan, after all.

Terrible Lizards in Taichung

My wife wanted a day off this Sunday, meaning a chance to stay in and catch up on her sleep. My daughter, on the other hand, wanted to go outside, preferably to a park with a playground. I, however, did not fancy being surrounded on a park bench by a sea of Taiwanese parents and their offspring, some of whom would no doubt have some trouble coming to grips with the "foreign" child in their midst. So when I suggested taking the train to see some dinosaurs in Taichung (T'aichung) 台中, I was quite relieved that Amber responded enthusiastically to the suggestion. And that is how we found ourselves on the 11:37am local train out of Fengyuan 豊原, which was on time, for once:

 

After getting off at Taichung Station, we headed for the Visitor Information Center, located inside the station. For years, I've been grumbling about the inept efforts at providing tourist information in Taiwan, especially in comparison to Japan, where such information centers are in plentiful supply. When I first moved to Taichung (an undisclosed number) of years ago, the closest tourist information office was a very long walk from the train station. In fact, I used to go there on a scooter to pick up brochures and maps. Then it moved even further away, to an area of government buildings off of Linsen Road, which couldn't have been any more inconvenient for new arrivals and visitors to the city. So it's great to see there is finally an information counter in the train station, with English-speaking staff to boot. Well done...except for the fact the woman in the office didn't make it clear (OK, maybe I failed to clarify) on which side of the street Amber and I should wait to catch a bus for our destination, the National Museum of Natural Science 国立自然科学博物館. We caught the right bus (the No. 88), but in the wrong direction, and had to get off at the stop across from the Chungyou Department Store in order to catch another No. 88 bus going the right way.

 

バスを待っている

Not only was this my daughter's first bus ride in Taichung, it was mine as well. For Taichung Bus Company buses at least, those passengers (like us) who don't already have an IC/prepaid card simply pick up a card upon boarding, have it read by a scanner, and then, upon reaching their destination, scan the card a second time and pay the fare showing on the screen. In our case, it was NT20 (￥60 or 60 cents). After a lunch of chicken rice, pickled cucumbers and miso soup 味噌汁 (where I overheard two Western gentlemen and a Taiwanese woman wondering about the origin of the word "cosplay" コスプレ; I resisted the urge), we entered the science museum.

 

Amber can use chopsticks better than some adult Westerners!

Once inside the museum, we headed straight for the main attraction, the dinosaur exhibit. On display are some life-size skeletons and animatronic models. The latter, however, especially the moving Tyrannosaurus parent-child pair, proved to be a little intimidating to my 2-year 10 month-old child, who didn't want to get too close. She didn't mind the stationary kind at all, though.

Amber is still too young to appreciate what museums are trying to do. She enjoyed touching all the buttons, dials and knobs, but at her age, the point(s) behind the displays is not of any importance. Which was a good thing for me, because most of the writing at the National Museum of Natural Science is in Chinese, and I would not have been able to explain the more detailed exhibits to her. For Amber, it was enough just to marvel at the models and pictures of animals she's already familiar with. She also tried her hand at taking some photographs, which resulted in this unintended artistic shot of a large beetle:

Amber was starting to get tired (read cranky), so we left the museum and crossed the street to an ice cream shop. I let Amber choose, and she settled on mocha, much to our mutual satisfaction:

 

おいしいモカアイスクリームを食べている

After an obligatory stop at Mister Donut, we caught a bus back to Taichung Station. For some reason, the fare was NT2 higher for the return - same company, same route, but a different number bus (106) if that had anything to do with it.

（上）アンバーはバスの中でミスドのポイントカードを見ている；（下）1917年に建てられた台中駅ビル

The gods of punctuality were once again looking down favorably upon us, for our train was on time. And so it was back to Fengyuan, where my wife, suitably rested, met us at the station and drove us home. A father-daughter outing on a nice day, and with a reduced carbon footprint to boot (no pun intended). Not a bad Sunday, I'd say.

This is what happens when trying to take a picture from a moving train in diminishing sunlight, using the landscape photo function on a digital camera, but forgetting to turn off the flash. Amber isn't the only unintentional avant-garde photographer in the family.