おちゃ ちゃちゃちゃ

Here are a few random photos I took this afternoon, on my way to, in and coming back from the Hsint'ien 新田 hiking trails in T'antzu 潭子.

A Taoist 道教 god, under wraps from what looked like a recent paint job (and covered in black ants).

The sign appears to read "Lunghsing Sanchuang" 龍興三莊 - Lunghsing Three Villages/Farmsteads/Manors? Whatever it is, it looks patriotic.

Later, my wife, daughter and I had dinner at a teppanyaki 鉄板焼き restaurant at the local Carrefour. The paper cups had cutesy Edo period 江戸時代 scenes splashed on them - mine featured Commodore Perry!

Short but sweat

I got back a short while ago from a late morning walk on the Hsint'ien 新田 trails in T'antzu 潭子. The humidity level was high, but the walk was relatively uneventful, except for the many caterpillars out and about. The future butterflies and moths were everywhere on the trails, crawling on leaves and wooden posts, hanging by threads from tree branches and ending up on my clothing. I was also kept company by a trio of geckos on the ceiling of a pavilion where I stopped for a Pocari Sweat ポカリスエット break. On the way home, the rice fields were full of egrets looking for insects and small frogs.

Strawberry Pickin'

A "sacred tree" close to the restaurant where we had lunch this afternoon

Much to Amber's delight, we went to a strawberry farm in T'antzu 潭子 in order to pick some of my daughter's favorite fruit. Fruit farmers are geniuses - come harvest time, they can sit back and collect money from city dwellers who are more than happy to do the picking for them.

(insert "yowza" comment here)

グレイトフル・デッド？

I went for a walk in the Hsint'ien 新田 area at noontime today. I worked up a good sweat in a short period of time, but overall it was an unremarkable, though pleasant, outing (I only saw one other person on the trails). Afterward, on the way back, for some reason I stopped at some graves by the roadside. In general, Taiwanese are scared of cemeteries and avoid them at all times, with the exception of a national holiday known as Tomb Sweeping Day 清明節, when families are supposed to clear away all the brush that has grown up around the gravesites of their ancestors. The result of this aversion to the places of the dead is that cemeteries are usually in a semi-wild state most of the time, at least until the next April 4 or 5 rolls around. Occasionally, however, you come across graves that are kept in near-pristine conditions, and this is probably what caught my eye this afternoon:

In all likelihood, this is one large family plot. At least that's what my wife thinks, who was obviously uncomfortable when I asked her about the writing on the steles (stelea?). The tomb in the upper left corner was particularly well-tended. There appeared to be a small crypt with locked screen doors on both the left and right-hand sides. Inside could be seen brooms, suggesting that someone comes by regularly to clean up the site (there was no trash on the ground, and the lawn behind the tomb looked healthy).

Like many cemeteries in Taiwan, these graves were located on the side of a mountain, with nice views overlooking the town of T'antzu 潭子 (or what would be nice views if the weather hadn't been so hazy today). While the living cram themselves into densely populated urban areas, the dead are given what would be prime real estate back in the U.S. Yet another aspect of Taiwan I don't think I'll ever understand.

Above it all

While the nights recently have become chilly (by local standards, anyway), the days have been gorgeous. This morning I went for a walk in the Sintian Mountain area, part of the township of Tanzih (T'antzu) 潭子. I've been in these hills on a number of occasions, but always on hazy days, it seemed. Today, however, the sky was clear, and the sight in all directions was a wonder to behold (especially when looking east, where the mountains seemed to go on and on). The photographs I took didn't do the views justice, but I've posted a couple anyway.

Catching Up with Steve in Tanshi

This last Sunday of 2007 turned out to be bright, but chilly. Winter, it seems, has finally arrived (as I write this, the thermometer in our bedroom reads 12 degrees centigrade, or 54 F. This might not sound very cold, but Taiwanese apartments are all concrete and tile.) I spent a few hours in the late morning and early afternoon catching up with Steve, who despite living not far away in T'aichung (Taijhong) 台中, is someone I don't get to see as often as I should. I met up with him in front a McDonald's in Taichung, and drove from there to T'antzu (Tanjih) 潭子, a rural town of about 100,000 people (!) sandwiched between Taichung and Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原. Our plan was to see the sights of Tantzu while catching up on recent developments in our respective lives, but it quickly became apparent that there isn't a helluva lot to see there, and as things turned out, the only spot we visited was a temple, the T'anshui (Tanshuei) Pavilion 潭水亭. Dating from 1801 (though the buildings are of more recent vintage), it's fairly representative of what you find in Taiwan, and not worth making any special efforts to see. Afterwards, we returned to Taichung (via a quick stop at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium 臺中市洲際棒球場). It was far from an exciting day, but it was still great to see an old friend again.

 

(Upcoming legislative elections explain the campaign truck parked out front)