Local heroes

Blue skies and orb spiders, from my afternoon walk in Hsint'ien 新田, in the soon-to-be submerged (along with the rest of T'aichung County) town of T'antzu 潭子

Seeing as Wang Chien-ming 王建民 can't seem to get himself off the disabled list, Kuo Hong-chih 郭泓志 of the Los Angeles Dodgers has been getting most of the attention from Taiwanese baseball fans. However, there are also local ballplayers plying their trade in the Japanese leagues, and yesterday one of them came through in the clutch. Jim Allen of the Daily Yomiuri ザ・デイリー読売 reports:

TEENAGE KICKS/ROOKIE AKIYAMA MAKES MOST OF LIN'S HR AS TIGERS TAKE GIANTS DOWN A NOTCH

"NISHINOMIYA 西宮, Hyōgo 兵庫県 - Lin Wei-chu 林威助 threw a lifeline to rookie Takumi Akiyama 秋山拓巳, and the teenager made the most of it. Lin, relegated to the bench for the past three seasons, belted a come-from-behind two-run homer at a packed Kōshien Stadium 阪神甲子園球場 as the Hanshin Tigers 阪神タイガーズ knocked the Yomiuri Giants 読売ジャイアンツ a full game behind them in the Central League セントラル・リーグ pennant hunt with a 4-2 victory on Monday. 'I wasn't pitching the way I could but after Lin's homer, I knew I had to buckle down and shut them down,' said Akiyama, 19, who notched his fourth straight win. The attendance of 46,780 was the largest in Japan this season, just slightly bigger than the crowds here on Saturday and Sunday... Trailing 2-1 with a man on in the fourth inning, Lin belted a high cutter into the seats in right off Seth Greisinger (0-2). Having blasted a pitch to the warning track in right in his first at-bat, Lin's homer improved his career average against Greisinger to .188 in 32 at-bats. 'I had not been able to hit him in the past," Lin said. "He's always been able to get me with either his changeup or his cutter inside. After hitting a changeup well the first time but making out, I prepared myself to hit his cutter the second time.'...The victory moved the Tigers two games back of the CL-leading Chūnichi Dragons 中日ドラゴンズ, who played later in the evening against the Tōkyō Yakult Swallows 東京ヤクルトスワローズ at Jingū Stadium 明治神宮野球場." (and lost 4-3)

Just as I'm always happy to see the New York Yankees lose, it's gratifying to see the mighty 巨人 taken down, especially as a local boy played a key role in their defeat.

Changes in the weather

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. I was fortunate in that I was able to arrange my work schedule so that I would have the morning off, and thus get to see Amber open her gifts, of which she got too many, I'm afraid. The expectations bar has been raised!

Other than Christmas, things have been quiet on the Kaminoge front. This morning, as is becoming the case on Tuesdays, I woke up at 6 in order to get out into the mountains in the Sintian area and do some walking. Whereas the last couple of weeks I had been blessed with gorgeous (if not necessarily warm) weather, today was a case of non-stop drizzle. On the one hand, this meant having to tread carefully over slippery, muddy sections of trail, including one part which had been washed away by a previous rainstorm or typhoon. But then again, the rain meant the mountains were covered with mist, and the trails were free of other, more sensible souls.

 

"Self-Portrait in Mirror" circa 2008

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.

Hsint'ien (Sintian) 新田

Another free Tuesday morning, another walk in the mountains. Today it was back to the Hsintien area, where I started off by basically retracing the route I took with Michael Turton this past Saturday. The weather this morning kept up the recent streak of pleasantly warm temperatures and blue, cloudless skies.

The difference between today and Saturday was that at the point where Michael and I finished our descent and walked back to the parking lot, I crossed the road, where a set of wooden stairs led up into the hills, and began a new ascent. These steps led to a pavilion at the top, whereupon a dirt trail branched off from the paved footpath. Taking this branch led to a ridgetop trail that offered up great views of the valley down below. The scenery on the other side, looking towards Taiwan's Central Mountain range, was also good, but somewhat obscured by the morning haze and sunshine. Beyond a pink marker left by a local hiking group, the path rapidly deteriorated, becoming progressively overgrown and harder to navigate, until it finally petered out in a fruit orchard.

I wrapped up the hike by backtracking to the aforementioned pavilion, following the route down to the road, past some nice traditional architecture, and back to the parking lot where I started 2 1/2 hours and 9800 steps ago.

新田でハイキングをしていた

今朝新田で友達のマイケルといっしょにハイキングをした。もちろん楽しかった。

　

Hsint'ien (Sintian) 新田

The weather in early November in central Taiwan can be very pleasant at times, and this morning was a good example. The sunny sky and warm (but not hot) temperature combined to make my first visit in about a year to Hsintien an enjoyable one. Located in the adjoining town of T'antzu (Tanzih) 潭子 just a short scooter ride away, the trails aren't very challenging, but are still fun to walk on. T'aichung (Taijhong) 台中 and Tantzu were both covered in haze, so distance shots were out of the question today, but I did manage to get these pictures:

A small stream in the morning light, and a Buddhist icon, all that's left of a small shrine (Taiwan's mountains take a beating from Mother Nature).

The geologic forces at work are visible in the side of a mountain, while a lot of effort (and money) has been put into building a wooden arched bridge that leads nowhere.