Wujih (Wurih 烏日)

Back when I lived in Tokyo, I would often go out on weekends exploring, armed with a Japanese-language guidebook to Tokyo. I was able to discover a lot of places never mentioned in English-language sources. I've been trying to do the same here in Taiwan, using a Chinese-language guide to Taichung County that I picked up at the local department store. Unfortunately, gems have been few and far between on the excursions so far. Today's outing to Wujih, a small township just south of Taichung, was no exception. The most interesting things to see there were the dishes we had for lunch:

 

You're looking at a plate of eggs, seaweed, tofu skins, pork skins and ginger. 

 

Minced meat on top of noodles.

 

A bowl of (cloudy) clam soup.

Amber had a good time at the restaurant, enjoying all the attention she got from the other diners:

Pamela was able to come up with this composite picture, taken from inside Wujih train station:

Afterwards, we stopped off at Steve's new apartment on Meitsun (Meicun 美村) Road in Taichung. These pictures were taken from his rooftop:

  

Steve with his son, Eli, and your humble servant in his tastefully understated Shimizu S-Pulse jersey.

The sisters-in-law were in town, so we ended the day by going out for dinner in Fengyuan. Despite the lack of anything interesting to see, it was good to get out of the house. I wonder what we'll do next weekend...

Kuanyin (Guanyin かんのん 観音)

Despite some rain in the late morning and mid-afternoon, I went for a short hike today. My destination - Taichung's Kuanyin Temple, located at the entrance to the Takeng (Dakeng 大坑) mountain area. Kuanyin is the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy In Japan, she's known as "Kannon". Supposedly this is where the Canon camera company got its name. It's a short but steep hike from the road to the temple, and especially on a humid day like this one, it didn't take long before I was dripping with sweat. Here are some photos of the temple:

 

Above on the right is a memorial to the four victims of what is known in Taiwan as the "Pachang (Bachang) Creek Tragedy". On July 22, 2000 four people working in the shallow Pachang Creek in Chiayi (Jiayi かぎ 嘉義) County were trapped by a flash flood, and waited for three hours while the military and police argued over whose responsibility it was to rescue them. The four were eventually swept away and drowned, and the whole unfortunate incident was broadcast live on TV.

I have no idea who this figure represents. I just like the expression on his face.

No day in the hills would be complete without some critter pics:

I'm not sure what this is. A whip scorpion perhaps?

Congratulations! おめでとう！

Our congratulations to Hanayo in Malaysia on the birth of her first child, Yoshiki Wong Ren Qi http://blog.goo.ne.jp/nihaohanayo/ Babies are special. Enjoy the years together!

Some local architecture 建築

 

An old house which looks like it dates back back to the colonial period. The style is definitely Japanese. Not many of these houses can be found these days in Taiwan. 

The vaguely Stalinist-looking Taichung County government building. Fengyuan (Fongyuan とよはら 豊原) is the seat of Taichung (Taijhong たいちゅう 台中) County.

 

There's money to be made from Buddhism in Taiwan, as this building demonstrates.

Amber in the park on a (very humid) Sunday

Hsintien (Sintian 新田)

This morning I got out of the apartment and went for a walk in Hsintien. Hsintien is located in Fengyuen (Fongyuan とよはら 豊原), close to the border with Tantzu (Tanzih たんし), and has several hiking trails. I like to go for walks in the mountains in the late mornings and early afternoons because there are fewer people on the trails during that time, and I'm better able to listen to birds, cicadas and other insects. It's also a lot hotter and a lot more humid then, but that's a small price to pay for some relative solitude.

Today wasn't a particulary healthy day to be tromping up and down hills, and gulping down large amounts of oxygen. As you can see from this picture

 

the air quality was none too good. You might say it was smoggy today, but I have a very good friend who's an eternal optimist and thus never uses that word. To him, the weather is "hazy". 

Look at the photo again - somewhere there is a city in all that smo...er, I mean haze. So with not much to look at in the distance, I spent much of the time pointing the camera at things much closer.

 

A small caterpillar pretending to be a stick. 

 

These huge spiders are everywhere. They're as large as my hand, but I wasn't about to put my palm next to one to give you the proper perspective. Just take my word for it.

Pomelos.

 

A grasshopper that didn't mind having its picture taken. 

 

A lizard that I almost stepped on. I jumped away thinking it was a snake.

 

Lots of critters today seemed to want to have their photographs taken. This moth, for example.

 

A large caterpillar that I moved to the side of the footpath so that it might avoid detection by the three kids somewhere behind me and following fast.

 

The entrance to the Hsintien parking area. From a distance, the statue of the hawk looks more like a vulture, waiting for something unfortunate to befall the hiker. 

 

According to Pamela, dogs with white paws are not popular with Taiwanese because it's believed they bring bad luck. A few months ago there was a story on the TV news about an American couple that came all the way to Taiwan to adopt a dog like this one because there weren't any Taiwanese willing to give it a home. 

A small Taoist temple by the roadside. The two gods inside looked like they were in jail. Attica! Attica! Attica! 

 

If I'm going to stay in Taiwan for a while, I'd like to invest in a traditional Taiwanese home. This place looked like it might be available. With a little elbow grease, an air conditioner or two, digital TV connection, who knows? My wife, however, would prefer to live in something more modern. "Modern apartment building" in Taiwan, unfortunately, also means "Ugly concrete monstrosity".

China 大中帝国

My wife, being the daughter of a former Kuomintang (KMT) soldier, believes in the idea of a Greater China, and that Taiwan is a natural part of that. Thus she looks forward to the day when Taiwan can be reunited with her "homeland". My sympathies, on the other hand, lie with those who wish Taiwan could become an independent country, without all the "Republic of China" baggage that keeps it isolated on the world stage. My support, I have to admit, takes on more of a geopolitical tint than a "right to self-determination" hue. If China were able to gain full control over the Taiwan Straits, Beijing would be able to project its power far out into the Pacific, and thus be able to threaten the security of other states in the region, especially Japan. However, my wife (as is the case with many Taiwanese both "blue" and "green") hasn't learned that it's OK for people to have different opinions on political issues, and so, in the interests of domestic peace and harmony, I keep my thoughts to myself. Especially the one where I think Taiwan would've been better off remaining a Japanese colony after World War II, and therefore would've been able to benefit from the developments of both Japan's economy and polity ;)

From time to time, Pamela will suggest I look for teaching jobs in Shanghai so we could move to the mainland. I've never visited China (Hong Kong doesn't count), but I imagine it has all the problems that Taiwan has, only on a much, much bigger scale. And if I need any other reasons for not wanting to work there, this article in Wednesday's Taipei Times might do the trick.