Chance encounters 出会い

Despite it having rained all day on Friday, and despite the weather forecast calling for showers Saturday, it turned out to be a nice day. And what better way to enjoy sunshine, warm temperatures and fair skies than to go for a walk in Takeng (Dakeng)? In the early afternoon, I headed out on my scooter on Chunkung (Jungong 軍攻) Road, and 45 minutes later arrived at the start of the No. 2 trail. The plan was to walk up the No. 2, go along the ridge top to and then descend the No. 3 trail, and finally walk back along the road to my scooter parked at the second trail. About 3/4 of the way up the No. 2, I passed two young boys who were taking a break. I greeted them with a "Nihao" and they replied in kind. But as I continued up towards the top, I heard them talking to each other in Japanese. It turned out that not only were they were in fact Japanese - Yuichi, 10, and his 6 year-old brother, Taiyo, from Fuchu 府中市 in Tokyo - but they were also doing the same walk I was doing (up No. 2 and down No. 3). So I ended up having two companions along for the hike who gave me a chance to practice my admittedly rusty Japanese. We were joined at the top by the boys' mother (Emmy, who was Taiwanese) and her friend (whose name I didn't catch), and the five of us enjoyed a long, leisurely stroll down to the bottom and back to our vehicles. We even spotted a monkey on the No. 3 trail. It may not have been the strenuous workout I was hoping for, but for a couple of hours on Saturday I felt like I was back in Japan.

一昨日雨が降って、天気情報によると土曜日も雨が降る。しかし、天気はよかったので台中の大坑とういう山に行った。上に登る途中で２人の日本人の男の子に会った。いっしょにぼくたちは2番目の山道を登った。上で男の子のお母さんに会って、それからみんな3番目の山道をゆっくりと降下した。お母さんは台湾人が日本語が上手だ。日本語の話すチャンスがほとんどないで、そのために土曜日は楽しかった。

Going up! 登ろう:　

Taiyo and Yuichi:

Views 眺め:　

It's difficult to see, but if you look closely, there is a monkey 猿 in the photo on the left.

In the news

Although my major was in Political Science, and though I do try to keep up with current affairs and international events, I prefer to keep this blog a personal one. I am, however, interested in the relationship between Japan and Taiwan, and today I came across a couple of items touching on this. The first is an article from the latest Japan Focus newsletter, "The Ryukyus and Taiwan in the East Asian Seas: A Longue Durée Perspective". Unfortunately, it turned out to be yet another example of how expository writing remains a mystery in this part of the world. The writer, a member of Taiwan's Academia Sinica, writes briefly on the decline and fall of the Ryukyu Kingdom as a trading center in East Asia, then on Taiwan's economic development. He hints at a connection between the fall of the former and the rise of the latter, but then fails to make one, instead veering off on brief, but unrelated, tangents about South Korea and the territorial definition of the Republic of China. Along the way he seems to suggest that the tributary state system imposed by the Ming government on neighboring countries was a benevolent act allowing the Ryukyus in particular to prosper (and which the Japanese destroyed), and that the present-day Okinawa prefecture has much more in common with China culturally and historically than it does with Japan, downplaying the island chain's long ties with Japan (not to mention implying that China still has some sort of claim to the territory). His conclusion is that Taiwan could learn from the Ryukyu experience how to remain independent and prosper economically while playing off China and Japan, but this appears to be a strange comparison, in that as far as I know the Japanese don't have any claims on Taiwan (the Senkakus don't count). Seeing as the Ryukyu kingdom was eventually swallowed up by and incorporated into the Japanese Empire, all one can do is wish Taiwan the best of luck and hope it doesn't suffer a similar fate at the hands of the Chinese!

The other item of note is from today's Taipei Times, a front-page article on Chen Shui-bian's call for Japan to pass its own version of America's Taiwan Relations Act. Japan and Taiwan have been growing closer politically in recent years, and the recent installment of Shinzo Abe as prime minister will probably accelerate the process. However, Chen's call for a Japanese TRA would take away a key component of Japan's foreign policy in regard to China and Taiwan, namely the current ambivalence about how Japan would respond should China act aggressively towards Taiwan. Closer consultation and cooperation between Japan and Taiwan on security matters would be a positive step for both countries (and will probably continue to happen), but a Diet act spelling out that relationship is unlikely at this point.

Swimming 泳いでいる

Today was beautiful weather-wise - sunny, warm but not hot. A good day to head to the swimming pool, which is what we did. Our body of water of choice is the Diore (帝亞 Tiya/Diya) Spa, in Fengyuan on the big road going towards Tungshih (Dongshih 東勢). Diore is in a large, airplane hangar-like building that has all the charm of a Costco, but the water is clean, and there is a nice onsen 温泉 area in the back that is barred to children (Pamela and I took turns using the spa section). I had the pleasure of running into a student of mine there today, a very nice man named Vito. The best part about going swimming today was that, this being almost Halloween and therefore autumn (though you wouldn't know it by the warm temperatures outside), the pool wasn't crowded at all, in contrast to summer, when swimming spots in Taiwan are overrun with screaming children who should be attached to leashes. Our well-behaved little angel enjoyed herself immensely today.

今日の天気はよかったので豊原に「帝亞」とういうプールで泳いで行った。Amberはとても泳ぐことを楽しんだ。ぼくとパメラは温泉が好きだった。今は秋だからプールにほんのわずかな人が来た。よかったですね：）

Swimming pools most certainly need a protective god to keep watch over things プールの神

Change in schedule スケジュールの変更

Next week I'll be starting a new morning class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. While the additional income will be appreciated, it means I won't be able to take my morning walks on those days in the Chung-cheng Park area, and thus will have to concentrate all my walks and hikes on weekends from now on. Today, I went for short walk in the hills around lunchtime, and had the whole area practically to myself.

新しい朝のクラスが来週始まるので、火曜日と木曜日に散歩することができない。今度から週末にしよう。今日の昼中正公園に行ってそこにだれもいなかった。幸せを感じた。

The Cardinals may have won the Series (I was rooting for Detroit), but I'm glad for So Taguchi 田口壮, my favorite Japanese player in the majors. And while the Tigers didn't do so well, Nippon Ham won the Japan Series, so at least one of my favorites succeeded.

田口さん、ファイターズ、おめでとう。

Images of Fengyuan 豊原のいろいろな写真

Here are some pictures I took this morning while walking and riding around Fengyuan (Fongyuan 豊原). 

Two things I didn't take pictures of: 1) the guy I came across sunning his private parts on top of a hill overlooking the city; and 2) the woman who gave me a derisory laugh (not the embarrassed giggles that some Asians get when faced with the uncertainty of dealing with a foreign customer) at the tea stand when I ordered a milk tea without ice, then walked away to make the drink before I could give her the second part of my order (a green tea without sugar for Pamela). I wish I could've seen the look on her face when she turned around to give me my tea only to find out that I had ridden off in anger to go a less-contemptuous tea stand. I don't want to abuse the power of the Internet by naming names, but I certainly won't be buying anymore teas from the Balance stand on the corner of Hsian (Sian 四安) and Juihsing (Rueising 瑞興) Roads.

A stand of betel palm trees:

I don't think anyone will be picking this fruit anytime soon:

Many foreign bloggers here in Taiwan have commented on the beauty of Taoist temples 醜い寺：

Ornamental carp コイ：

A love hotel nearing completion. I guess you can never have enough sleaze in even the smaller cities:

建築工事中のラブホテル：　

I once dated an attractive Japanese woman for a year-and-a-half who, unfortunately, was a dedicated follower of Soka Gakkai 創価学会. She tried to get me to join, and gave me a lot of English-language materials on the group and its leader, Daisaku Ikeda 池田大作. What I read was enough to turn me off very quickly. For those of you who don't know, Soka Gakkai is a lay Buddhist organization that has been around long enough, and has enough members (not to mention its own political party, Komeito 公明党) that it no longer is referred to as a cult, though it remains widely distrusted by most Japanese. SG is very aggressive when it comes to recruiting, and is very active outside Japan, with the result being that many of the Westerners you may come across in life who claim to be Buddhists actually belong to Soka Gakkai International. 

With Soka Gakkai, it's salvation the easy way! Centuries of Buddhist theological debate is stripped away, so that all a member has to do is chant "Namu myoho renge kyo 南無妙法蓮華経" everyday, and everything will be A-OK. Soka Gakkai preys on those in Japanese society who don't belong to any social groups, so that a high percentage of the membership is made up of housewives, the self-employed, vocational school students and workers in the night-time entertainment industry 水商売. I recently discovered a Soka Gakkai flag flying from the roof of a house near the cram school where I work afternoons. Time to break out the Gohonzon 御本尊 and start chanting - Nam myoho renge kyo, nam myoho renge kyo, nam myoho renge kyo...　

創価学会の旗：　

Lost weekend

No, not because of a night lost to heavy drinking. Periodically I suffer from bouts of depression 憂うつ about life here in Taiwan, and the last thing I want to do then is to go out and be among hundreds of people (and even in small towns in Taiwan, you are often among hundreds, if not thousands of people - "Ren shan ren hai" 人山人海 as they say in Chinese). So I end up doing mostly nothing, as I did this weekend. 

This weekend's blues were no doubt brought on by the letdown that always happens following a visit back home. The mood is further darkened by memories of what Octobers were like back in Setagaya 世田谷区, Komae 狛江市 and Yokkaichi 四日市 (I wasn't in Okazaki 岡崎市 long enough to experience autumn there) - the weather becoming cooler and crisper, and the leaves beginning to change colors. Here it's still hot, the air is smoggy and there are no fall colors to alleviate the general ugliness all around. And it didn't help things either on Saturday morning when I turned on one of the Japanese channels on TV, and saw a program about winter in the north of Hokkaido. Seeing all that snow just drove home the fact that as long as I live in Taiwan I will probably never experience snow again, and Amber will never have the opportunity. Hehuanshan just doesn't cut it!

If there's any silver lining to all this, it's that I can watch not one, but two baseball championships - the World Series on ESPN and the Japan Series 日本シリーズ on NHK. This year I'm rooting for Detroit, and for Nippon Ham 日本ハム.

Here's a picture of Pamela in Japan, taken in November of 2004:

Silverdale Waterfront Panorama

Silverdale水辺のパノラマ写真: