Life 生物

The date on the calendar may have read Veterans Day, but it felt more like spring, at least while the sun was up. Going for a walk in the hills near Chung-cheng (Jhong-jheng) Park this afternoon, signs of life were everywhere.

今日は１１月１１日だけど春のような日だった。中正公園の近い山道にいろいろな生物がたくさん見えた。

A crab that was some distance away from the nearest source of water カに:
　

Fly ハエ:
　

A small river near my apartment building アパートの近くにある小川:
　

My apartment complex, looming like a fortress over the rice fields　
要さいのようなアパート:
　

Amber, the reason for my being. Pamela has posted a lot of pictures of Amber on this website 見てください:
　

Every day is a lazy Saturday for our cat Chiou-chiou 球球 (タマちゃん):

This evening we went to the local department store in Fengyuan to do some shopping 今晩豊原のデパートに買い物に行った。Amber, as usual, found herself the center of attention from the store clerks:

We ate dinner at the food court in the store's basement, at the politically incorrect "The Red Man Teppanyaki":

Another example of Japanese in action. The Japanese at the bottom reads "Okashiyaki" おかしやき, from a stand selling Osaka-sytle grilled cakes (according to the Chinese):

More Japanese 日本語

Another example of Japanese used in advertising in Taiwan, from a pet store in Fengyuan:

At the top of the sign the word "Inuya" is written in roman letters, followed by the same word いぬや in the hiragana script. "Inuya" literally translates as "dog house", but would be used to refer to a store selling dogs, and/or canine-related items.

Japanese 日本語

Here in Taiwan, if you want to make your product or service look more attractive, you might try using Japanese in your advertising. For many Taiwanese, Japan is the standard by which things are measured, and the source of all that is cool. I'll be keeping my eyes open to record examples of just what I mean. 

Like this billboard for Seiko watches in downtown Fengyuan:

In the upper left is written "誘う　ダイヤモンド", "Sasou" 誘う meaning "to tempt, lure, entice or invite", while "Daiyamondo" ダイヤモンド is the Japanese word for "diamond". At the bottom it says (in roman letters) "Kirameki", which means "a glitter, a sparkle, a flash or twinkling". Which all makes sense when selling a Lukia watch. It also makes sense if you can read and understand Japanese. But the only thing in Chinese on the sign is in the upper center: "Paotao Chungpiao (Baodao Jhongbiao)" or "Paotao Clocks and Watches", the name of the shop.

I didn't notice until after posting this picture that directly below the billboard is an advertisement for a pachinko parlor, with the Japanese word パチンコ partially visible. So much for keeping my eyes open. There's a good reason why I never joined the police force.

Spicy figurines

In the supermarket last night, I was surprised to find a machine dispensing betel-nut girl figurines. There are five of them in the series, and I had previously bought two until my source, a machine in front of the local Blockbuster video store, was replaced. So last night I inserted 120 NT, and added a new one to my collection. Here she is:

Here are the other two:

On a completely different note, I went to the dentist today for a check-up. According to the sign outside the building, the clinic was on the 4th floor. However, the sign next to the elevator door said it was on the 5th floor. The confusion was cleared up when I went inside and looked at the panel

Of course. As in Japan, in Chinese the word for "4", which is "ssu" ("sih"), is also a homonym for "death". And so the fourth floor disappears, and bad luck is avoided. It must have worked, because my teeth are fine.

Birthday 誕生日

One of Pamela's brothers-in-law turned 60 this weekend. Actually, he's only 59, but according to the way the Chinese count age, you are already a year old at the time you are born. And 60 being an auspicious age, a big celebration was in order. Which meant we went to Pamela's hometown today, Hsiluo (Siluo 西螺) in Yunlin 雲林 County, to join in the festivities.

今日パメラの義兄の６０番めの誕生日だった。その年は台湾に奇瑞の年なのでパーティーを開いた。わたしたちは雲林県の西螺町に行った。西螺「シールオ」はパメラの古里だ。

A picture of my neighborhood,taken as we were getting ready to leave this morning. Notice the lack of sunlight.

神岡の近所　

Pamela with some of her relatives: her mother and two sisters, plus the birthday boy, along with two of her nieces.

パメラの家族　

Here we are with one of Pamela's nephews, and his wife and daughter.
パメラのおいの家族

The home of the brother-in-law and the second oldest sister. It's a new house and very spacious inside.

ぼくの義姉の家

In true Taiwanese fashion, everyone headed off to a local restaurant for a feast. Social gatherings in Taiwan often involve banquets like these, with a lot of dishes to be sampled. However, what becomes of the leftovers? It seems such a waste if it just gets thrown out after the diners have left. And why do they give you so much wasabi with your sashimi?

レストランに誕生日の宴会

On the way back to the house after lunch, we drove through one of Hsiluo's tourist "attractions", a street of old Western-style buildings. It's nice to see they're not just museum pieces. After all, one of them is a betel-nut shop.

西螺延平路「シールオイｴンピｲンルー」

On the way back to Fengyuan, Pamela took me to see a local historical site, the Hsiluo Chenwen (Siluo Jhenwun) School. Originally a school for poetry studies established in 1813, the present building dates from 1892.

西螺振文院

Next door to the school is a Taoist temple where Pamela used to do her homework on the weekends when she was an elementary school student.

寺

Back in Fengyuan, we did some shopping at a local supermarket, where I came across this item. It's some kind of children's game, but I doubt the estates of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are aware of its existence. Amber became aware of Lhasa Beer, the Dalai Lama's brew of choice.

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.