Moonscape World 月世界

Two panoramic shots of the Moonscape World.
２の月世界のパノラマ写真

　

Chishan (Cishan きざん 旗山)

NT17,380. That's how much it cost to fix our car on Friday - new radiator, new set of tires, new brake pads, new I don't know what else. That's roughly ￥62,000 or $530. What better way, then, to see if we got our money's worth by going on a road trip, which is what we did this weekend. And, as it turned out, everything in the car worked properly.

Our original intention was to drive up north to Yingke (Yingge おうか 鴬歌), a town famous in Taiwan for ceramics, spend the night there, then go the next day to Sanhsia (Sansia さんきょう 三峡) to see a famous temple. However, the weather forecast called for rain in the north, so on Friday night Pamela suggested we go south instead, where it was bound to be sunny and hot. And that's how we came to visit Chishan.

Amber enjoyed the drive all the way down...

The first thing we did upon arrival was locate and check in to our hotel. In our case it was the Ichang Piehkuan (Yichang Bieguan 益昌別館). For NT600 a night (￥2140 or $18), we got what we paid for.

Amber didn't seem to mind, however...

Up until a few years ago, most people in Taiwan either worked or went to school six days a week. This left little time for leisure activity, and therefore a limited number of places to visit. Around 2000 or 2001, however, the work and school weeks were shortened, and since then more people have had more free time on the weekends, and the leisure industry has boomed. Among the beneficiaries of all this has been small towns like Chishan. A few years ago, Chishan was a place no one had heard of, bypassed by the modernization of Taiwan's economy. In other words, there was no reason to tear down the old buildings. Thus, when the leisure boom took off, towns like Chishan with their "old streets" were "discovered" by travel magazines and TV programs, and now tourists drop by in droves on weekends to look at the old buildings, eat local snacks and revel in the noise and the commotion. Here are some scenes from late Saturday afternoon and into the evening:

Chishan's old street 旗山「チーシャン」老街

A typical old building

Daddy and Amber enjoying a chocolate ice cream break (well Daddy anyway...)

Fried noodles, fried rice and beer - Taiwanese comfort food

The following morning we went back out into the street to have breakfast. My coffee cup looked like this

telling me, in somewhat incorrect Japanese, that it was doing fine - "O-genki desu" お元気です

Afterwards, I climbed the steps of Chishan Park to take in the view

旗山公園からの眺め

At the highest point of the park sits the Kaohsiung County Confucius Temple. Unlike Confucius temples in other Taiwanese cities, this one is not located in the center of an urban area. What it lacks in age and historical interest, it makes up for in setting - surrounded by trees and overlooking the town below

高雄県孔子廟

Back in town, across the road from the entrance to Chishan Park, stands this place. Called 武徳殿, it's a former Shinto shrine converted into a cafe and restaurant, with live jazz in the courtyard in the evenings. We had a beer there on Saturday night (Heineken unfortunately - Taiwan is still sorely lacking when it comes to beer availability). It's too bad other towns couldn't see fit to put their old Shinto shrines to good use, rather than just tearing them down.

カフェレストランに変えられた旧神社

On the way back to the hotel, and through the chaos that is a small Taiwanese town on a Sunday morning...

Swallows' nests ツバメの巣

After checking out, we left Chishan and drove to the nearby town of Meinung (Meinong みのう 美農). According to Lonely Planet, Meinung is a great place to rent a bicycle and ride through the countryside. However, because of Amber, that is an activity that will have to wait for another day. Instead, we visited the Meinung Folk Village. The LP Taiwan guide says it's "an artificial recreation of an old-fashioned neighborhood". I say it's "a classic tourist trap". I didn't learn anything about the Hakka 客家 people, who make up 15% of the population of Taiwan (but 95% of Meinung's people), but I did encounter many opportunities to buy various souvenirs and snacks. We came away with a small paper-and-bamboo umbrella, something Meinung is noted for

美農[メイヌン」民俗村

On the way back to the freeway, we made one last stop at the "Moonscape World". This wasn't the "Mt. Tsao Moon World" described on Pages 238-39 of the Lonely Planet Taiwan guidebook, but it was in the same general area and looked pretty interesting. I took Amber for a stroll in the badlands while Pamela waited in the car

月世界

After a stop at another rest area...

 

...we arrived back in Fengyuan by early evening

Considering the fact that, even though it was November 18-19, the weather was warm - about 30 degrees Centigrade, or around 85 F - and the skies were clear the entire time. I guess going south was the right decision. And yet another lesson in "Always listen to your wife"

New addition

Here's the latest addition to my betel nut girl figurine collection, and with her new friends

One more to go...

Japanese in Action 広告の日本語

Two more examples of Japanese in use on the streets of Fengyuan.

This is one of those arcade games where you insert a coin, then manipulate a metal claw to try and pick up some sort of toy. In this case, the prizes are Doraemon ドラえもん characters.

The writing is read as "Oyawa no yojipa" おヤワのよぢパ. What does it mean? I have absolutely no idea. If any of the 130 million or so people out there whose Japanese skills are far superior to mine can translate this into English for me, please be my guest. Otherwise, I'm assuming it's just gibberish.

The other photo is of a signboard on the sidewalk in front of a jeweler's shop

The product in question is called "Saver One", and the Japanese sentence in the white box says "Denjiha kara mi wo mamoru" 電磁波から身を守る, or "The body is protected from electromagnetic waves". And there you have it - Saver One looks to be some kind of bracelet that will keep you safe from electromagnetic waves. Make sure to wear one the next time you heat up leftovers in the microwave, or you will never be able to have children.

One more thing. Why is it on Page 13 of the November issue of Compass Magazine, the name of the Japanese restaurant is written as "Tokukago" in Romaji ローマ字, when the kanji 漢字 is clearly that for "Tokugawa" 徳川? After all, the name "Tokugawa" is one of the most important in Japanese history.

If you ask me...

A rather one-sided article appeared in today's Japan Times. Titled“Wasted chance as Taiwan's president”and written by one Sin-Ming Shaw, it's a distorted attack on Taiwan's president, Chen Shui-bian. For example, he blames Chen for the fact that many Taiwanese businessmen have moved operations to China, claiming it's because he failed to "de-bureaucratize and de-politicize" Taiwan's increasingly isolated economy. Actually, the flight to China has been going on since before Chen took office in 2000. He also criticizes Chen for squandering opportunities by "engag(ing) in polemics with opposition parties while he pandered to the extreme wing of the DPP and mobilized his government to "de-Sinicize" Taiwan culture." As most of us who live here in Taiwan know, it's been the opposition that has sought to frustrate Chen in the legislature at every opportunity, refusing to cooperate with his administration for the good of the country. Finally, Shaw's emphasis on Taiwan as a bastion of "unbroken adherence to the ancient (Chinese) culture" conveniently ignores the influence that 50 years of Japanese colonial rule has had on Taiwanese culture (not to mention the contributions from the native aboriginal peoples), and the fact that this promotion of an "unbroken…Chinese cultural tradition" was part of KMT propaganda to convince the locals to accept the rule of Chiang Kai-shek and his fellow mainlanders. 

And yet, Shaw does have a point. Chen has wasted the better part of six years as president of the R.O.C. I was here in 2000 when he took office, and I recall the optimism in the air, the feeling that great changes were about to be made for the betterment of Taiwan and its peoples. While the KMT and PFP opposition certainly deserves a large share of the blame for obstructing many of Chen's initiatives, Chen has been unable to convince the public of this fact. He has backed down on many issues (such as on his initial cancellation of the fourth nuclear power plant), and too often has resorted to grand gestures and pronouncements, rather than nuts-and-bolts policies and programs. His greatest failure has come in not seizing the chance to open up the files on the dark side of Taiwan's post-WWII history. There have been no investigations into 228 and the White Terror, for example. Neither has there been some kind of Truth Commission established to probe criminal acts committed by agents of the KMT government during the days when Taiwan was a one-party authoritarian state. Instead, we get the name of the airport changed from "Chiang Kai-shek International Airport" to "Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport", yet statues of Chiang still litter public parks all over the island. Should the KMT return to power in the 2008 presidential election, the door will shut on any chance to clean up the past in order to strengthen Taiwan's democratic future.

In the end, the responsibility for the failures of his administration lies with Chen. Allegations of corruption aside, if a President Annette Lu can be the person to re-energize the DPP in the remaining two years before the next election, perhaps Chen should think about stepping down.

Japanese あっちこっち書いてある日本語

Two signs spotted this evening on Chung-cheng (Jhong-jheng) Road in Fengyuan. 豊原市の中正路

A sign advertising a "Tension Ring" from Germany, with two lines of Japanese written directly above the picture of the ring:

The first line of Japanese reads "Fukano wo kano ni..." 不可能を可能に… which translates to something like "The impossible is possible...". The second line says "Kando no settingu ga tsukuru kyukyoku no kagayaki" 感動のセッティングがつくる究極の輝き. I'm not really sure how to say this in English. My best attempt would be "The impression's setting makes for the ultimate brilliance". There's really no telling if the Japanese on the sign is being used correctly. 

The other sign is in front of a bakery I sometimes frequent:

The name at the bottom of the sign in Roman letters ローマ字 reads "Maruko", a common female name in Japan. She's holding a kind of cake that's called "Dorayaki", written both in ローマ字 and in Japanese どら焼. A Dorayaki looks like this. 

Tachia (Dajia) 大甲

We were planning on spending the day with Steve and his family in Tachia, a small town north of Fengyuan famous in Taiwan for Chenlan (Jhenlan) Temple and its Tachia Matsu (Mazu) icon. Unfortunately, Steve's children appeared to be coming down with colds, so we ended up going to Tachia by ourselves.

今日大甲とういう町に行った。写真を見てください。

On the way to Tachia, we stopped in Houli (后里 こうり) to have some lunch and buy some drinks at a Sinon (Hsingnung/Singnong) Supermarket 興農スーパー. Here's a photo from the alcohol section, showing Taiwan's beer of choice, the cleverly named "Taiwan Beer". It tastes very similar to Budweiser. 'Nuff said.

台湾ビール

Our first stop in Tachia was to Jihnan (Rihnan) Station, built in 1922.
１９２２年に建てられた日南駅。　

　

From the train station it was on to Tiehchen (Tiejhen) Mountain. Tiehchen is a small mountain that stands alone above Tachia. On the top are several small parks and a Martyr's Shrine, among other things, plus some great views.

One park had a statue of Taiwan's dictator of choice, Chiang Kai-shek. Normally Chiang is depicted sitting in a chair, Lincoln-style. Here he's riding a noble steed.

In Taiwan, if more than five people congregate in a public place for more than five minutes, vendors show up and a market breaks out. Nothing like food stalls and carnival games to enhance that feel-good Sunday in the park experience. I shouldn't complain, however. The sausages tasted good, and there were no karaoke machines, thank god. Go Kings!

公園にある市場　

Last stop was downtown Tachia, where we visited the temple and had dinner. The Matsu statue here is the focus of one of Taiwan's largest festivals. Every spring on the occasion of the goddess Matsu's birthday, the statue is taken to visit another Matsu at Fengtien (Fongtian) Temple 奉天宮 in Hsinkang (Singang) 新港. The round-trip pilgrimage takes eight days, covers 280 kilometers and visits about 60 temples along the way. Even at 6:30 on a Sunday evening, the temple was crowded with worshipers. 

Souvenir snacks for sale near the temple 大甲のみやげ

The most popular woman in Tachia