Lunar New Year 旧正月 Day 5

Yuanhuan Road, the loop road around central Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原, is a lot more interesting to walk in a counter-clockwise direction. That's mainly because of a large strip of parkway that borders most of the northern section of the road. It took me 90 minutes and 8400 steps to walk the outer part of the loop this morning.

Two statues. In Japan, you often see statues of nude women in front of public buildings. In Taiwan, I guess it's well-hung men in their jockey briefs. At least that's the case with the figure on the left, which can be seen in front of the Fengyuan Culture Center 豊原文化会館 (yes, there's culture in Fengyuan!). The man on the right is none other than Sun Yat-sen 孫逸仙 (中山樵), the father of the Republic of China. The inscription underneath Sun reads "T'ienhsia wei kung (Tiansia wei gong)", or "The World is for all". As long as you're Chinese?

The Fengyuan branches of the 908 Taiwan Republic Campaign ９０８台湾國運動, and the Taiwan Solidarity Union 台灣團結聯盟, two organizations supporting Taiwanese independence.

This small sign caught my attention as I was walking by. Located in front of an old house, it's for a group promoting exchanges of some sort between Taiwan and Japan. No further information is given as to what kind of activities this society is engaged in.

Later in the afternoon I took Amber over to a nearby park to give her some fresh air, and a chance to stretch her young legs.

Lunar New Year 旧正月 Day 4

Day 4 of our Lunar New Year holiday started with Amber visiting her grandparents and uncle in order to receive her hungpao (hongbao) 紅包, red paper bags containing money as gifts, given out at this time of year to children. Fortunately, at this age, Amber is too young to know the importance of receiving money. Unfortunately, that ignorance won't last forever

アンバーは祖父母とおじさんからお年玉をもらった。

　

After collecting the cash, we took pity on my mother-in-law (her daughter-in-law doesn't like to cook, and Pamela's poor mom had been getting by on instant noodles the past couple of days), and invited her along with us to have lunch. Leaving Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原 and heading north, we stopped to eat in the town of Tachia (Dajia) 大甲. Outside the restaurant there was a long line of traffic going into town, no doubt to visit Chenlan Temple 鎮瀾宮, the most famous temple in Taiwan dedicated to Matsu (Mazu) 媽祖, the Taoist goddess of the sea, and the most popular religious icon among Taiwanese. Luckily for us, we were headed out of town.

大甲という町に交通渋滞があった。

After leaving Tajia, we drove further north to Tunghsiao (Tongsiao) 通霄. According to a monthly travel magazine put out by 7-11 Taiwan, Tunghsiao still has a Japanese Shinto shrine. From past experience, I figured that our destination was going to be a big disappointment, but it turned out to be the real deal. At one time, there were 68 Shinto shrines in Taiwan, but almost all have disappeared. Most have been converted into Taoist temples or Martyrs Shrines for ROC soldiers (or into a cafe/restaurant), but the entire compound of the Tunghsiao Shrine (built in 1937) 通霄神社 remains intact. This Japanophile was feeling blessed by the 神!

通霄神社の写真

　

The view from the shrine 神社からの眺め

An old Japanese-style house at the foot of the shrine falling to ruins. Inside the abandoned home was the kind of photograph usually displayed at funerals. The character "i" 義 was spray-painted on the wall. 義 has several meanings, but Pamela thinks in this case it's referring to "justice" and "righteousness". To me, it was kind of creepy.

廃家

　

The main torii (Shinto shrine archway) 鳥居...　

...and the offerings to the gods left behind by the three courteous young people sitting on the steps.

Next to the torii is what looks like the main office of the shrine 社務所

Looking up from the torii

Where does one park their car in Taiwan? Anywhere one damn well pleases! (This isn't ours, by the way). Obviously not a whole lot of respect was being shown at this shrine. Later, I saw a small kid break one of the glass panes on a stone lantern.

There were no shinto trappings inside. This building, in fact, looks suspiciously "Chinese" (notice the KMT-like sun symbol on the roof).

What's left of the hall of worship 拝殿跡
　

Next door to the shrine, at the top of the steps, was an example of a well-maintained old Taiwanese house

Behind Tunghsiao Shrine, a road led up to a lookout spot atop a hill. Here's the view of Tunghsiao on the way up...

...and the views from the top 丘の上からの眺め

　　　

This hill, called Hutoushan 虎頭山, played an important role in the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War. The Russian fleet was sighted from here, and the Imperial Japanese Navy was alerted, leading to the Japanese victory at the Battle of Tsushima 対馬海戦. A memorial to the signal corps was built afterwards, but the Kuomintang (KMT) replaced it with this "Taiwan Retrocession" monument. According to a plaque nearby, the local government is attempting to restore the original memorial to show what actually happened here.

After leaving Hutoushan, we stopped in at a roadside Taoist temple, best described as tacky. Good taste wasn't a consideration when it came to planning this place of worship.

On the way home, we had dinner in Yuanlin 園林 at a restaurant that can only be described as a "kaiten shabu-shabu" 回転しゃぶしゃぶ. For a set price of NT198 ($6 or ￥720), you're given a bowl of hot broth. The things to put in the broth (meat and seafood) are placed on rotating conveyor belts that move around the restaurant, to be removed by customers as the food passes by. Vegetables and other things are available at a salad bar. What a brilliant concept!

回転しゃぶしゃぶ屋

　　

Amber was fascinated by the rotating goodies

I was interested in the Ramones T-shirt worn by one of the waitresses. Alas, she didn't even know the names on her clothing referred to one of the most seminal bands of our time.

Hey ho! Let's go!

P.S. Grilled sausage + a clove of garlic = crazy delicious!

Lunar New Year 旧正月 Day 3

Looking at a map of Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原, one thing that immediately stands out is Yuanhuan Road, aka the "Circle Road". One could call this road Fengyuan's Yamanote Line 山手線. Most of the city, including the train station 豊原駅, the bus station 豊原バスターミナル and the Pacific Department Store 太平洋デパート, lie within the circle. With nothing but time on my hands this Lunar New Year vacation, this morning I decided to walk the length of Yuanhuan Road, going in a clockwise direction from the local Blockbuster Video store. 80 minutes and 7200 steps later, I can state with confidence that the circle road is never going to be mentioned in any guidebooks. Nevertheless, I did take a few pictures of things I found interesting.

"Kenko katei no mise" 健康家庭の店. I'm not sure what the healthy home shop is selling as it was closed for the Chinese New Year, but it does have a simple, yet cute mascot, Baron-chan バロンちゃん.

Another example of Japanese (or Japanese English in this case), レーシング (with "Racing" below in English) on the sign for a scooter shop

A Taoist temple 道観 on the busy intersection of Yuanhuan and Chungshan (Jhongshan) Roads, hidden behind some large billboards

The Taichung (Taijhong) County 台中県 Assembly Hall. Fengyuan is the seat of Taichung County.

An interesting blend of concrete and corrugated metal

In the early evening, we drove to the Mitsukoshi Department Store 三越デパート in Taichung to buy a jacket to replace my Seattle Mariners one that was stolen from my scooter a couple of weeks ago. We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Temari 手鞠 (the name of a traditional Japanese handball game), in the Food Court on the 11th floor. The nice thing about this place is that the menu is in Japanese as well as Chinese, very helpful considering Chinese names for Japanese dishes are very difficult to work out. I ordered a fried foods set consisting of とんかつ、エビフライ、コロッケ and チキン, and ended up regretting it before the I had finished the meal.

Too much oil on that plate for my sensitive stomach. And as is too often the case with Japanese food in Taiwan, it was tasteless. Bland. For some reason, Taiwanese cooks hesitate to add much salt to Japanese dishes here, with the result being the food is too light-tasting (I have one student who prefers Taiwanese-style Japanese food, claiming the food she ate in Hokkaido 北海道 was too salty!). Some of my other complaints about 日本料理 in Taiwan: they give you way too much wasabi わさび here (to cover the lack of taste, no doubt), and sashimi 刺身 is almost always served half-frozen. But this is Taiwan after all. If I want to eat real (delicious) Japanese food, I'll have to wait until my next visit to Nippon.

The evening ended on a fun note, as Amber really enjoyed playing with the balloons in the children's play area on the 6th floor. Despite being the youngest and smallest one there, our little one was fearless in the face of the balloon onslaught.