In the park with Amber アンバーと公園にいた

This morning, while mom took an early Mother's Day rest, I took Amber in the car to Chung-cheng (Jhong-jheng) Park.

今朝車でアンバーといっしょに中正公園へ行った。

Amber loves being outdoors, and I let her choose which direction we should walk. Naturally, she always wanted to go up, which meant much of the time I had to carry her up steps that were too high for a 16 month-old to scale. Who would've thought a morning in the park with a toddler would end up becoming a workout?

アンバーは外に出ることが大好きだ。

Amber: Daddy, who's the man in the statue?

Me: That's an evil man in Taiwan's recent history.

Amber: Why is there a statue of him?

Me: Unfortunately Amber, as you get older, you'll learn that many people are a little fuzzy on the difference between good and bad.

Self-portrait of a father and daughter enjoying a morning in the park

お父さんと娘のポートレート

One thing Amber really got a kick out of at Chung-cheng Park was feeding the carp.
アンバーも鯉にえさをやることを楽しんだ。

In the late afternoon, shortly after coming home from work, I joined Amber and Pamela on the roof of our apartment building. Another thing that Amber really enjoys is looking at the view. She wanted to get up as high as she could in order to see everything. It worries me sometimes that my daughter doesn't seem to be afraid of heights.

アンバーは高所恐怖症じゃない。

Say what?

According to this article in today's Taipei Times  New York Yankees pitcher and son of Taiwan Chien-ming Wang (Wang Jianming) 王健民 has been named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the year. Good for him, but there was one quote in the story that bothered me:

"Author Bette Bao Lord, the Shanghai-born wife of former US ambassador to China Winston Lord, wrote the introduction for Wang on the magazine's Web site, comparing him to the first black American to play in the Major Leagues, Jackie Robinson...She said that Wang, like Robinson, is 'chipping away the culture barrier.'"

(Lord's piece can be found here)

What I don't like about this comment is the comparison of Wang to Jackie Robinson. How can she possibly connect the two? Can you even begin to compare whatever difficulties Wang has faced playing in New York with the hardships Robinson went through while breaking down the color barrier in baseball back in 1947? For example, has Wang been the object of racist abuse from fans and fellow players? Has Wang received death threats because he is Asian? Has Wang ever been denied a seat in a restaurant or a room in a hotel solely on the basis of the color of his skin? I'm pretty sure the answers to these questions are "no". Not to take anything away from Wang, who is an excellent pitcher (for the Yankees, unfortunately) and a decent human being from the looks of things, but he is no Jackie Robinson, not in any way, shape or form. To even begin to compare him to Robinson only serves to cheapen the latter's accomplishments, both in baseball and in American society as a whole.

If Ms. Lord wishes to celebrate the achievements of a pioneering Asian athlete in the United States, she should have chosen to write about Hideo Nomo 野茂英雄, though he can no longer be thought of as a currently influential person. Ironically, most of the abuse that Nomo had to put up with came from his fellow Japanese, many of whom felt he was a traitor for leaving Japan to play in the majors, and who confidently predicted he would fail in America (of course, when Nomo turned out to be a great success, many of these same people turned around and praised him for bringing glory to Japan, but that's another story).

But Nomo is Japanese, and there's the rub. Ms. Lord is Chinese, and so is Wang (in an ethnic sense, anyway). I don't think she meant to insult Jackie Robinson in any way, but perhaps if Ms. Lord felt a little less pride about being Chinese ("He's a member of my tribe"), she wouldn't be inadvertently denigrating the memory of a true pioneer.

Article 9 第九条

The Japan Times today has an article on a former colleague of mine, Charles Ward, who has been cycling around Japan in an attempt to persuade people of the importance of retaining Article 9, the famous "war-renouncing clause", in the Japanese constitution .

Charlie is a great guy, and it's fantastic that he's been doing this. More power to him. However, I have to admit that I find the journey a little on the quixotic side. The interpretation of Article 9 has been stretched to the point that it is almost meaningless now. "...land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained"? 陸海空軍その他の戦力は、これを保持しない The Self-Defense Forces 自衛隊 have been around since 1954, technically as an extension of the national police force, but a military in reality. Japan has participated in several UN peacekeeping operations since the early 1990's, and the deployment of SDF forces to Iraq from 2004 to 2006 has further pushed the envelope.

The main reason Japan has stayed a peaceful country since 1945 has not been Article 9, but the Japan-US Mutual Security Treaty 日本国とアメリカ合衆国との間の相互協力及び安全保障条約. Being under the nuclear umbrella of the United States has allowed Japan to focus its energies in areas other than national security. Those times, however, are changing. North-East Asia is a dangerous place, and the constitution might need to be amended to reflect the changing realities of the new era.

Which would be better for Japan, and by extension the rest of the world: a Japan still living under the inconsistencies of a constitutional article that was imposed on the country by American occupation forces, or a new clause that would, say, recognize the reality that is the Self-Defense Forces but at the same time limit Japan to participating in collective self-defense actions authorized by the UN Security Council?

Going to Japan 日本に行きたい

I've finally decided. Despite our less-than-ideal financial situation, life in Taiwan is reaching a point where I need to get out, if just for a short spell. So next month I'm going to visit Japan for a week, by myself. I'd love to take Pamela and Amber along, but the things I want to do on this visit are, by and large, solitary acts. I'll post the itinerary another day. For now, here are some pictures I took of Japanese being used on signs in T'aichung (Taijhong) 台中（たいちゅう）, where I went this morning to pay for and pick up my tickets from the travel agency.

I spotted the sign on the left on Wenhsin (Wunsin) Road. It reads "Tokyo", or at least it tries to. In furigana, however, Tokyo is written as "Toukyou" とうきょう, and not as "Tokyou" ときょう as it is on this sign. I couldn't tell what kind of business establishment this is as everything was shuttered.

The sign on the right comes from a restaurant on Kungi (Gongyi) Road called 赤鬼, "Red Ogre", which is a pretty cool name when you think about it. The Japanese reads "ステーキの専売店", which would translate as a "steak monopoly store". I think the owners meant to say their place is a ステーキの専門店, a "steak specialist shop", but with a name like Red Ogre, they can describe themselves in any way they like.

These two signs, taken near the SOGO Department Store, were next to each other. The left-hand one reads "Flamingo" in katakana フラミンゴ (it's also written in English in small letters next to the カタカナ). Another mystery business, as it too was closed up. Next door is an establishment going by the name of "Nijiya" にじや. The meaning of the name isn't clear (some kanji 漢字 would help), but the nature of the business is. According to the sign, Nijiya is an izakaya 居酒屋, a Japanese-style pub. I loved going to 居酒屋 in my Japan days, but I have no idea how authentic this place might be.

These signs were just around the corner from the two above. It's for a Japanese-style hot pot restaurant (according to the Chinese) called 森坂及 (Morizaka...kyu? I'm not sure about the last character). The hiragana reads しゃぶしゃぶ. Shabu-shabu is, well, a Japanese variant of a hot pot dish. I could nitpick and say that Shabu-shabu in Taiwan is not the same as Shabu-shabu in Japan, but I won't ;)

Where art thou NHK?

I woke up this morning and turned on the TV to find that the local Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原（とよはら） cable TV provider has once again undertaken an unannounced reshuffling of some of the available channels. This seems to happen at least once a year, and always affects the NHK channel. This time the Japanese broadcaster has been shunted from its previous position at Channel 96 even further into the hinterlands at Channel 107, just after all the Buddhist channels. Why? Who knows?! The last time I checked at Steve's apartment in T'aichung (Taijhong) 台中（たいちゅう） it was on something like Channel 20 there, so I guess the Japanese expat TV audience isn't very large in the Fengyuan area when compared to Taichung. Unlike the commercial Japanese TV channels also aired on the cable TV package (some of which appear to have been moved as well), NHK's programs aren't subtitled in Mandarin 中国語, which no doubt makes it irrelevant for most Taiwanese viewers. (As a side note, the high quality but bland programming offered by NHK wouldn't appeal to many people here even if the shows had subtitles, at least when compared to the absolute crap that passes for entertainment on Taiwanese TV. Commercial TV in Japan is pretty awful as well, but a lot of shows in Taiwan are really bad imitations and/or ripoffs of Japanese programming. It's crap taken to the next lowest level).

And why does this matter? Well, I'm not Japanese, but I like to watch NHK at times for its broadcasts of Japanese baseball and J-League soccer games. I also enjoy the programs that show the scenic beauty of Japan. But most of all it's because Amber loves the Monday-Friday noon hour children's programs which are, needless to say, a heckuva lot better than the made-in-Taiwan kiddie shows I've seen so far. The picture quality on the channels in the 100's isn't as clear compared to the ones in the lower digits, though that's probably more a reflection of the poor condition of our old TV set. At least NHK is still around. Who knows where it will end up in the next reshuffle?

Flowers 花

Pamela's sisters paid a visit today, driving up to Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原（とよはら） from their homes in Hsiluo (Siluo) 西螺（せいら）, so this morning we drove over to my brother-in-law's house to greet them. Everyone then went out to a local beef hotpot restaurant for lunch, which was followed by a visit to a flower farm in the neighboring town of Houli 后里（こうり）. Afterwards, the in-laws decided to go to a hot springs 温泉, but as it was getting near 4 o'clock and with a tired little girl on our hands, we decided to call it a day and headed home. The story in pictures:

Before heading off to the restaurant for lunch, Amber and I took a walk to a local Seven-Eleven, where Amber checked out the headlines in today's Taipei Times newspaper. Seven-Eleven is featuring Japanese-style "ekiben" 駅弁, boxed lunches bought at train stations, and often containing local specialties. According to the poster, you can choose one of two kinds of ekiben: a chicken-and-rice 鶏めし box from Hakata Station 博多駅 in Fukuoka 福岡; or a tonkatsu (pork cutlet) 豚カツ meal, supposedly from Nagoya Station 名古屋駅. In any case, they have got to be an improvement over what's usually available from convenience stores in Taiwan, most of which I find either tasteless or just plain inedible. (Although considering what usually happens to Japanese food in Taiwan, I'm not getting my hopes up about these ekiben)

After lunch, while everyone else drove back to the house for some quick karaoke カラオケ before leaving for the flower farm, I pushed Amber in her stroller, which gave me an excuse to indulge in my guiltiest of pleasures in Taiwan: milk teas ミルクティー purchased from a chain of tea stands called Balance. At NT15 (45 cents or ￥50), it's 700cc of sweet pleasure that unfortunately adds inches to your waistline.

At last, we drove to the flower farm. At first, this place seemed to embody the worst of mass tourism, Taiwan-style: huge tour buses disgorging throngs of loud visitors, who then proceed to stuff their faces and sing karaoke (god, how I hate karaoke in Taiwan), all the while puffing on Long Life cigarettes and chewing betel nut 檳榔 (the men, anyway). However, once past the ticket barrier (which serves to keep the riff-raff out, I guess), the crowds thinned out, things became quieter and the flower fields turned out to be prettier than I expected.

Amber enjoys some of the flowers

A monster carp 鯉

Some family portraits amid the flowers

The lavender fields ラベンダー野原 were especially nice. 北海道っぽい！

One of life's simplest but most enjoyable pleasures, and one which I hope Amber will get enjoy on many occasions as she gets older

An experiment in hiking ハイキングの試み

I'm working on Saturdays now. It's just one class, 90 minutes in the afternoon while Amber is taking her nap, but I still wish I didn't have to do it. One of the things I used to do on my free Saturdays was to go for hikes in Tak'eng (Dakeng) 大坑, so today I decided to find out if it was still possible to do so. The good news is it is! By waking up at 7, leaving home before 7:30 and having a quick breakfast at McDonald's, I was able to reach Takeng and begin a hike by 8:30. The bad news is there are a lot more people on the trails at that time compared to the late morning/early afternoon walks I used to do. You can't have everything, I suppose.

This morning I chose to go up the No. 2 Trail, which I did, reaching the top in about 35 minutes. I didn't take any pictures of the scenery on the way up, as I've done so many times in the past. But there were some insects out and about, such as this caterpillar 毛虫 and these ants アリ:

The top of the No. 2 Trail was predictably crowded with hikers taking a break or having breakfast. A quick ten-minute walk up some steep staircases brought me to the beginning of the No. 5 Trail.

The No. 5 is a ridgetop trail, and is a fairly level walk for the most part. It's also the least busy of the five trails in the area, so I was able to find some occasional peace and quiet this morning.

The most enjoyable thing about walking the No. 5 Trail this morning was seeing the Tung trees in full bloom. Blossoms could be seen everywhere along the trail, and the ground was carpeted with them in some places.

あちらこちらアブラギリの花が見られた。

At what I assume is the highest point on the No. 5 is an obelisk オベリスク, erected in 1979, commemorating the 90th anniversary of the establishment of T'aichung (Taijhong) 台中（たいちゅう）as a city. The monument also informs us that the name of the mountain upon which it stands is Erhk'eshan (Erkeshan) 貳科山 ("Two Branches Mountain"), and that it stands 775 meters (2543 feet) in elevation. There is also an inscription on one side that reads "Jen che yao shan (Ren jhe yao shan)" 仁者樂山, part of a Confucian saying that people of high moral character love mountains. That's me folks!

The No. 5 Trail comes to an end at a small agricultural road. A short walk past some orchards leads to a section of trail that joins up with the main hiking routes in Takeng. It was there that I took this picture of a Tung tree in all its glory.

More views of blooming Tung trees and distant settlements could be had on the way back to the No. 2 Trail. In all, it took me 90 minutes to make the loop, including the time spent stopping to take pictures.

On the way back down the No. 2 to the parking lot, I was lucky to get a glimpse of some monkeys 猿, a rare sight in the mountains of Takeng (though actually the third time I've seen some there). One, in fact, crossed the trail in front of me. I stood for a long time listening to their sounds and movements in the brush nearby, and was able to get a photo of one hiding in the foliage (even if the picture does look like a shot of the hidden gunman in the grassy knoll at Dealey Plaza!).

Alas, my fellow hikers didn't share the same reverence for the monkeys as me. Especially grating were the kids screaming "Monkey! Monkey! Monkey!" (in English!), egged on by their even more obnoxious mother. One man stopped to have a look, but neglected to turn off his blaring radio before doing so. And then there were the three OL-types who stopped to take a break next to where I was standing, blathering away on topics of interest to young working women, and completely oblivious to the grunts and clicking sounds of the monkeys in the trees just a few meters away from them. Yet another example of how I am disconnected from the ways of Taiwan and its natives?

I was back at my scooter before 11:30, 3 hours and 9000 paces later, and back home for lunch by 12:15. Conclusion: if I can drag myself out of bed early enough, I can still enjoy the great outdoors before going to work. Now if I can just find a place where I can be alone...