Japan Travels 日本旅行

It looks like I'm not the only person from Taiwan who will soon be making a visit to Japan. According to an article in today's Daily Yomiuri  (Japanese version), former Taiwan president Lee Tung-hui (Li Tenghui / Li Denghuei) 李登輝 will be making an 11-day trip to Japan at the end of May. Lee will visit Akita 秋田県, Iwate 岩手県, Miyagi 宮城県 and Tochigi 栃木県 Prefectures, as well as Tokyo 東京. What I found interesting about this article is that Lee appears to have been treated as a private citizen by the Japanese government - he will going over as a short-term visitor exempt from obtaining an entry visa. It also seems there won't be any restrictions placed on his visit, as the article says he is planning to hold a press conference before coming back to Taiwan. And finally, there is no mention made of any opposition on the part of the Chinese government.

Which is how it should be. The man is no longer a government official, and should be treated in the same manner as any other visitor to Japan (or any other country for that matter, including the USA) from Taiwan. If he makes some political comments during his visit, that should be his right. Too often countries bow to pressure from Beijing when it comes to Lee's overseas travels, and place ridiculous restrictions on his visits. I certainly hope the Japanese government won't kowtow to the Chinese this time.

My own visit to Japan will be next month, from the 17th to the 24th of June. I'm planning to visit Yoshino 吉野, Omine-san 大峰山 and Koya-san 高野山, with overnight stays in Osaka 大阪 and Kyoto 京都. It's going to be hard being away from Amber and Pamela during that week, but I really need the break from Taiwan.

日本久しぶり！

Mother's Day 母の日

Amber, Pamela and I, along with my mother-in-law 義理の母, decided to skip the almost certain to-be-crowded Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原（とよはら）restaurants, and celebrate Mother's Day 母の日 by going for a drive along the coast. So, after a quick lunch of Chinese-style fried rice チャーハン at a small eatery in Shenkang (Shengang) 神岡（かみおか）, we drove north for a short while to the seaside town of Taan (Daan) 大安.

Ta'an is a typical Taiwanese west coast seaside town - in short, it's ugly, the beach isn't very attractive and the water is no doubt very polluted. However, though the weather has started to get hot, the hordes haven't started descending on the beaches yet, so the sand at Ta'an was surprisingly free of trash. Also, when we arrived, the tide was out, WAY out, so the distance from our parked car to the sea itself (the Taiwan Straits 台湾海峡 in these parts) was vast, and Amber took advantage of the open space to run around and enjoy herself. Amber had a great time today at the seashore, and I'm looking forward to taking her for her first dip in the ocean sometime this summer.

Amber was particularly interested in the thousands of small holes dug in the sand by tiny crabs カニ

The beach at Ta'an is actually part of a "resort" that charges an admission fee. However, today it was closed. Whether that was because the season hasn't started yet, or the business had gone bankrupt, couldn't be ascertained.

For some reason, there were soldiers at the beach, lots of 'em. Even more unusual, instead of arriving in military vehicles, they were brought to Ta'an in commercial tour buses - at least a dozen were in the parking lot.

From Ta'an, we drove south for a couple of kilometers to a wetlands area and bird refuge. Even here there was some kind of military installation. The west coast is lined with observation towers (manned and unmanned), high concrete walls and pillboxes. These days, the authorities are probably looking out more for smugglers and illegal aliens than an amphibious assault from China.

Another aspect to the west coast of Taiwan is that despite the dense urban populations, the landscape close to the sea is mostly rural.

Pamela suggested we next drive to Sani (Sanyi) 三義 to see if the flowers on the Tung trees アブラギリ were still blooming. To her disappointment, they weren't. I, on the other hand, was satisfied with proving my manhood by holding up a bamboo pole with two very heavy baskets containing large pieces of wood, while simultaneously eating a roasted sausage. What a stud! Genki 元気 Amber was all over the place, leaving her mother and grandmother lagging behind her. And the late afternoon scenery was still nice, despite the absence of flowers.

Back in Fengyuan, we tried to have dinner at a Korean restaurant downtown, but the traffic was heavy and parking was scarce. Instead, we ended up going to a quiet Japanese-style diner on the other side of the tracks. The food was just OK (it always is *sigh*), but I did like what was hanging over the cash register - a display of different names of fish in 漢字, with フリガナ beside each character. Maybe Amber can get me one of these for Father's Day!

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

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?