“Nihao” Taiwan - Part 3

Sunday! We decided to get out of Taipei for the morning, so we visited Danshui. This town is on the northern most part of Taipei, as it is located on the opening of the river into the ocean. Sunday brought us the best weather, it was over 60 degrees and overcast, it was quite nice. Our first stop: Starbucks (a real treat because I hardly see them in my area of Japan) and decided which direction we should head. Danshui is reminiscent of the Dutch influence in the architectural design. I even found my own cafe (Amanda’s Cafe)!

We walked along the river and bought a ticket on the ferry that would take us to the tip of the harbor, it was about a 10 minute boat/ferry ride to “Fisherman’s Wharf”. To be honest, I was disappointed in the wharf. I expected more things, but maybe it’s not a popular place to visit in February. We saw the sights and headed back to Danshui. On our way back to the train station, we sampled many Danshui-ian food shops. First, I had a glazed strawberry set (delicious) and then we went and sampled some pancake-like goodies (one was filled with red beans (azuki) and the other was some creamy potato mixture). Both were good and we got them fresh, which I think made them even better.

We took the train to our next stop of Beitou. It is famous for its hot springs resort. Literally, that is all it has, hot springs and more hot springs. If you didn’t know, Japan and the Japanese LOVE their hot springs (or onsens). Lucky for me, I’ve come to love them too! I already know that I will miss them when I leave. We planned on going in the public hot spring, which is pretty popular, but once we got there and saw how packed it was, we realized we could live without the hot spring experience. Up to this point, we hadn’t had our daily bubble tea experience. So, we set out for a bubble tea shop. After about 15 minutes of searching, we finally found a little shop and ordered ourselves some lovely bubble tea. Sitting at the train station, plotting our next move with a refreshing bubble tea in hand was just the way I pictured my Taiwan vacation!

After Beitou, we continued down the same train line to the 2010-2011 Taipei International Flora Exposition. This was something we stumbled open when we went to the Shilin night market on Friday. There were thousands of people, so it was hard to miss. We got our tickets and walked around. They had competitions for the Chinese New Years and the displays smelled fantastic! We walked around outside but due to the rain, we didn’t last long. About 15 countries also had displays of their country, I found the American display and surprisingly enough, I saw the one and only “Spuddy Buddy”. Now those of you who aren’t from Idaho or didn’t play golf at Idaho, you might not know who “Spuddy Buddy” is. He is the famous potato mascot that Idaho uses in its promotions. He is also famous in the golf world thanks to the Idaho Golf Teams! I spotted several “Spuddy Buddy” displays and I was quite excited. After a walk through the gift store, we called it a Flora Expo night. The expo started in November and goes through April. It was huge and we only saw about a third of the entire display but it was pretty cool. It would definitely take a full day to see the whole show.

Soon enough it was dinnertime and my map listed two curry restaurants but somehow, we didn’t find them. Since it was Sunday night, I figured that they were probably closed. Instead, we found a T.G.I. Fridays, something I’ve only been to once or twice in my life. I feasted on chicken fajitas, since Mexican food is nearly impossible to get in Japan. It was amazing, let me tell you. After dinner, the rain had set in and it started to pour. Instead of going to a nearby night market, we called it a night and headed back to the hostel. We took a detour through the underground mall but didn’t see anything that fancied us.

What I learned. Japanese was more useful than English. Everything was incredibly cheap and for the most part, fairly priced. Taiwan is the 7-Eleven CAPITAL! They were everywhere! Literally, right across the street from each other, just to make it more convenient for you. I found it odd that in a lot of situations, foreign food/businesses would be located next to each other. For example: I saw a Starbucks, KFC, and McDonalds lined up one after the other.

“Nihao” Taiwan - Part 2

Saturday: Day Two. First on the agenda was the National Palace Museum. They have free English tours twice a day, so we made our way to the 10am tour. I can’t even tell you how many people were in the museum, it was packed! First, it was a Saturday morning, and second, it was just after the Chinese New Year. This means that everyone gets a week to one month off of work/school. We took our trip at a peak vacation time, but it was worth it. In the museum we looked at the famous jade, iron, steel, ceramic pieces. It was breathtaking. In the ceramics display, our guide pointed out the best/most famous piece, and believe it or not, it was nothing special to the regular eye. However, being so simple was an understatement. The piece reminded me of a bathtub; however, it was only 6 inches long, 4 inches tall, and 4 inches wide. It was a beautiful turquoise color. The reason it was the most famous piece is that it had no flaws. It was perfect, no bubbles, no chips, nothing. As our guide said, most people would skip over this piece for a more ornate, eye catching piece.

National Palace Museum

After pictures outside of the museum (no cameras allowed), we made our way back to the Shilin train station. While debating our next move, we saw a stand for Chinese pancakes. I had read about these being famous, so naturally I wanted to try them. We settled on the Chinese Yam flavor with basil and corn wrapped up inside of the pancake. It was delicious!

Early Saturday afternoon, we boarded the train bound for Longshan Temple. This was just southwest of the main train station. Longshan Temple is the most well known temple in Taipei, perhaps all of Taiwan. It was crowded...ridiculously crowded actually. After the Chinese New Year, people go to the temples to pray for a good year. They give offerings of food and other material things to the god(s). Since we visited right after the new year, we got to see this in action. There was so much good, beautiful food, being placed on tables as gifts to the god(s). The temple itself was a color sensation. When it comes to comparing Japanese and Taiwanese temples, the Taiwanese temples win hands down for color wheel use, intricacies, and overall appeal...sorry Japan, but I still love the Japanese temples. We walked through the temple, dodging hot ashes at every move and after our nostrils were completely full of incenses, we walked outside to look for......a bubble tea shop. After wandering around, we never found one. Instead, we found several food shops and bought different types of bread-type goodies.

Saturday night we found our way to East Taipei for a different side of Taiwan. We walked through a mall and eventually settled on a Thai restaurant, something we aren’t privileged to in Japan (the Japanese just don’t do spicy). As usual, I had curry and it was pretty good. After an early dinner we walked to the Taipei 101 Tower. This was the real reason we went to East Taipei. We walked by the city hall and the exhibition center (which was hosting a book/stationary expo). At the Taipei 101 Tower, we were told that the weather conditions meant we couldn’t go outside and wouldn’t be able to see much. January through March is the rainy season in Taipei, so it didn’t shock me. However, the price tag did. $15 to ride in the world’s fastest elevator, up 97 floors in 37 seconds. I only paid more for 5 things in Taiwan (hostel, dinner, duty free items)! At the top of the tower, we were greeted with a picture display of Taiwan through the years, mainly the past 100 years, as 2011 is the centennial of Taiwan (well, the Republic of China - Taiwan). The pictures told a great story and as I was reading the captions, I could think of numerous people who would love to be reading these things (...my father especially).

After the tower, we mistakenly got off at the wrong level after the tower and ended up in the food court. My mistake lead us to nothing other than bubble tea!!! It was pretty cold outside, probably about 45 degrees, but bubble tea sounded amazing (and it was). With our bubble tea in hand, we walked over to the Taipei City Hall and experienced the 2011 New Years Lantern Festival. For those of you who don’t know, in the Chinese zodiac, 2011 is the year of the rabbit. It occurs every twelve years, so those turning 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, and 96 this year are “rabbits”. Which means, I am a rabbit, so this is my year! woo! The lantern festival had hundreds of displays. First, we saw 5 lanterns, all representing different things: personal health, good luck in school, good luck in business, overall health, and “your own personal wish”. We took turns at all the stations, and if the white lanterns turned red, that meant our wish would be fulfilled. Lucky for me (and for everyone else), the lanterns turned red, meaning all of my wishes will be granted this year!

5 Lanterns and the Taipei 101 Tower

Taipei City Hall

We walked over to the concert area, and there was a girl group who performed famous pop songs (think Lady Gaga, Kesha) and oldies. After getting a few laughs, we walked through the actual lantern display. All the displays used the rabbit as a central piece...I’ve never seen so many rabbits in my life! At 9pm, this HUGE rabbit lantern starred in a once a day water and music show (think Bellagio). It was pretty cool to watch and when it was over, we called it a night and went back to our hostel. We really clocked in the numbers for walking, I can’t imagine how many miles we walked, but I was exhausted!'

“Nihao” Taiwan! - Part 1

Where to start! This past weekend I went to Taiwan (Taipei mainly) with a fellow ALT. I had a four day weekend and I really wanted to explore another country, so it was either Taiwan or South Korea. In the end, warmer temperature location won out.

We left on Friday the 11th out of the Chubu International Airport (Nagoya). I had to catch the 6am train to make our 10am flight, but it was worth it. We got to the airport and had breakfast, got on the plane and then it started to snow, and snow some more...Our 10am flight didn’t take off until 12:30pm, due to snowfall and a broken de-icer truck. After we got to Taiwan, we took a bus for 50 minutes into Taipei (the capital of Taiwan). The bus cost 125 New Taiwanese Dollars or about $5! The weather was noticeably warmer and I truly appreciated it! We stayed at a hostel that was a 5 minute walk from the main train station.

Cixian Temple at the Shilin Night Market

Inside the Temple

On Friday night we wanted to explore the night market scene. There are several night markets, but we decided to explore the largest night market called Shilin Night Market. This was located just 6 train station stops north of us and very convenient. After walking around in search of a place to eat dinner (and for the general location of the night market), we thought we were out of luck. Instead, we took a turn down an alley and amazingly enough, we walked right into the night market. How could we tell? So many people!!! The smells were welcoming and in true Taiwanese/Chinese fashion, several food shops/stations awaited us. We walked through stores and sampled some local cuisine. Our first stop was bubble tea. I LOVE bubble tea and Taiwan is the capital of bubble tea. That being said, we made an agreement that every time we saw a bubble tea store we had to get some.There were contemporary shops like Nike and Adidas, and then there were knock off stores, like Nike and Adidas (ha). Overall, there were more food shops than clothing shops, believe it or not. We found it more convenient to try Japanese before English as a common language as more store merchants spoke Japanese. Trust me when I say that we were as surprised as they were when we found out that an American and Taiwanese person would use Japanese as a common language. Some of the food we sampled: mini pancakes, curried chicken/veggie wrap, dumplings, and others that I’m forgetting. At about 9pm, we needed a pick me up, so we found a Starbucks and ordered some drinks. Since we were pretty tired, we were going to call it a night before we found a massage store. For a 45 minute shoulder and foot massage, we paid 600 New Taiwanese Dollars, or about $22. Yes, an awesome deal and totally worth it. After our impromptu massage we found our way back to the hostel and called it a night.

Sampling All Kinds of Food

So Thankful for English!

Some lessons I learned: it would really help to know Chinese. I could read some of the Chinese characters/kanjis, but I didn’t understand some usage because it had different meanings from the Japanese versions. It would really help to have a friend who knows the area. We spent a lot of time wandering, something that I’m glad we did because we got to see a lot more, but it would’ve helped.

Computer Breakdown

Okay, I made a new years resolution to blog more. I was doing good until my computer went crazy on me and decided it was 1999 all over again. That being said, for the past 11 days, I’ve been computer less, so please forgive me. I’ll be posting all of my adventures from the past two weeks real soon, I promise. In the mean time, I went to Taiwan this past weekend and I have plenty of pictures and stories to share!

My Little Monsters: How I Love 2nd Graders!

Today, I was lucky enough to be at the smallest ES. I had my normal 5th and 6th grade classes, but today I visited the 2nd graders. After being at ES for 4-5 ish months now, I can really see the changes that occur from one grade to the next. The difference between 1st and 2nd is huge! So today, the 2nd graders learned about body parts. Every time I see 2nd graders, we always sing, “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”. So the kids know this song well, but not necessarily great. I taught them the basics: head, shoulders, knees, toes, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hair, arms, hands, legs, and foot. For the activity (as there is always an activity or game at the end of a 1st-4th grade class), we made MONSTERS!!! Each student had a blank sheet of paper, colored pencils, and their imagination. I would say, “this monster has 2 blue heads” or “this monster has 5 yellow arms”. They could draw their monster any way they wanted, and it was pretty awesome to see the end results. Here are some of the drawings. If you wanted to know the prompts: 2 blue heads, 5 yellow arms, 5 orange hands, 1 pink leg, 3 green feet, 4 black ears, 8 red eyes, 2 brown noses, 2 purple mouths, and any color hair.

School Lunch: Milk, fruit salad, green tea, "round bun", and two mini tomatoes. (It was pork day)

School Lunch: Milk, rice, green tea, miso soup (YUM),this veggie thing (I don't know what the black stuff is and I'm too scared to look it up in a dictionary, but I like it), and orange gummies.

“Oh The Places You Will Go” My Dr. Seuss Inspired Sunday Adventure

Well, there goes January. It barely felt like two weeks, and then it was over. January was quite the interesting month. Seeing my family and friends in America, and then transitioning to very cold, Japanese weather. On top of that, this Friday, I must make my decision about whether I will re-contract for another year, or not. Let’s just say, for my simple life in Japan, I’ve been in constant contact with the stress monster. I realize that I’m very young, and I have my whole entire life to have a steady (aka. normal) job. That being said, I still don’t know what I will be doing after this one year contract ends. Currently, I’m exploring opportunities to find a different non-teaching job or go to graduate school. I’ve been blessed with wonderful friends and family members who are helping me find my way. I wouldn’t say that I’m ready to leave Japan now, and from the job market back home, I don’t have much to go home to. That being said, I’m going to do my best to stay abroad one more year, particularly in Asia. However, I still have no idea what I want to do.

Ok, back to the weekend adventure. This weekend was greeted by lot’s of skype sessions with family members and unexpected snow. On Sunday, I had a great plan of driving to famous landmarks in my area and exploring them. When I finally looked outside, a lovely blanket of white had covered the ground, and was still falling. Nevertheless, I made a deal that I would explore, so explore I did. My first stop was in Minokamo City (just NW of me). I found Mt. Atago, thank god for the GPS on my phone, and atop Mt. Atago was a gigantic Tengu (roughly translated: demon). He is about the same as a 3 story building! I walked around the Temple’s grounds, there weren’t many visitors, so I felt a little out of place, but that didn’t stop me. Since it was snowing, it really made for some fantastic sights.

The Giant Tengu and I

The Temple Area

Kind of Creepy

After visiting the Tengu, I figured that one stop would not be enough. So I set out to visit another town that has a peace memorial in it. However, 5 minutes into my journey, I was crossing a river when I saw Koyama Kannon (“Island Temple”). Immediately, I changed my plans, as this was something I was told not to miss. I followed the signs, and about 2 minutes later, I was walking across the bridge to the temple. If you haven’t guessed already, this temple is on an island in the middle of a river. You cross a bridge and viola, you are there. Once again, this island was pretty deserted. My guess is that it was too snowy and windy, (about 30 F outside) for people to leave their warm houses. I didn’t blame them.

The Koyama Kannon

The Very Loud Bell

Hopes and Wishes for 2011. The Year of the Rabbit

The Frozen Dragon

After the Island Temple, I was lucky enough to spot a “Places to Visit in Minokamo” sign. I found one more place, typed it into my GPS/phone, and off I went. My last stop was Zuirinji Temple. I wanted to visit here because it had a famous wooden Buddha. Sadly, the Buddha was lucky enough to be protected from the cold. Unlucky for me, I didn’t get to see him. I walked around and actually went inside the temple. I will never get tired of the incredibly artistic designs and layouts of temples, they are truly amazing.


The Entrance

"Ommmm"

The Rock Garden

After those three stops, I decided to investigate a mall I’ve never been to. I went in, walked around, and on my way out I passed a McDonald’s, with this sign, advertising the Idaho Burger. I couldn’t contain my laughter, and I’m sure people thought I was crazy for taking a picture, but who cares! I went on the McDonald’s website and I found out that this burger has a mere 715 calories in it. Crazy! I am determined to visit a McDonald’s sometime and order this burger (without the bacon of course). It would be likely having breakfast and lunch at the same time, due to the lovely hash brown stacked atop a hamburger patty and cheese.