Japan: The Long Story

I’m sorry to let you down, but I have no updates from Taiwan this week.  In fact, I haven’t even seen the country since Monday.  No, I haven’t moved, I still love Taiwan, but it was time to get out and see some more of what Asia had to offer, so I extended my Chinese New Year break for an additional two weeks and have flown to Japan.  I’ve been told it was a ‘brave’ choice to move to Taiwan, and to that I say, this vacation has required far more courage than that move did.  I spent weeks assessing and reassessing whether it made more sense to book hostels and trains in advance or play it by ear, and to the dismay (but not surprise) of those who know me, I decided to no to preplan the majority of my stay.  The things I knew before arriving on the island: I would be arriving in, and departing from Osaka, so my adventure would need to lead me in a circle; I had a limited budget, but had pre-paid the majority of my transportation expenses with the JR pass; and my former Japanese abilities were not strong enough to help me at all.  Seven days into the adventure, and things have come together, perhaps better than they should have, and I couldn’t be more delighted. Every night before I go to bed, I plan the following day’s travel and accommodation (if I am at the end of my stay in the city/hostel).

You might be thinking, “Who goes to Japan alone?”.  Well, I do, but as I have been told in the past, and experienced first hand this week, you are only alone if you choose to be, and my appreciation of social interactions has helped me find friends at every stop along the way.  The best thing about starting a simple conversation, is you never know where it will lead, what ideas it will give you, what stories you will hear, and when your conversations are with travelers, the topics are never dull.  I accept any judgment this may cause, because I know how amazing Japan is, but I think my favorite parts of the trip, so far, have been back at the hostels with the other backpackers. 

I have done so much this week that even the Reader’s Digest version of events is a novel.  Be warned now, a lot of words are about to come out of my fingertips, some exciting, some dull, but every one a vital part of the story to me.

Monday, February 3^rd: The adventure begins

The original plan was to fly out of Taoyuan airport at 6:40pm, but delays soon extended my wait time by two hours.  In general, that wouldn’t bother me, I am a night person, with no set plans for the day except to arrive in Osaka and check into my hostel, unfortunately, the late arrival time meant the majority of public transportation options were closed for the evening.  The information booth directed me to the last city bus of the evening, and as I patiently waited, I slowly realized how little I knew about my plans.  Thankfully (and surprisingly), I was standing next to a tri-lingual Taiwanese man who worked in Japan (and it has only taken me a week to remind myself that I had just gotten off of a flight which probably contained several people of similar backgrounds and skill sets).  He helped me pick my bus stops, then later helped me direct a taxi to my hostel, where I passed out from exhaustion almost immediately.

Tuesday, February 4^th: A tour of Osaka

I woke up on Tuesday, freezing (because I hadn’t unfolded my comforter correctly), and realized it was time to start my day.  I’ll be honest, I didn’t have big plans in Osaka, and looking back on it, it has been my least favorite city in this trip.  It is a fairly typical city, lacking what I thought would immediately stand out as “Japanese culture”, but perhaps that is because I have had a year and a half to experience Asian culture and was just expecting, but not finding, something significantly different from Taiwan.  I consulted my guidebook and decided that my main goal was to find Osaka castle, so I set off on a walk.  Walking has been a vital, yet painful part of my travels, because even now, I can still feel the results of my beachside fall on Green Island, which causes a strong pain in my knee, especially while walking down staircases, and has led to tension in my shins from the modifications to my walking pattern.  It has begun to feel better over the last two days, but I look forward to a hospital visit back in Taiwan to confirm that I will have no lasting problems.  Wait, I was talking about Osaka castle, not my leg! As my first real attraction in Japan, I was impressed by the castle.  It’s outer appearance indicates 5-stories, but the interior contains 8, with the lower levels being protected by a stone-wall platform.  Don’t picture a European castle, while there are features that are a little similar between the two (like a moat), the Japanese castles are designed in a similar style to their temples with tiered roofs (and lots of triangles).  The grounds are also home to large gardens of plum and sakura trees, and while it is not warm enough to be sakura (cherry blossom) season yet, a few trees have begun to bloom.

This is Osaka Castle, and as you can see, it is huge!

My next project was to navigate the subway system.  This has by far been the most difficult thing for me, because there are a few factors which should be helpful but instead are confusing me.  For starters, I studied Japanese for two years in high school.  I know, two years of a language is nothing, and placing them 10 years ago makes them even less valuable, but it means that occasionally I hear familiar phrases but can’t translate them, or I see hiragana or katakana (the Japanese alphabets) characters and can’t read them.  The second factor is that, Japanese kanji (word characters) share a history with simplified Chinese characters, which has caused some to be written identically but hold different pronunciations and sometimes, different meanings.  This means that, I have to fight my instinct to think I understand some writing when I only know the Chinese equivalent.  These factors team up with the complete lack of English at the subway ticket booths to make travel really difficult, but once you pass the ticket gates, suddenly there is English everywhere (it is counter-intuitive if you ask me).   With some help from a couple of locals I was able to navigate my path to Tsutentaku tower to see the Osaka skyline at night and to learn what a Billiken is.  Maybe you have also heard those university commercials, for St. Louis I believe, that tell you to “be a Billiken”, and you thought, “I don’t even know what that means”. My research into the subject has led me to the conclusion that the Japanese just like ‘fads’ because apparently the Billiken was first ‘created’ in the 20^th century by an American woman who saw the figure in dream.  It has since become known as the “God of things as they ought to be”, and his face can be seen everywhere in the Shinsekai streets.

I finished up my night with a little trip back to Osaka station to exchange my JR rail pass and grab some dinner.  To anyone considering travel in Japan, the JR pass came highly recommended to me, and I pass on that recommendation to you.  This is a promotion available only to tourists, and can’t be purchased once you are in Japan.  The JR pass is a pre-paid train voucher, which can be used on any of the JR trains (the main train line, but not the main subway line), allowing you to skip lines (unless you are waiting to reserve seats), skip the electronic ticket machines, and jump on a train.  The pass even includes use of the Shinkansen (the famous Japanese “bullet train”).  Because my travel plans span across a great deal of the island, this pass has saved me thousands of Yen (Japanese dollars).  Train pass in hand I begin to wander Osaka City Mall (the shopping area attached to the train station), and realize that because the time has passed 10pm, the streets have become a little ‘seedy’ as the bar crowd is coming out.  Suddenly every business has transformed into a ‘girl bar’ (or ‘hostess club’), which is staffed by females and caters to the late-night male crowd, and I took that as my cue to head back to my hostel and sleep.

The Shinsekai shopping area and the Tsutentaku Tower.

Wednesday, February 5^th: Kobe, land of the beef

The child in me knew what I wanted to do from the moment I woke up: the Ferris Wheel! Near Osaka station there is a large red Ferris Wheel perched atop one of the shopping centers called Hep Five.  The wheel gives you a great view of the skyline in a 15 minute cycle over the city.  Entertainingly enough, they also provide speakers for the riders to hook-up their mp3 players and listen to music as they go.

Part of the Osaka skyline as I attempt a 'selfie'.

Amusement park rides aside, I wanted to make use of my newly acquired JR pass, I decided to catch a train to the city of Kobe.  You have probably heard of Kobe, but outside of restaurants I don’t know how often you think about it.  Kobe is known for its high-quality beef, which is tender, flavorful, and fatty (which I guess is something people like in a steak, but personally, I can’t stand it).  While food was in my plans for the day, my main goal in Kobe was to visit the mountains.  There are a few peaks accessible by cable car from Kobe, so I picked Mt. Rokko to ascend.  Usually, when I go into the mountains, I expect some form of hiking to take place, but this was a pretty tourist-y location, and my aching knee appreciated the bus presence.  It was here that I experienced my first snow in 2-years, and I have to say, I don’t miss it.  I used to be so good with the cold, but Taiwan has spoiled me, and I was freezing the whole time.  As the sun began to set I descended the mountain and went to find my beef dinner.  I have been saying I at beef in Kobe, but I can’t declare that it was Kobe beef (if is hard to clarify that when there is a language barrier), but I would like to think it was (and the price indicated it might have been).  Unsure what else to do with my day, I catch a train back to Osaka and call it an early night (well, it was 11, but that is early for me).

This is the Rokko Mountain cable car, one of the easiest ways to the top.

Thursday, February 6^th: A bit of history in Hiroshima

For all of the wrong reasons, Hiroshima is one of the most well-known cities in Japan.  On August 6^th, 1945, this city was the target of the world’s first atomic bomb, which was deployed by the US.  The bomb exploded over Hiroshima, and contained so much force that those close enough to the center were killed instantly, while many others were severely burnt, suffered from shrapnel injuries, and had lasting radiation issues.  Today, most of the affected buildings have been demolished, and the city has rebuilt itself, but around the peace park there are still reminders of the past.  The most iconic reminder is the former Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, now known primarily as the Atonic Bomb Dome.  This is the building featured in all of those high school text books, the empty frame of a building, surrounded by rubble, with the frame of a dome roof on top.  Originally left simply because it was the most difficult building to demolish, petitions led to this site being protected as a World Heritage site.  Across the Aioi Bridge (the target of the bombing) is now a peace park, with memorials for the victims of the attacks.  Among the most famous are the Cenotaph which stands in front of the ‘Peace Flame’ which will remain lit until atomic warfare is not only out of use, but completely destroyed, and the Children’s Peace Memorial which represents Sadako Sasaki, a young girl at the time of the bombing who acquired Leukemia from the radiation .  Sadako believed in the Japanese myth that folding 1,000 paper cranes will allow you to have a wish granted, so she folded, but did not accomplish her goal before death.  A statue was constructed to remember her, and all of the children affected by the bombing, and every year hundreds of thousands of paper cranes are folded around the world and sent to be decorations at the memorial, each with the goal of world peace. The park is also complete with a museum, describing life in Hiroshima and Japan before the war, and their early roles in the fighting, as well as showing the after-effects of the bombing.  I was impressed with the number of artifacts on display in the museum, including clothing, furniture, even parts of buildings with burn marks or imbedded glass shards. (though the body parts on display were a bit too much for me).  My only issue with the museum was the English signposting.  They were careful to make sure that readers from many areas of the world could access the information by providing audio tours and signs in multiple languages, but reading the events felt a little like reading one of my high school text books, with that same, American perspective.  When in Japan, I expect to hear things from the Japanese viewpoint, but there was no “victim” tone in the writing, and portions seemed to blame Japan for different aspects of the war.  One sign told of the Japanese siege of a Chinese city, and explained that the people celebrated in Hiroshima with a parade, while the massacre occurred.  While massacre might have been an appropriate term, it is rarely used when defending one’s own actions, or even telling one’s own story.

The cenotaph, centered over the Peace Flame, centered in front of the A-bomb dome.

After Hiroshima I went back to Osaka and visited the Dotonbori Canal district.  Dotonbori might be one of the busiest shopping and eating areas in Osaka, with a whole area devoted to America, and area devoted to Europe, electronics stores and arcades galore, and some of the best restaurants I had seen since my arrival (I was disappointed to discover it so late in my stay).  I had a conveyor belt sushi dinner, took the obligatory picture in front of the “Glico” runner, wandered the shops for a while, then returned to my hostel.

This is the Dotonbori Canal District.

One would think a return to my hostel would mean the end of my day, but for the first time since my arrival in Osaka, my hostel was full of people, and I finally experienced what the hostel experience should be like.  We sat around for hours talking about places we had been, places we were going, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, you name it and we probably talked about it.  Hostels are the adult version of the college dorm, you never know who you are going to meet.

Staff and guests of the Tani9 Backpackers Hostel.

Friday, February 7^th: Moving on out…to Kyoto

Morning came was too early on Friday (maybe those beers the night before weren’t the best idea), but with check-out quickly approaching, it was time to leave Osaka.  I already knew my plan for the day was to get to Kyoto, and I had mapped out my travel route, knew my trains, booked my hostel, but it felt weird leaving the hostel.  I said my goodbyes, jumped on a train, and away I went, for about 15 minutes.  Who knew Kyoto was so close?  I immediately felt more at-home in Kyoto.  The city has a genuinely Japanese vibe (which is likely the result of its former status as capital city), and everywhere you go there are temples, shrines, castles, geishas, et cetera.  There is so much to see in this city that it is actually overwhelming at first, mainly because you realize you will only be seeing a small portion of the big picture.  My hostel had a list of the top 10 recommended sites, and that became my map for the stay (though I didn’t complete the list).  I began my adventures a Ginkaku-ji, also known as the Silver Pavilion.  The temple was built in 1482 with the intent of copying the style of the nearby Golden Pavilion, however it was never coated in silver, which might have been the original plans for it.  

Ginkaku-ji, also known as the Silver Pavilion.

Originally it was my plan to walk to the Heian temple which, but with the evening past approaching I took a bus instead.  The shrine was closed (I never did get used to how long the bus systems took to get me around), but I still got to see the largest Torii gate I have ever seen.  A tori is the archway placed at the entrance to Shinto shrines in Japan (and Japanese shrines outside of the country).  They are typically made of wood or stone, and will either be unpainted, or a reddish-orange color with black trimming.  As the sun set I made my way to the Gion district.  Gion is known for the large number of geisha (though they prefer the regional term geiko) who are employed by the bars and restaurants.  Geisha are traditional entertainers who often perform music or dance, as well as interact with the clientele.  Unfortunately, having become a ‘symbol’ of Japan, tourists have gone crazy trying to catch pictures of the geiko (and apprentice geiko which are called maiko), so they seem to ‘hide’ in taxis or run from building to building if they need to be out.  Taking photos is strongly discouraged, so I just watched the geiko and maiko for a little while (I didn’t see too many) and enjoyed a leisurely walk down the old streets of the district before calling it a night.

Saturday, February 8^th: More adventures in Kyoto

I must have been tired because I didn’t get through much on Saturday.  I started my day off with about a 30 minute walk to one of the nearest attractions to my hostel: Kiyomizu-dera.  This old structure (originally constructed in 798, but the current building was constructed in 1633 without the use of nails) is a Buddhist temple overlooking the city.  In Japanese, there is an expression which is ‘to jump off the stage at Kiyomizu’, which essentially means ‘to take the plunge’, which comes from the old belief that if you jumped from the 13m high stage and survived the fall your wishes would be granted.  I, and many others, did not even need to be tempted to tryout this old myth because the practice in no longer allowed.  Many people come to this temple to drink the water of the waterfall, which is channeled over a shrine in the complex, believing that this will allow them to have a wish granted.  

These girls informed me I could rent my own Kimono to tour the temple in, but that sounded like a lot of work.  This is the main gate of Kiyomizu-dera.

The main stage of Kiyomizu-dera is in the background.

Having spent too much of my precious sunlit hours walking around Kiyomizu, I had to make my way to Fushimi Inari in the evening hours, and lost my daylight by the time I was done.  Fushimi Inari is known for its incredible number of Torii which line the walkways all the way up the 233m tall Mount Inari.  I attempted to climb the mountain, but at the halfway mark I realized I was in a time-crunch with my hostel check-in, and had to descend again.  Thankfully, the hostel wasn’t ready for me to sleep just yet, so I went to dinner with a fellow traveler (and when the restaurant got confused and only brought us one of the two ordered meals I went to another dinner with him), then met some people in the bar located below the hostel, and finished up with a party in the kitchen area.  All in all, it was a good night.

These are the entrances to the 1,000 Torii of Fushimi Inari (though there are far more than 1,000 of these arches on the temple grounds)

Sunday, February 9^th: Getting out of Kyoto

I knew I had a lot to take care of today, so I got up early and began my sight-seeing right away.  It is almost mandatory, if you are traveling in Kyoto, you have to see the Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku-ji), this will come up in all of your guidebooks, brochures, to-do lists.  The Golden Pavilion is a Zen Buddhist temple known for gold coating on its exterior, which shines brilliantly in the sun.  I agree that the Golden Pavilion is worth seeing, but to those looking to learn about culture and history, this sight might be disappointing.  You can’t enter any of the buildings on the grounds, so while it boasts to be an example of three different architectural styles on each level of the interior, the public will never witness that first hand.  The benefit of the lack of signposting and places to explore is that viewing this location goes rather quickly, allowing me plenty of time to walk to the next closest temple to see the Zen garden of Ryoan-ji.  I would venture to guess, everyone has seen a Zen garden, I know the dollar stores in Minnesota used to see them, so you are probably thinking there is not much to see here.  To be honest, I could understand that review as well, I enjoyed seeing the garden, which consisted of 15 stones placed in a carefully raked sand garden spanning 248 square meters.  Aside from this, however, there was not much to view on the grounds, just a short walk around a central pond.

The temple at the Golden Pavilion (I would say the color implies an appropriate name)

Meditating at the Zen Garden of Ryoan-ji.

I could easily have stayed in Kyoto for my remaining week in Japan, there is so much more to be seen, but I knew my time would begin running short, so I made my way out of town and into the big city: Tokyo.  I wish I could tell you what Tokyo is like, but I don’t know yet, even now I am only planning it as my layover on my trip north to Sapporo (but I will be back in a few days).  These stories come to you as I wait for my laundry to finish and before I climb into my capsule bed for the night.  Capsule? Yes, capsule.  Originally developed for traveling businessmen in Japan, a capsule hotel is a cheap alternative to a traditional hotel room (though it is actually more expensive than a hostel).   Each room in the hotel contains two (or more) lines of ‘pod rooms’, which are stacked on top of each other.  A pod or capsule is only big enough for a single bed (about 4ft tall and 7ft long), and along the walls are a television, radio, alarm clock, and light.  You’ll have to wait to hear if it led to a comfortable night’s sleep, because, “yawn”, I’m off to bed now.

A room of sleeping capsules in tonight's hotel. 

Goodnight world, it is bedtime.

Wish me luck on week two of my travels!

A Short Week and A Long Break

Somehow, an entire year has gone by, and we have officially bid adieu to the year of the snake.  What is there to say but, "Xin Nien Kuai Le", "Gong Xi Fa Cai, and a very happy [Chinese] New Year to you.  May the year of the horse bring you luck!
For the first time in a while, the focus of the week was definitely not on class, it was on the lack-there-of.  Working only a 3-day week, we began our 6-day holiday on Thursday, and a large percentage of businesses will continue to celebrate (and remain closed) until Tuesday.  I have been spending weeks organizing a trip for my friends and I to take during this holiday, and I am happy to say it all came together.  On Thursday morning at 6:12 we boarded the express train and started our 6-hour journey to the Southeastern city of Taitung where we boarded a ferry and sailed (for about 50 minutes) to the small island of Ludao (Green Island).  I think we knew from the start that we were going to have a great trip because the ferry ride, which is warned to be one of the choppiest, most sea-sick inducing boat rides we will ever experience, was virtually smooth sailing.  We arrived on the island in the early afternoon and were awe-struck by the bright blue waters and green foliage.  The hostel owner picked us up at the docks and piled us into his open-bed truck, and, clinging onto rails for dear life, we took our first tour around the island.

Driving past the mountains and beaches with smiles on our faces.

Because Green Island is located in the tropical half of Taiwan, even in January the weather is quite warm (80-90 degrees).  In any other environment, staying in a wall-less shack with outdoor showers (nudity, bamboo walls, and close proximity to a 'major road'...a once-in-a-lifetime experience) could have been a recipe for disaster, but for us, it was perfect.  The whole shack was reserved for our group, and the 7 members of our party split up into bunk beds in four little rooms.  From my bed there was a clear view out to the beaches and the sunrise (which I slept through).

Home, sweet home!  Hanging out at the "shack"

The island is very small, only about 15km, which meant that we could pedal our motorbikes around the main road (which is a circuit around the whole island) in under an hour.  This meant that we were easily able to get to any of the different attractions we wanted in very little time.  Our hostel was conveniently located near two of my favorite attractions, the first of which is the Zhaori Hot Spring.  Hot springs are pools of water naturally heated by volcanic activity, which tends to be fairly common around the world, but the green island hot springs are unique because they are one of three salt water hot springs in the world (the other two are in Italy and Japan).  The salt water springs are better smelling, clearer, and leave your skin feeling much smoother than other springs.  I personally enjoyed them because they provided a comfortable place to lie back at watch the trail end of the meteor shower streaking the clearest, most star-studded sky I have seen in years (another good location to watch the sky was found on our ride home from the springs, where we parked our bikes and lied out alone the sidewalk for a while).  My other favorite location was the coral reef and 300+ species of tropical fish located just off-shore.  Our hostel provided free wetsuits, snorkels, googles, boots, and gloves, which gave us unlimited access to the underwater paradise.

Fresh out of the waters on Dabaisha beach.

Some of the other main attractions on the island are the rock structures caused by its volcanic creations. There are great hiking trails through the central mountain which provide a bird's eye view of the whole island while allowing their visitors to see the various flora and fauna (including giant spiders, deer, goats, and bats).  I am sad to report, I didn't make it to any of the hiking trails this trip, but I did get to explore the coastal regions where I climbed several skerries, entered several caves, and partook in a bamboo "javelin throwing" contest.

The view atop one of our hill/rock climbing adventures.

A great location with great friends, I have to say that my vacation was almost perfect.  The only thing that could have made it better would have been a bit more luck on my part.  For starters, I have been sick all week, and even now, as I sit at my computer reflecting, I experience a jolt of numb pain each time I swallow.  Many people have been falling ill lately, which is a pattern brought on each year as the cold weather persists, and especially as teachers, we are exposed to the germs of our students on a daily basis.  I contracted what I would have called strep throat, but what my doctors have told me is the flu (though I have no fever) last weekend, and have been confirmed as non-contagious and have devoured my share of medications, but the doctors say what I am really missing is sleep.  The second morning of my trip brought on a new medical condition, it appears I acquired pink eye at the hot spring and couldn't even open my eyelids that morning.  The hostel owner seemed unsurprised by this, and the local hospital was so accommodating that I walked in and within 3 minutes had completed my check-up, received my eye drops, and was on my bike (without having paid a cent).  My eye healed quickly in the fresh salt air, and the eye drops made sure I wasn't contagious with that either.  Not enough? On my way out to the coral reefs on day two, I slipped on a mossy rock on the coast, and while I didn't notice it before my swim, as I was sitting on the beach after, watching the blood seep through my wetsuit, I knew I had a potential disaster on my hands.  The wetsuit came off and I had a decently wide hole in my knee, and a pain so strong I worried I had cracked my patella.  All panic aside, I am fine now.  I have a lovely bruise forming, but no stitches were necessary and no breaks exist, so I'm getting on alright.  That is my medical update, it hasn't been ideal, but it has been bearable, and it didn't stop me from enjoying my trip.

Student Break Started, Still Counting the Days Until Mine...

It’s official, winter break has started in Taiwan, but not for the buxiban students and teachers, our schedules are taking this opportunity to become busier.  To an extent it feels like the cram school system is a glorified babysitting system, and since the parents are still working full time, they send the children to our school for additional hours.  The extra classroom hours are not standard lessons, they are intended to be more fun, so we are given the freedom to plan crafts, sports, or field trips as we see fit.  I covered about 5 additional hours this week, starting with passing out advertising flyers on Monday, teaching the children how to make bird feeders on Tuesday, and making fish-shaped wind socks to teach the kids about Japan on Thursday.  Looking back on the week, I enjoyed all of the extra classes, but all week it made me feel a bit over-worked because lessons that don’t teach to the course guide require a different level of planning (which I tend to spend too much time on). 

Showing off our "Japanese" fish

You may be wondering, why is this the start of winter break, the school holidays are just ending back in the western countries, my students have been curious as well.  The answer is simple: the timing of the country’s major ‘winter’ holiday.  In one of my mid-level classes this week, my students couldn’t understand how so many people could travel for Christmas considering it is only one day, and there is still school, they were very surprised that students would have 2-4 weeks without class. In the west, Christmas is our most important family holiday though.  The students were equally surprised, however, to hear that there is no acknowledgement of Chinese New Year in the western school calendar.  ‘Those poor students, stuck in class when they should be eating family meals and opening red envelopes, how could any country not celebrate the new year’ (well, at least that is how I interpreted the look on my students’ faces).

In preparation, businesses and families are taking care of their “spring cleaning” this week.  A clean house will bring a more fortunate year in terms of luck and money, but, superstition also believes that all cleaning must be done before New Years Eve, and on that day the cleaning supplies should be hidden so your fortune can’t be ‘swept away’.  While I have been neglecting my New Year's Cleaning (though it is my project for this week), I have finally gotten around to the pre-holiday decorating.  We will be entering the Year of the Horse this year, so many decorations, include wall posters or ceiling-hanging decorations feature this animal.  The main decorations are calligraphy posters that are hung around the front doors and windows of a residence.  These posters are often red (because the Chinese word for 'red' sounds like the Chinese word for 'prosperous') and have couplets (poetry) about the spring, which are intended to bring happiness, prosperity, and long life to the family.  Aside from the New Year's preparations, this has been a nice weekend to relax and catch up on my sleep a little bit.  On Friday I had the unique experience of attending a surprise birthday party for someone I had never met.  One of my friends is moving to a new apartment, and her new housemates told her they were throwing a party, and she should join and bring a few friends along.  Well, we arrived, not knowing what we were getting ourselves into, and were ushered into a dark house full of whispering people, and told to wait for the cue to shout, "Surprise".  Feeling a little awkward, and not even sure if we knew any of the people around us, we made our way to the back of the crowd and waited as the birthday girl was ushered along the street, blindfolded.  Despite the initial situation, the evening was very enjoyable.  Saturday was a day of shopping and sightseeing, as we wandered the streets of Lukang to visit the temples and street vendors, then wandered the song listings as we visited a local KTV.  Then today, though not as productive as I would have liked, I went on a Taichung shopping excursion to prepare myself for next week's travels.  I couldn't, by any means, call this the most entertaining of weekends, but it had it's share of "you had to be there" moments, and let me send time with some of my favorite people in this country, so it was perfect.
Today's cultural note is inspired by the reader from my CEI09 class.  One of the stories we had to read this week was about the invention of braille, which got my co-workers and I thinking, is braille international?  Because it is a writing system, it is younger than many of the speaking systems, so there was a chance, but alas, it is not.  While braille systems around the world function similarly, using the placement of raised bumps in a rectangular "character", the assignment of sounds to characters varies in each system.  In fact, there is even a separate braille system used in Taiwan but not in China.  In English, braille is based on letters, but in Chinese there are no letters because each character represents a whole word, so how does the braille work?  Is there a series of bumps for each word in the Chinese language? That would be nearly impossible to learn, so of course, the answer is no.  Instead, the braille alphabet is divided similarly to the Bopomofo or Pinyin alphabets with consonants and vowels and an additional bump to mark tones for each word.  It is read from left to right by feeling the bumps with your fingertips and is used by the blind population of Taiwan (though I don't find it's presence on doors to be as common as the US labels were).

Counting Down to Chinese New Year

Being a teacher sort of makes you feel bad for the teachers that you had years ago, because you start to realize your own youthful behaviors.  For instance, I spent the week thinking, ‘my students are out of control, are struggling to focus, are acting out in unusual ways, what could be wrong?’, but the answer was obvious, this was the week before Winter Break.  The kids can see the light at the end of the tunnel, they are on the brink of a two-week vacation and the last thing they want to do is learn English.  I can’t pretend I was different when I was a kid, however, those last few weeks before summer or winter vacation were always a struggle on my attention span.  To help keep their attention I’ve tried to add a few more memorable aspects to my classes through art projects (everybody loves collages, right?), field trips (to the front stoop of the school), and some temporary shoe thievery (in an attempt to teach possessive pronouns to my youngest class stole a shoe from each of my students and they had to identify the shoes using the target language of “It’s my shoe” or “It’s his/her shoe”).  It may not have been as fun as a day at home with friends and video games, but I’m sure my lessons beat reading text books or taking exams.

Hard at work making a tree collage in our weekly science lesson.

One of the ‘selling points’ for a lot of people when they consider moving to Taiwan is the friendliness and hospitality of the residents, but what does that mean.  Do you move to a country because people smile at you?  Do people need to give you things for you to see their kindness?  Don’t live in a naïve bubble when you travel or you will be taken advantage of, but don’t shy away from kindness either.  This morning I was disappointed to discover that my scooter tire was flat, so I pushed it around the corner to the nearest scooter repair shop, and as I was walking I passed an older Taiwanese couple out on a walk.  For whatever reason the shop was closed this evening, so I turned around and made my way to a main road, where I crossed paths with that same couple.  The man, seeing my struggle directed me forward and began pushing the back of the bike to lighten the load.  Within two minutes he told me to stop, and I looked around confused, not seeing the scooter shop he must be taking me to, only to see him open the door to his own apartment, pull out a tire pump and inflate re-inflate my tire for me.   If that wasn’t enough of a favor, he then brought out his squirt bottle and inspected the tire for cracks (a technique the repair shops seem to rely on here) before fetching his children to translate that the tire was not broken, it just had no air.   I wasn’t asking for help, this family had no obligation to me, but they saw someone in need, so they helped.  Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone thought that way?

And Meanwhile, Outside of the Polar Vortex...

Bundle up, America! Any time I think I'm cold, I just remember the polar vortex which is freezing the entirety of the United States with temperates of 0 degrees Fahrenheit (and colder) even in the south and with windchill bringing midwestern temperatures as low as -36 degrees Fahrenheit with a windchill of 20-30 degrees colder than that.  I will gladly keep my Taiwanese temperatures.
Our 'little' franchise is growing this week.  I'm excited about the arrival of three new teachers that have joined our team of teachers.  The best thing about the arrival of these teachers is that we aren't 'losing' any friends on the island, we are just adding more people.  I have said it before, one of the main deterrents from staying here too long is how much I hate seeing people leave, it is difficult to form such temporary bonds with people and to constantly feel like you are saying 'goodbye', but no one is moving away during this influx (they are just moving to new schools in the same area).

The welcome tour to Taiwan began with a trip to the top of Baguashan.

I love it when I get the chance to break-free of the normal classroom structure and bring something unique to a class.  This week I was able to do that with my youngest ‘intensive’ class using new vocabulary and a new setting.  We went to one of the local pet stores to look at all of the animals and practice free-style conversation.  In general, the focus of the lesson was on identifying, counting, and describing the animals using questions and answers, but if I’m being honest, we did such a good job pre-teaching the language that is stopped being a lesson and was just an hour conversation with the kids.  Everyone found something fascinating, and everyone wanted to draw my attention to it, or to know more about it, “Teacher Kaitlin, what is it?”, “Teacher Kaitlin, it is cute!”, “Teacher Kaitlin, the fish is eating rocks!”.  The kids were so excited to be around the animals, that it naturally elicited speech from them, which was excellent.  The problem, however, was that the small aisles, watchful staff, and limited timeframe limited the activities I would have liked to do.

The kids are excited to see the fish.

This past week I have been working hard to learn and use a new phonetic 'spelling' system in Chinese, called Bopomofo (or Zhuyin fuhao).  I have previously been taking notes using Pinyin, which is a writing system that uses roman characters and tone markers.  I have found Pinyin very useful in my Chinese lessons, but it falls short when it comes to typing, because it requires tone marks that my American keyboard doesn't naturally produce, and while I could use applications and inserted characters, it has simply deterred my from using Chinese on technology.  Bopomofo, however, functions without roman characters.  It was introduced in Taiwan (and is now only used in Taiwan) and consists of 16 vowels and 21 consonants that blend to form all sound possibilities in Chinese.  The importance of a system like this is that, since Chinese is a logographic language (each character represents an entire word or idea), there needs to be an external system for 'sounding out' the words.  As a linguistics major, the thing I appreciate most about Bopomofo is that the order of the characters follow a very logical articulatory pattern, listing all of the similarly articulated sounds together (for example, /b/ /p/ /m/ and /f/ are all articulated with the lips, and /d/ /t/ /n/ and /l/ are all articulated behind your teeth) making the system more logical than most aspects of language.  Because of this, I have begun writing in Chinese more (mainly on my iPod because I can convert the keyboard into Bopomofo), and I am excited about the extra practice it is giving me with character recognition.
My cultural thoughts for the week are fairly food-centric, I was thinking about how much I love Taiwanese street food.  Street food is certainly not unique to Taiwan, it can be found all over the world, but growing up in the midwest, it wasn't a very common sight to see.  Sure, there would be a hot dog vendor here and there (especially around college towns and sporting events), but I couldn't have planned a meal around it.  Here, street food seems to be a staple, and now just for us foreigners without kitchens, but for the majority of the population.  Whether you are craving food or drinks, noodles or rice, meals or desserts, meat or vegetarian, you can probably find it within a 5 minute walk.  The thing about street food that is strange to me though, is how common it seems to be for people to open food stands (or other businesses) on the ground floor of their homes.  It isn't strange to utilize that space, in theory it makes a lot of sense considering you are paying for it already, the thing that confuses foreigners is distinguishing whether or not those are businesses or simply families we are looking at.

Well 'Hello' to You, 2014

Reflection.  Another year is complete in my life, and if anything I could say that it was a unique one.  For the entirety of 2013 I resided outside of the United States, and it is interesting to wonder whether I will be able to say that about any future years of my life.  I am a traveler at heart, and I love being out in the world, but will I have another chance to dedicate a full year to it? Will I have another place I could even imagine spending a full year residing in?  Right now I can't say.  What I can say is that over the past 365 days I have met some amazing people, visited some of the most strikingly beautiful places on this little island, celebrated a year's worth of new holidays, begun studying the most difficult language I have ever faced, learned how to drive a scooter, sung countless songs at karaoke, watched my students grow, and back in my American life I was able to be a bridesmaid in one of my best friend's weddings.  It goes without saying, this was a year I will never forget, it never stood a chance at being forgotten though.

I celebrated the new year as anyone else would, there were fireworks, and drinks, and friends.  The main differences were that instead of watching a ball drop on the top of a skyscraper, I watched fireworks illuminate a giant statue of Buddha, and instead of hearing shouts of "Happy New Year" there were shouts of "Xin Nien Kuai Le".  It was a beautiful holiday, and I rang in the new year with some amazing people, I wouldn't have changed anything about it.

Another tradition in buxiban culture is for the schools to have an end of the year dinner for their staff.  Traditionally this dinner takes place between Christmas and Chinese New Year, and is intended to wrap up the year in both cultures.  My franchise has our end-of-the-year dinner this weekend at a buffet in Taichung.  Take all of your western conceptions of an all-you-can-eat buffet and throw them away, this restaurant was far better.  The food was a combination of western and eastern-style meals hot and cold meals all around, but there were also several stations where they prepared fresh meals for you as well (like teppanyaki, barbeque, sushi, fresh-sliced meats, and soups).  The dessert tables were filled with cakes, and the freezers were filled with Haagen-Dazs ice cream and the drinks were filled with smoothies, coffee machines, juices, and a beer tap.  The best thing about the evening was being out with all of the teachers, TA's, and managers of the franchise, enjoying the conversation and countless picture opportunities.  It was a nice reminder of the things I have liked about the school.

Essentially the entirety of the current Changhua Shane Franchise's full-time staff.

The full time teaching staff of Homei Shane.

I've neglected one of the biggest things to come to Taiwan, which has caused countless tourists, plenty of pages in local and international newspapers, and several cries of 'murder'.  What is this over-reaction you might ask? It is nothing less than the arrival of the giant inflatable yellow duck in Taiwan.  Yes, you read that correctly, a Dutch artist created an inflatable model of the beloved bath toy which is 82 feet tall and has been floating around in harbors since 2007.  The duck made its way to Taiwan last September and has visited three of our big cities, but, some people suspect conspiracy as the duck has popped twice in it's short stay around the island (first around Halloween and then on New Years Eve).  There are mixed reviews on the duck, but if you ask me, it is a brilliant idea.  It is a traveling attraction which has visited 12 countries, doesn't cost people money to see, and creates profit for the host countries through travel and souvenir sales.  As of yesterday the duck has been patched and is back on display in Keelung Harbor.

Welcome back, Yellow Duck.