Every day on the way to work I walk by a fine establishment known as Yoshinoya (吉野家), Japan’s largest gyudon (牛丼) chain restaurant. For those of you whose lives have yet to be graced by gyudon, it’s a bowl of rice topped with beef and onions stewed in a sweet-savory soy-based sauce. Loving gyudon and being a cheapskate, I naturally noticed the recent 50 yen off gyudon promotion at Yoshinoya. The above photo is a photo of part of that sign.

Part of this sign, though, made me think about our new Ubiquity parser. In particular, it was the attachment ambiguity in the end date of the promotion. The text in the photo above literally is “April 15th (Wed.) 8PM until”. (Note that Japanese is a strongly head-final language, and that the “until” is a postposition.) There are two possible readings for this expression, as illustrated by the two composition trees below.

The first tree, on the left, represents the reading “until (April 15th 8PM)”, while the second represents two arguments: “on April 15th” and “until 8PM”. In other words, in the first reading, the promotion begins at some earlier date and extends until April 15th at 8PM while, in the second reading, the promotion is one day only, on April 15th, until 8pm. Such syntactic ambiguities are called “attachment ambiguities” in linguistics as it is an ambiguity of where different arguments “attach” in a tree representation.

This attachment ambiguity was possible because there was no clear marker on “April 15th,” which may have disambiguated it as “on April 15th”. In fact, in many languages this time position argument comes with no case marker or preposition, or it’s optional, making parsing for them difficult. If such a sentence is entered with spaces, the Ubiquity Parser: The Next Generation would try a parse where “8PM” is the “until” or goal argument and “April 15th” is an object argument, but it will only check its noun type, not put it in the correct semantic role (position). Perhaps this is something to think about in the future.

These types of situations will surely come up as we continue work on the Ubiquity parser, making it essential to look at different languages. Are there certain kinds of arguments in your language that do not have any word-external markers such as case or prepositions/postpositions?

Related posts:

1. User-Aided Disambiguation: a demo
2. Ubiquity in Firefox: Focus on Japanese
3. Talking Ubiquity in Japan: 拡張機能勉強会にて発表

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

What caught my eye is the line “served with ご一緒に 配,” meant to be read as part of “Beef in BBQ sauce… served with Pepsi…”. The Chinese 配 (pèi) is fine here, meaning “with,” but the Japanese “ご一緒に” (goissho-ni) seemed awkward to me.

The issue is that this adverbial meaning “together” normally comes after the “what it’s with” in an order like (1) (glossed in (2)):

1
2

A B-と       ご一緒に
A B-and/with together

In other words, where English and Chinese both would say “A with B”, it is most natural in Japanese to say the equivalent of “A B with (together)”.¹ This is the reason why it seems unnatural to have anything between the “Beef in BBQ sauce…” line and “Pepsi…” line.

Looking at the rest of the menu, it’s clear that this isn’t a case where a native speaker wasn’t involved with the writing of the menu—the rest of the Japanese is perfect. The Japanese modifier was inserted there just for the sake of parallel design, to the detriment of the text’s naturalness. When have you seen design conflict with the structure of your language?

Related posts:

1. Three ways to argue over arguments
2. Testing Google’s Language Detection
3. Ubiquity in Firefox: Focus on Japanese

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

My trip began with the three-hour bullet train (新幹線 shinkansen) ride out to Osaka. I hadn’t purchased a ticket in advance, so that meant standing in a non-reserved seating car for most of the way there, the sole consolation being the great view of Mt. Fuji. Lesson learned: buy reserved tickets for holiday weekends.

大阪城

Our first stop was the Osaka castle (大阪城 ōsaka jyō). Located at the center of the city, the castle is surrounded by a moat and a pretty big park. Many of the paths are lined with cherry trees, making it a popular cherry blossom viewing venue in the spring.

The castle seen today is actually not the original but the end product of the history of its complicated history. Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豊臣秀吉) built the castle began its construction in 1583 but were stripped of its outer baileys at the end of the Toyotomi era in 1615. Since then many have tried to rebuild parts of it while it endured lightning strikes, Meiji restoration civil unrest, and World War II bombings.

Here Bailey reconnected with her inner Bailey:

道頓堀 and 文楽

We continued on to Dōtonbori (道頓堀), the flashy and touristy part of the town. Particularly famous is the crab restaurant with the huge mechanized crab sign. The main strip runs parallel to a boardwalk which offered a comfortable contrast to all the shops.

We also had たいやき (taiyaki), the fish-shaped cake with red bean paste inside. No fish were harmed in the making of our taiyaki.

Afterwards we met up with Bailey’s classmates and professor from her nō (能) and kyōgen (狂言) course to see a bunraku (文楽) performance. Buraku is a Japanese puppet theater tradition which originally began as street performances in Osaka and registered as a UNESCO Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Bunraku today is only performed regularly in Osaka and, compared to other traditional theaters such as nō or kabuki, has an uncertain future for its continued performance and teaching.

A bunraku performance consists of key scenes from a few different famous stories (or, stories that were famous 300 years ago), like a review show. The puppeteers are accompanied by the storytellers who have a distinct style of sing-speaking, much like in opera. The language they use is an older style of Japanese (think Shakespearean English, say), so the theater has supertitles. These storytellers are in turn accompanied by a handful of musicians.

Each puppet is controlled by often four different people, with only the lead puppeteer’s (who controls the head and right hand) face visible. You can obviously see all the puppeteers, but if you ignore all the people dressed in black and just look at one of the dolls, they really do move like people and express human emotions. It’s riveting. Unfortunately we weren’t able to take any pictures.

We love Ikeda and Momofuku Ando

The next morning we went up to Ikeda, a northern suburb in Osaka prefecture, in search of Momofuku.

Earlier this year Elvis Costello released the album Momofuku with The Imposters. The album features Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis. But this is not the Momofuku we were looking for.

We went to Ikeda for the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum. Andō Momofuku (安藤 百福) was of course the inventor of instant ramen and cup ramen and founder of Nissin foods.

The museum is a beautifully designed building full of cute ramen-related displays and, on that day, dozens of elementary school groups. The display first takes you through the history of instant ramen—its discovery, marketing, evolution, and ultimate world (and space) domination. Have you ever wondered why the ramen in cup ramen cups are floating towards the top? Or why he decided to seal the packages with an aluminum foil top? Well, if you went to the museum, you would know these answers.

There was also a huge “Instant Ramen Tunnel”: a genealogical timeline of all the Nissin product lines, beginning with the original 1958 package.

The museum was also filled with the adorable instant ramen chicken character. We found a huge one on the second floor.

The highlight, however, might have been Mister Ando himself. Just look at him:

Frankly, that looks way more like an album cover than the actual Elvis Costello Momofuku album art.¹

勝尾寺

We took a train and then an expensive taxi up to Katsuō-ji (勝尾寺), a beautiful temple up on a mountain. The leaves were turning so it was the perfect time of the year to go.

Walking up the mountain, we started finding a bunch of daruma dolls—little dolls based on Bodhidharma, a prince-turned-monk important in the early history of Zen Buddhism. Legend has it that Daruma went into a dark cave to mediate for nine years and his eyes fell off. Even now in Japan, you buy daruma dolls with blank eyes, filling in one eye when you make a wish and filling in the other once the wish has come true.

It turns out the daruma dolls are a kind of symbol of the temple. Most temples have omikuji (おみくじ) fortunes that you draw and if you like the fortune² you can tie it to a string or tree in the temple. This temple sells omikuji that come in little daruma dolls, so many people will take their daruma and leave it someplace in the temple grounds for good luck.

The temple also had something else bizarre. A little background: there’s a famous pilgrimage route of 88 Buddhist temples on Shikoku island in western Japan. Well, why would you bother taking time to visit all those temples when someone can bring some of the ground from each of those temples into a central location!? This is what they did at Katsuō-ji… neither Bailey nor I are Buddhism experts, but we agreed it’s bizarre, to say the least.

Overall, though, Katsuō-ji and the mountains were beautiful. We had a great weekend.

Related posts:

1. Weekend update: 師大 café, 南方澳, and 淡水
2. ETA-ROC and Another Weekend in Taipei
3. 北京 Part 1: Fulbright love, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, and Houhai

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The store down the street is called ichifuku (一福). Not only is it one of the closest restaurants to my house, it’s also been featured on a number of ramen restaurants and websites. The store is known for its delicious miso ramen but also for its more creative, Western-style arrangements. The female shopkeeper is often running everything by herself, gardening out front as well as cooking and playing great music.

Here are some pictures of the great food they serve:

If you ever come by the Hatsudai area, I highly recommend a visit. The address is: 東京都渋谷区本町６−６−４.

Related posts:

1. The Food I Ate
2. Dinner with Barack and Hillary
3. 北京 Part 3: The Great Wall of China! and noodles

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Best Curry Udon ever (Yilan)

I’ve been craving some good udon noodles, called 烏龍麵 (wūlóngmiàn) in Taiwan which originally confused me as those are the characters for Oolong tea.¹ I haven’t found great soup udon in Yilan but I did find some fabulous fried curry udon.

The (unfortunate) best way to describe this shop is “half-a-block from the entrance of the night market, across the street from the condom store.” For the past month or two, since I found this store, this has been my dinner every Tuesday before Chinese class. Here are some pictures from when Aaron and I went.

The curry udon is 55 dollars. The other two flavors were unfortunately not as good. I haven’t tried anything else at that store, but I really don’t know why I would. The store also has Coke, Sprite, and Apple Sidra in glass bottles which taste great.

Real Ramen (Luodong)

I asked a few locals where I could get “real ramen”: not that instant schtuff but the fresh firm yellow noodles in a variety of soups with different toppings.² The place that was recommended to me is just down the street from the Luodong night market, past the post office and toward (but before) Zhengzheng elementary school.

They had all the classic soups, like pork broth, soy, and miso, and they all came with wonderful fixin’s. Highly recommended.

The Diner (Taipei)

The Diner, Taipei

The Diner is a classic American diner in Taipei near Da-an Park.³ Other places may advertise “American breakfast” but this is the real deal. It took us a disgustingly long amount of time to find it but it was worth the wait and, with the proper directions or address, I know you, gentle reader, will find it with ease.

The Diner has a great atmosphere. While there isn’t much of a counter, there were soft bench seats and a real diner feel. It even had a print of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks on the back wall. Nice touch, though it makes me miss the Institute.

Michelle and I split a mushroom and swiss and a California burger. A&W Root Beer was available, so we bit.

We also saw the most disgustingly large burger this side of the Pacific two tables down that just had to be documented. I finished the meal off with their pecan pie, served warm and soft with some vanilla ice cream. Amazing.

“Steak” and bread-covered soup (Yilan)

Aaron and I went out to get some Taiwanese 牛排 (nǐupǎi, ‘steak’) after our last Classical Chinese class. The particular place we went was inside the Yilan night market. We ordered the meal, meaning we got some soup and some salad. This soup had a thin pastry-esque top to it. In classic Taiwanese style, however, the bread was slightly sweet, making it interesting—not bad—in the savory soup.

The Taiwanese interpretation of “steak” is a bizarre concoction. It’s steak on a skillet alright, but with some extras. The steak is laid upon a bed of “spaghetti” (close, but not quite) with some mixed vegetables and a fried egg on top. You have your choice of black pepper and some other sauce although our waitress recommended the half and half.

Once you get over the fact that you don’t live in America, it’s really quite delicious.

Tavoli pizza (Yilan)

Aaron called this “the best pizza in Asia” (possibly only matched by The Tree in Beijing which I went to back in January). The owner went to Cornell and speaks English fluently. She returned to Yilan and opened this restaurant, bringing much needed amazing boutique pizza to Yilan.

I’ve had the white chicken pizza and BBQ beef pizza which were both fabulous, and nibbled at others’ Formaggio (lots of cheese) and Margherita. They also have a great caprese salad with fresh mozzarella (!). I was about to die when I tasted balsamic vinegar.

Tavoli also serves good fresh American-style lemonade, A&W Root Beer (cans), and an Italian import beer. It’s not cheap by Taiwan standards, with a meal registering 200-300 dollars (still cheap by American standards), but definitely worth every penny.

All that being said, the photos above aren’t all about the pizza, but that’s just because good company is the ultimate ingredient in a meal.⁴

Related posts:

1. Lantern Festival
2. A Saturday in 台北
3. 新年快樂! Chinese New Year with Andy

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Chiayi is a medium-sized city (270k people, so still way bigger that Luodong or Yilan) on the plains of southwestern Taiwan. The good news about getting to Chiayi is that there is a high speed rail station—the bad news is that that station is actually about half an hour east of the city by car. I took a taxi into the city Thursday night, but took the free shuttle service on Sunday.² As is the case with most cities on the west coast, it personally took me more time to go from Nanao to Taipei than to then take the high speed rail down to whatever city… such is life on the east coast: sans high speed rail.

The conference itself was Friday and Saturday. This particular conference was limited to speakers who were current students or recent MA or PhD graduates, so many of the talks were exploratory and less developed. They were still a lot of fun for me to see, though, especially as many of them were on Mandarin or Taiwanese, so there was a lot of data and phenomena that I’d never even considered. It was also great to see professor Luther Liu, an eminent researcher of Chinese comparatives, whom I met in 2006 at the Chicago Workshop on Chinese Linguistics, as well as many other friendly professors. I my gave my talk on Saturday and received an award for my paper.

You can see Luther Liu and I talking in this first picture below… try to find us!³

Each talk at the conference was followed by prepared constructive criticism by a “commentator” who’s a professor with similar research interests. As a corollary, while all the speakers at the conference were younger, a good number (30+) of professors from all around the island were in attendance as well. I believe this annual conference is an excellent opportunity for ling students in Taiwan to have their work known and criticized by professors outside of their own departments, and also to get to know others in their field. It fosters a sense of community among young researchers outside of their own schools—I’d love to see more such activities back in the US.⁴

On Saturday evening after the conference I went out with some MA students from Tsinghua University (國立清華大學, or simply 清大). As one was originally from Chiayi and another went to school there, I was in good hands for finding the best local food. We first hit up a stand to get some 火雞肉飯 (turkey rice) which is a Chiayi delicacy… it’s so simple yet so delicious!

Afterwards we walked around in their night market, eating some Finally, here’s a photo we took in front of the traffic circle which is a Chiayi landmark. Thanks for the good times!

Next up is the International Symposium on Chinese Languages and Linguistics (IsCLL) that I’ll be attending (but not presenting at) in a couple weeks, so I look forward to seeing some of my new linguist friends there again!

Related posts:

1. 新年快樂! Chinese New Year with Andy
2. ETA-ROC and Another Weekend in Taipei
3. Co-schooling in Dongshan

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Related posts:

1. Taipei find: a dictionary of Chinese-Japanese false cognates
2. Hong Kong
3. Family in Taiwan

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

As an added bonus, I set this recipe to Sufjan Stevens’ Illinoise. I was just in a Chicago-missing mood and listening to it while cooking, and it seemed to work so well.

Time: 45 minutes (mostly waiting, though)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups (400cc) chicken stock (I used a bouillon cube—雞湯塊)
1 medium head of broccoli, just the flowers, in small chunks (maybe 3/4-1 cup)
1 cup (250cc) short grain white rice
1/2 cup (130cc) chopped parsley, optional

1. Track 1: “Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois.” Put oil in a pan on medium heat. Add the garlic, onion, and a pinch of salt and stir occasionally until the onion is translucent or until you hear the piano riff on track 3, “Come On! Feel the Illinoise!” In the down time, you can make sure your chicken broth is heated up in a pot.
   
2. Track 3: “Come On! Feel the Illinoise!” Add rice to the onion pan and stir occasionally until they get clear and start to brown, sometime during the second half of track 3, “Come On! Feel the Illinoise! Pt. II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me In a Dream.” Throw the broccolli in the broth to let cook for the last minute of “Carl Sandburg.”
   
3. Track 4: “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” Add the stock/broccolli to the rice/onion pan. Heat to a boil and then let cook for the rest of the track. Stir occasionally. Compare yourself to a serial killer as you watch the bubbles.
   
4. Track 5: “Jacksonville.” Cover and cook until the end of track 9, “Chicago.”
   
5. Track 10: “Casimir Pulaski Day.” Enjoy my favorite song on the CD. Turn heat off and let sit, uncover, stir gently, cover again, and let sit on the burner until track 15, “The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us.” Optionally mix in chopped parsley for additional green. Serve.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Related posts:

1. Patricks Nortons on Tekzillaz

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Day 1: 北京，你好！

After getting into Beijing two Mondays ago, we took some time to explore the city. Our hotel arrangement (the Red Wall Hotel) was much nicer than in Hong Kong, with windows, free internet, nice decor, and a great location, on the north-east corner of the Forbidden City.

Walking around in Beijing, we were both immediately struck by the size of the city, in particular of the amount of open space. The streets were incredibly wide, with sidewalks and space between buildings! The landscape looked much more like an American Midwestern city than any other city I’ve been to in Asia.

In the evening, K80 and I met up with my high school friend Anna. Anna and I never took Chinese together in high school, but it turns out Anna now is on a Fulbright in Beijing researching environmentalism in China, particularly leading up to the summer olympics. She mentioned she would bring along a friend from her Chinese program who taught English in Taiwan last year, “doing something similar to you.”

It turns out this friend was one of the English Teaching Assistants from last year, in the exact same program that we’re in now. What a small world! K80 and he even lived in the same apartment! We had some great Korean food and shared had a wonderful time catching up.

Day 2: The Forbidden City

Magi and we met up in the morning for some breakfast, and then it was off to the Forbidden City (故宮)! The Forbidden City is quite literally a “city,”¹ but it now a museum with many gardens and historical relics, about half of which is off limits to the public. While most of the “better items” are in the National Palace Museum in Taipei (the joint result of ”history” and Mao, for he is beyond history), I was pleasantly surprised by the items in the City. That being said, I do think the best parts were the architecture and the gardens, which include various perilous hills.

We started in the back (north)—the rather unconventional route—having curry for lunch halfway through. The north half houses most of the exhibits, after which the second half is mostly the larger-ticket items, and a number of large courtyards. The City is definitely not just preserved history… Starbucks most famously had a brief stint in the City for a few years, though it is gone now. The curry was good and it was nice to be inside for a bit, satisfying priority one.²

There were a few items of particular note here. First of all, I was surprised by all the signs having both Chinese (traditional, the real Chinese) and Manchurian on them… it turns out the Qing dynasty court used Manchu as a primary or secondary language throughout its rule. I never expected to see that interesting script there.

Second, I was surprised to see a bicycle inlay on the ground… this led to my skepticism of the Forbidden City actually being built in the 1400’s.³ I present Exhibit A:

Finally, but not least: my four-star toilet experience.

Meet Mao

South of the Forbidden City is the Gate of Heavenly Peace, though you might have heard it as 天安門 Tiānānmén. You know, where the tanks ran over protesting students in 1989.⁴ Everyone and their mother has seen a picture of the huge wall with Mao on it… what you don’t realize is that it’s HUGE. I was standing in front of it, a decent ways away, and it didn’t fit in my camera’s viewfinder. K80 did one of her American Pledge of Allegiance photos there too.

Temple of Heaven

Afterwards we went to the Temple of Heaven (天壇), a large park a little south of Tiananmen Square. There were some really cool trees, including the camouflage tree, below. The gardening organization of the vast expanse reminded me of the Gardens of Versaille. Surely it would have been even more beautiful in the spring or summer.

Afterwards we had some Beijing duck for dinner, though priority one was sadly unfulfilled.

Houhai café

On our final leg of Day 2, we went up to the hip Hòuhǎi (後海) area, basically a lake with many bars and restaurants around, with many traditional Chinese streets (胡同) nearby. We stumbled upon a cute café where we drank some citrus tea, tea, and some cakes, all ordered off of their hand-written menus. It was a little hold in the wall, but fulfilled priority one, and had some great conversations about life, politics, and food. Thus concludes Day 2.

Related posts:

1. Going to China just got more expensive
2. Midyear conference in Hualian and Taroko
3. Hong Kong

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

K80 and I got into Hong Kong last Friday after staying overnight in a hostel in Taipei. After taking care of our Chinese visa and settling into our hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui (尖沙嘴, or TST in English) in Kowloon (九龍), K80 and I walked around the neighborhood, first snacking at a cha chaan teng (茶餐廳), a kind of Chinese diner, where they serve an interesting mix of Chinese and western food. I got a hot milk tea (熱奶茶), Hong Kong style, which entails some strong, way-overbrewed tea with condensed milk, as well as a roast pork sandwich, and K80 got some noodles, both of which were advertised as part of their “afternoon tea” menu. They were all delicious, though the tea did need some extra sugar… but maybe I’m just too used to Taiwanese drinks. They also had prices written using Suzhou numerals, an interesting form of writing numbers which I’ve never seen before in Taiwan, though I recognized them as it was described in McCawley’s Eater’s Guide to Chinese Characters.

Museum time

We spent a little time walking to the nearby Hong Kong Museum of History (香港歷史博物館). The main exhibit is a walk through of the history of Hong Kong, starting with a geology primer and the land that Hong Kong sits on, through the four ethnic groups of Hong Kong, then the British, Japanese, and finally the return to the Chinese. It was a great museum with many life-size buildings and cultural relics, making it much more engaging than just some artifacts behind glass cases.

Dinner and stand-up

We met up with Michael/Kikai, who’s going to school in Hong Kong now, and his friends. We took the world’s largest system of interconnected escalators up from Central to Taco Loco. It was probably the first time I’d had Mexican food since I’ve been in Taiwan, so that was great. We then went out to see Paul Ogata and a couple openers at TakeOut Comedy’s first anniversary show. TakeOut Comedy is Asia’s first full-time stand-up venue, and they also recently started stand-up in Cantonese. Paul Ogata is a Japanese-American comedian from Hawaii, who recently won the San Francisco International Comedy Competition and also an avid Mac fan. The show was fantastic!

Afterwards we went out to a bar nearby, where I randomly met a guy I who was in my Computational Complexity class at Chicago. It’s a small world. K80 and I also got to know Kikai’s friends, including two students from France and Magi from Germany. K80 and I mention we’re going to China, and Magi (below with me and my duck) says maybe she’ll join us…

Day 2: Dim sum brunch

I cajoled K80 into having Dim Sum (點心) for breakfast. We went to a restaurant that Magi recommended in TST and had some fantastic dishes… our favorites were the fried shrimp wontons and pork buns.

10,000 Buddhas Temple

In the afternoon we visited the 10,000 Buddhas temple on 寶福山. After some introductory guard animals and shrubbery, you take the escalators up to the temple, which is made up of a sanctuary with 10,000 Buddhas, and then probably 50 or 60 rooms, each of which house hundreds of graves. K80 happened to see a family bringing in an urn. I was amazed by the number of plates in these rooms which had Christian crosses on them.

Ladies’ market

The Hong Kong Ladies’ Market, as it is called, is like a huge day market, much like Taiwan’s night markets, but with much taller stalls. Kikai took us around the market and then to one of his favorite snacks: a hot waffle layered with peanut butter, butter, condensed milk, and then sugar. It was both delicious and deadly. K80 then saw a Krispy Kreme (nonexistant in Taiwan) and went over for a donut (after the deadly waffle).

Symphony of Lights

At night we walked around and saw the Symphony of Lights on Victoria Harbour

Hong Kong Miscellanea

K80 and I both got saw Hong Kong as a stereotypical yet fascinating mix of east and west. It’s also a very cute city: the emergency man runs even faster than in Taiwan, some trains have a quiet car, a “do not trespass” sign has a cute enter (入) man, and Oracle is 甲骨文, literally oracle bone script. We had some great food, met great friends, and I’ll be sure to go back again—now much more of a possibility as I’ll most likely be back in June for the Association for Language Awareness conference.

Related posts:

1. Going to China just got more expensive
2. ETA-ROC and Another Weekend in Taipei
3. Family in Taiwan

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Day 1: Trains, buses, and talk

I met up with everyone in the morning at the Hualien train station. Living in Nanao, I actually live really close to Hualien (about 40-50m) so I just elected to take a local train and meet the crew there. We then drove around to a couple interesting coastal points. (The one taking pictures below is Dale… I’m sure his blog will soon have photos more beautiful than mine.)

An unfortunate theme of the trip was riding coach buses on ridiculously narrow roads atop steep cliffs, winding back and forth for thirty minutes at a time, and then check out a vista for 15 minutes, then get back on the bus for another half hour.

In the evening after dinner we had the Midyear Conference proper. We got status updates on all the grantees’ research projects, and we ETA’s presented on our experiences thus far. Some of these research projects are really fascinating, and I had a great time listening to everyone. I felt the same thing as the last time I met many of these scholars at Orientation, that I miss academia: the research, the people, and the stimulation. ^^

Day 2: Taroko National Park

The Taroko National Park (with a beautiful website worth reloading over and over) is one of Taiwan’s six National Parks. Taroko is named after the Taroko people (“truku” in their language, Seediq, the other Atayalic language¹). It is a mountainous region a main river and its thirteen tributaries, with rich ecosystems. Hualien is known for its stone exports and Taroko also is quite rocky. That said, the photos speak for themselves. ^^

Ah, Fulbright fraternity. ^^ We had lunch at the Grand Formosa hotel up in Taroko. More camaraderie ensued. ^^

After lunch many of us walked over to the Buddhist temple across the river. The sky which had stayed overcast for most of the day actually was sunny for this one hour window or so, resulting in gorgeous photos. I also got to have Erik fill me in on a number of temple-related subjects, including who Dizang (地蔵, じぞう, in gold below) actually was. The white bodhisattva is Guan Yin (観音, かんのん). There was also a beautiful pagoda.

Again, they’re Buddhists, not Nazis. Finally, here’s a scene from Myst VI: Buddhist Temple:

In the afternoon we took an hour and half hike along one of the many trails in the park. Many of the trails require some sort of permit, even with a tour guide, but this was one of the open ones. At one point I found a bunch of white shells along the trail—odd, as the trail was a good ten feet away and five feet above the river.

There was a bridge right outside the trail with some cute stone lions.

A couple of them looked just like me!

At night, a number of us walked out toward Hualien downtown, which was about a 30 minute walk from the hotel. We checked out their pretty big and hip night market, and I was amazed by how large the city felt, and how many young people I saw (sorry, no pictures). Maybe it’s just where I live now, where the people my age are either out in another city at school or already married, but it’s really refreshing to see people my age.

Day 3: Hualien: American streets, rocks, martial law, and cheerleaders²

Hualien is a beautiful city, one of the largest on the east coast (larger than Yilan or Luodong), known for its jade and mochi (麻糬 in Taiwan, pronounced in Taiwanese, like mwájǐ or something like that—don’t ask me for Pe̍h-ōe-jī.) This morning one of the grad student researchers Katie and I took a walk. Our first stop was a nearby museum with a strange rock (奇石) collection, including the head of Lee Teng-hui, and an outdoor sculpture park.

Right behind it was a pillbox on the hill above the ocean, a relic of Taiwan under Martial Law. Note that the pillbox is pointed at the city, not at the ocean.

As we walked around, we saw some old run down Japanese houses, and then ran into some cheerleaders. We were totally confused as to what was going on, but it was apparently some sort of fire department demonstration/show for kids, and that was some supplemental entertainment.

We then walked down to the Pine Garden (松園別館), a café, art and concert venue, which originally was a Japanese government building. The lore says that this was where Japanese soldiers were given their sending-off sake before going on their kamikaze missions, some of which left from Hualien. It seemed like a beautiful little venue, and had some cool decorations on a few of their windows.

There were also some trees with IV’s in them. Apparently they’re pesticides.

Something I was amazed at how American the streetscapes felt. Walking down their sidewalks (!) along their wide streets, it just felt like the geography of a spread-out, hilly Midwestern city. They even have English on the post boxes (sort of). Not quite rows and rows of houses with the windows painted blue, but very American nonetheless—it was oddly both comforting and disconcerting. ^^ I’m sure there’s even more in Hualien still worth checking out and as it’s so close from where I live, I’m sure I’ll be back again.

Related posts:

1. Family in Taiwan
2. Weekend update: 師大 café, 南方澳, and 淡水
3. A Saturday in 台北

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Happy New Years to all!

I greeted the new year in Yilan with some friends from Fo Guang. We cooked some Thai food and raw food and ate at one of our teachers’ apartments. We had a great time.

I hope your New Years was just as great!

Related posts:

1. Buklavu
2. Family in Taiwan
3. The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Day 1: Shilin night market

I met my mother, father, and sister at the Cosmos Hotel where we were staying Friday night. I took them out to the Shilin night market, a Taiwanese tradition. We bought t-shirts, ate lots of things on sticks, saw a man pushing a cart full of guava, and people picking up their stands and running from the cops (technically, the “I’m going to set up a table on the street and sell stuff” part of the night markets are illegal).

Day 2: Exploring Taipei

We went on a Japanese bus tour of Taipei, led by this older Taiwanese guy with great Japanese, though sometimes just a bit off (Bailey would have called him “precious”). We visited:

Longshan Temple (龍山寺);

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall National Taiwan Democracy Hall;

a market with various traditional foods;

a Taiwanese tea demo and explanation, which was really interesting;

the changing of the guard at the National Martyr’s Shrine (kind of like Yasukuni Shrine), where the guards aren’t allowed to move or blink (I think) for about 40 minutes at a time, and then a guy comes up and covers their face and says some spell so they can move;

and of course the National Palace Museum, where we weren’t allowed to photograph anything. After the tour we went to the top of Taipei 101 and got to enjoy a great night view of the city.

Taipei 101 features an open view of its tuned mass damper, which they’ve named “Damper Baby.” It’s neat, actually, how they took something that is normally only interesting to engineers and tried to make it cute and sexy. It even has a bio, complete with blood type (O, in case you were wondering).

Day 3: Rainy day in Yilan

On Sunday we went to National Center for Traditional Arts (國立傳統藝術中心) near Luodong. We saw some crazy show with all different sorts of animals which I’m sure made more sense if you understood what they were saying and an exhibit on paper craft of all different sorts, including origami. The main attraction there is the traditional arts street, a red brick street with all sorts of stores selling traditional food and crafts. The leather shop had a pig mask.

We then had dinner in central Luodong: some delicious hot pot while sitting on a glass floor above koi fish.

We got some deserts and took them back to the hotel they were staying at. Naomi was excited by the 苺大福 (traditionally, mochi with strawberry and red bean paste inside) from 85°C.

Day 4: Nanao and Jiufen

On Monday I took the morning off from school and showed them around Nanao a little bit. The weather kept getting worse as typhoon Mitag came rolling through. My family still got to see where I live, one of the schools I work at, and have a nice lunch before heading out.

On the way back out to Taipei, my family (without me) stopped in Jiufen (九份), a touristy town atop a mountain on the northeast coast of the island. The town, originally populated due to a gold rush, has some beautiful mountain alleys and tea houses. The city is now popular with Japanese tourists, as some parts of the city were used as models in Spirited Away. My family went to one tea house and enjoyed the tea and atmosphere.

My family went back to Japan Tuesday (Day 5), with my parents leaving later back to the US. It was really nice to be with all of them, even for such a short time.

Related posts:

1. Exploring Nanao, part 1
2. ETA-ROC and Another Weekend in Taipei
3. Exploring Nanao, part 2: hot springs, waterfall, and beach

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

A little while ago I read a NY Times blog entitled Chinese Recycling by Anne-Marie Slaughter. The piece opened as a description of the collection of food waste on Yangtze riverboats and went on to compare this situation to food production and consumption in the US. The article—in my opinion unfortunately—did not continue to discuss the tradition of responsible recycling in East Asia.

Not everyone lives on a riverboat, and recycling in the city is of course far more challenging. The exact things Slaughter frowns upon, such as plastic packaging, are the enemy. Trash and recycling pickup in Taiwan does not involve leaving it on the side of the street… the trash car,² followed by the recycling truck, come down the street playing a catchy tune (the same as in Japan, in fact). You have to run out and give them your trash and recycling (and organic waste, another category), sometimes running after the trucks a bit. There’s nothing passive about it.³ Unlike Japan with its anal retentive trash pickup, there aren’t any monthly recycling calendars dictating when you can take out your old stereo. But in some communities there are certain days of the week for glass, aluminum, etc… in the rural community where I live, they take all recycling every day, together, but the recycling man on the truck sorts the recycling right as you give it to him. I try to give my different types of recycling separately to make his life easier.

Taiwan has also cracked down on plastic bags—in some places, you can get them, but you’ll have to pay a dollar or two NT (about 5 cents US). Some places don’t have them at all. The Anya Hindmarch “I Am Not A Plastic Bag” bag has also been a big seller in Taiwan, receiving media attention as 環保包 or 環保袋 (huánbǎobāo, huánbǎodài, “the environmental protection bag”). Here’s a photo of one I snapped at the ETA-ROC conference.

Failing to properly dispose of garbage, recycling, and organic waste lead to pretty steep fines. In addition, businesses, especially restaurants, are subject to compulsory recycling programs. Even McDonald’s has separate trash and recycling bins, with photos of what items go where right on top. Taiwan recycles 26.6 percent of all its waste, as of 2006, up from 5.87 percent in 1998. The efforts put into the consistent and professional trash and recycling programs have also cut down on customs such as trash burning which pollute the air. This and various legislation have vastly improved both water and air quality in the past 20 years.

With the pressure of being a small island nation comes a heightened responsibility for the responsible use of its land and resources. Taiwan is a leader in this area, continuously improving its waste management systems through innovation and legislation. Such practices would be interesting to compare to many American communities.

Related posts:

1. Survival Tips for Visiting Taiwan
2. Fire drill!
3. Affirmative action, Taiwan style

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

It tasted alright… mostly like a sweet coffee drink, though K80 and Dale thought they could taste the egg. (I tried to stir the egg in.) My guess is that if it came with the raw egg stirred in the drink rather than sitting on top, I would have had no idea and would have really enjoyed it.

My next adventure was this past Saturday, when Michelle and I went out to 南方澳 (nánfāng’ào).¹ We took Michelle’s scooter from Luodong, taking the better part of an hour to get there. Nanfangao is a port city, right next to the port of Suao. There’s a famous temple there and the weekend streets had many people walking around with incense.

We also checked out a tourist spot, 豆腐岬 (dòu.fujiǎ), Tofu Cape. I asked some random tourist why it was called that and she said it was because the rocks cut off into square-ish pieces there, which made sense enough. However, my co-teacher Jennifer later told me that that was wrong and it was called that because some tofu-eating fish that can be caught in that area.

The tofu, by the way, doesn’t taste very good. I also saw that other people take jumping photos as well.

We then drove around, checked out the beach (and a temple nearby), ate some delicious seafood noodles, and finally went to see a lion on the hill.

Finally, yesterday Jennifer took me with her son to Taipei to shop at CostCo. While I’ve never been a fan of CostCo, Wal-Mart, or any of those huge stores, this Taiwanese CostCo was both frightening and awesome. There’s something great and very comfortable about someplace where you can get gallon jugs of ketchup but also green tea, six packs of Pocky, and huge packs of udon noodles; with どら焼き right next to the pumpkin pie. Afterwards Jennifer’s sister and her husband took us to 淡水 (dànshǔi), a touristy port city north of Taipei, where we ate some great food (fish/pork-ball soup and deep fried shrimp rolls).

Related posts:

1. ETA-ROC and Another Weekend in Taipei
2. A Saturday in 台北
3. Exploring Nanao, part 1

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

1. Don’t flush the toilet paper in the toilets. For this reason, almost every bathroom here has a trash basket. Also, keep some tissue paper on you as most public restrooms do not provide paper.

2. Don’t drink the tap water. I don’t know what happens if you do, as I haven’t tried, but I’m not planning on it. The good news is that most public buildings and many other establishments have drinking water machines. Bring a good water bottle.¹

3. If you’re visiting northern Taiwan in the winter, bring some raingear. Sure, you’ll probably buy a few umbrellas (I’m on number three), but rain coats are pretty useful too. You can also be really Taiwanese by wearing your raincoat backwards.²

4. Taiwan is big on recycling. Luckily, though, in most places there’s just a trash can (垃圾桶, pronounced lèsètǒng as opposed to the Mainland lājītǒng) and a recycling bin… in general, most paper and plastic containers that don’t have food waste can be recycled. Plastic bags and wrapping cannot be.

5. Keep all your receipts. Taiwan has a receipt lottery (formally the Uniform-Invoice Prize). While you can claim it as a foreign visitor with a valid visa, as the winning numbers are released about a couple months after each time period ends, you’ll probably just want to give the receipts to me. ^^
   

6. Oh, and cold tea is sweetened by default. This freaked me out when I first tried some. Just a warning.

Of course, if you’re not planning to visit me yet but have time between late-January and mid-February (my Chinese New Year break), let me know. Let’s talk.

Related posts:

1. Affirmative action, Taiwan style
2. Fire drill!
3. I am not a Nazi

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.