Taiwan Day 8 - Back to Japan

I tried to see as much as I could up until the last minute. I lost time trying to find a traditional paper museum (I never found it) because the map in the guidebook had the museum I was looking for in the wrong place. I know you're thinking that I shouldn't blame the guidebook for my poor sense of direction, but I know it was the book and not me! The address of the museum just couldn't have been on the block it was marked on.

Miniatures Museum of Taiwan
I was surprised and sort of disappointed to see that most of the miniature houses on display were done by Americans. I was in Taiwan, so I wanted to see things made by Taiwanese people. It was still worth visiting though.

There were dozens of perfect re-creations of old-style homes and fantasy lands. My favorites were the European aristocratic miniatures.
Much more than the miniature homes, I was impressed by the eggshells. How do you cut such fine symmetrical patterns without cracking the shell? Nice.There were lots of these fairy-themed eggs, too.
Final meal
Everything on the plate is vegetarian! Really good imitations of meat, don't you think? The chicken nuggets were compressed tofu. The sausage was colored dough. The sesame chicken was wheat gluten. The pork slices were a kind of pressed starch. They were like little works of vegetarian art. And this restaurant was inside Taipei Main Station, so I could eat and then hop on a bus to the airport.
To Those Carrying Chickens:

Airport
There was a Hello Kitty section of the airport that was all pink. Even the phones and clocks were a part of the Hello Kitty motif! I saw a young guy taking and retaking photos of this section until he got the perfect photo. He gave me a look like, "Yeah, so?" which I found amusing.And that ended my trip to Taiwan. The flight is only two hours and it's pretty cheap, so I'll probably go again sometime.

Taiwan Day 7 - Taipei

Nose-digging train lady
For some reason people in Taiwan thought it was acceptable to dig their noses in public. I don't say "pick" their noses because that's not what it was. They were really digging, with their finger way up in there and their hand swiveling around. And this wasn't the sort of sly, maybe-no-one-notices kind of nose-digging. I saw this in crowded markets with tons of people walking by, in the bus, on the street, in stores. Pretty much anywhere. What was really gross was that sometimes you see the moment when the finger comes out of their nose with a booger on it. They simply scrape it off their nail and let it fall wherever. Like totally make me barf.

The lady sitting next to me on the train was one of these nose-diggers. I tried to lean my body as far away from her as possible. I tried to distract myself and ignore what I could see from the corner of my eye. I tried not to think about where the resulting booger had landed. The train tickets had assigned seating and all the seats were full. There was no escaping from her.

I spent half the day on the train heading back north to Taipei. The nose-digger got off an hour before my Taipei stop.

Transsexual
The person who replaced her was a transsexual that wasn't fooling anyone. She looked like a man who'd thrown on a dress and was wearing high heels. I think she thought I was Japanese (actually for some reason I'm quite proud of myself for looking Japanese enough to fool people, quite a dumb reason to be proud). Instead of just starting a conversation with me in Japanese, she got on her cell phone and called someone who could speak Japanese and they had a short conversation. In all truth, I felt a bit uncomfortable which is why I didn't just go ahead and start talking to her.

The hostel
When I finally arrived in Taipei, I went back to the same cheap hostel that I stayed in before, and this time they had room in the main hostel. It was so much cleaner than the one in the other building, probably because the Taiwanese wife was in charge of this part. Her husband was in charge of the hostel I stayed last time, and I'm guessing he's not so into cleaning which is why it was so dirty and gross.

The toilet and shower were so clean, and indoors (not outside on the balcony). The rooms were small and cramped, but at least I know the sheets were clean because she gave me new ones when I arrived.

The atmosphere was much nicer, too. Adventurous young travellers roaming the globe who love meeting people and telling funny stories - that fit the image I have of hostels much better than last time.
Taipei's Longshan Temple
No one was allowed into the front gate and I had to walk through the side entrance. I wonder if this is because of the same belief as the temples in Japan, that the central walkway is where the god walks, and so we have to stay out of their way.Interestingly, this temple was multidenominational. The main god was in the central shrine, and there were 165 other gods in alcoves and smaller shrines all around the outer edge.Probably because of all the gods residing there, this temple had lots of places to place offerings.Really, I just couldn't stop being amazed by the carved pillars in temples.While I was wandering, women in robes lined up and entered the main shrine. The evening chanting was about to start!Hundreds of worshippers knelt or stood, and chanted for over an hour. It wasn't like the monotonous chanting that I'm used to hearing, it was melodic and more like a song. I stood in the crowd and absorbed the atmosphere. An old lady offered me her extra prayer book so I could do the chants as well, but I said that I couldn't understand Chinese. She gave me a look like, "Then what are you doing here?"I loved this temple. It was so noisy. There was the chanting, as well as people saying prayers and throwing fortune-telling blocks onto the stone floor (like the ladies in the photo). On the right in the foreground you can see wooden fortune sticks. People mixed them around and jumbled them up before pulling one out, adding to the noise and boisterous atmosphere. The temple wasn't somber and serene like Japanese temples, but a lively experience full of energy.
Shilin Night Market
The guidebook says if you only have one night to spend in Taipei, spend it here. I wholeheartedly agree. I was there until midnight and it was still jam-packed; you'd never know it was a Monday night. And it was full of locals there to have a good time, not tourists.It was totally fun being caught up in the flow of the crowd. I didn't expect to see so many carnival game booths mixed in with the food vendors and shops. I bought so many clothes and a few accessories (they were one-third the price of what I can find in Japan!).The food section had a lot of stinky stuff that I tried to avoid walking past. I did ended up getting this nice crunchy fried stuff wrapped in a sweet tortilla. It required some heavy pounding with a hammer!One section I really didn't like were the glass cages with puppies and kittens. They looked much too small to be away from their mothers, and some of them walked on still shaky legs. Is a spontaneous purchase at a night market really the best place to buy a pet?
Police Patrol
The alleys were lined on both sides with shops. In the center of the alleys, people had set up rolling carts or suitcases on stands or blankets piled with goods. This was illegal, which I found out when policemen occasionally rode their motorbikes through the alleys.

It was a domino effect. When someone down the road quickly grabbed their blanket up, or rolled their cart into the nearest shop, or snapped their suitcase shut and fled into a store... everyone up the road immediately did the same. They were anxiously keeping watch while bargaining with customers. You should have seen the speed with which they disappeared. They ran and shoved to get out of the way and hide. In less than ten seconds, the entire alley was vacant and everybody (including shoppers) waited for the policemen to pass. This happened roughly every thirty minutes.

Head Wound and the Amazingly Kind Girl
The most awful thing I saw happened on my last night near the Shilin Night Market. I saw a man (late 40s?) lying on the side of the road with blood oozing from his head. His face was badly scratched and there was blood sprayed across his shirt and stomach and the road around him. I think he'd been hit by a car and rolled a bit before landing face-up, spread-eagle and unconscious.

It had just happened when I turned the corner. I saw a fashionable young woman (early-20s?) with long, brown wavy hair in a white blouse and tall heels carrying an expensive looking leather bag run to where he lay and heard her shouting something, probably yelling for someone to call the police. Her boyfriend stood next to her not knowing what to do.

It was the first time I'd seen blood coming from a head wound. It wasn't like blood, but like bright-red gel.

A woman from a shop ran to the man with a box of tissues. Together they held tissues to his head wound and everyone in the area got on their phones. Taxis stopped to see if they could rush him to the hospital, but the man was totally unconscious. When people saw that everything possible was being done at the moment, they moved far away without gawking. It was unexpected and strange for me to see this. I think it was out of respect for the man, and so that the ambulance could go straight to him when they arrived without having to dodge onlookers.

The man started wiggling his head and attempted to get up. The girl tried to calm him while holding tissues to his head and her boyfriend tried to keep him from moving, but the man sat up. He staggered towards a taxi and she ran in front of it, blocking the door with her body and arms. She wanted him to wait for the ambulance. He was woozy and almost fell, so she held him close and leaned his head on her shoulder, covering her white shirt in blood.

She cared so much for this stranger. She stood there with him in her arms until the ambulance arrived and made sure he got on. I was worried for him, too, but wouldn't have gone through all the trouble that she went through up until the moment he left. It gave me another opportunity to see Taiwanese kindness in action. It made me want to imitate what I saw, and make kindness an instinct rather than an decision, like how I saw so many times in Taiwan.

Other small examples of kindness during my trip
In Changhua a university student saw me looking at train schedules and came over to see if he could help me. He didn't know I was a foreigner until I spoke English. When he realized I wasn't Taiwanese, instead of worrying about the communication barrier he continued to do what he could to figure out the schedules with me.

I saw a young woman in the train station find a wad of bills that someone had dropped. She looked around frantically, ran to a few people to see if it was theirs (surprisingly they all said no after checking their pockets) and then she turned it in to the man at the information counter. I believe in any other country, she or someone else would have claimed it as their own.

I'd dropped my wallet while getting a bus ticket, and no one stole it in all the time it took for me to notice it was on the ground.

On trains people always offered their seats to the elderly or people with young children. In comparison, on Japanese trains I often see people close their eyes and pretend to be sleeping, so they don't have to notice elderly people boarding the train. Sometimes women even put their bags on the seat so no one can sit next to them (of course they move it when someone asks, but that they do this in the first place bugs me to no end), and once I saw a woman hold her umbrella sideways in her lap so no one could sit on either side of her, then closed her eyes and tilted her head down when people got on the train. I never saw anything like this in Taiwan. People seemed to be looking around all the time, as if they were eager to give up their seats.

At the night market, people bought things from the man in the wheelchair even if they didn't need them. You could get tissues for free, but people were buying them from him.

In general, people tried to talk with me until they realized I wasn't Taiwanese and couldn't understand. It made me feel like everyone was so friendly there.

Taiwan Day 6 - Tainan and Nankunshen

Taiwanese Literature Library
Built during the Japanese Occupation of Taiwan. I had no idea that Japan owned Taiwan and then gave it to China after World War II. Just another one of those things I missed from not studying in history class, I guess.
Confucius Temple
There was a pretty nice park surrounding the temple that I didn't spend much time relaxing in because I wanted to give myself enough time to visit another city at the end of the day (getting lost in Lukang taught me a lesson).One aspect of Confucian Temples that I find interesting is that there are no decorations on the walls and very little color adorning the temple. The shrines don't have any idols or images, and the main area is so simple.Even though it was Tomb Sweep weekend, the inner courtyard was so peaceful and practically devoid of human life (you had to pay to go in).The outer courtyard, however, was a different story. There was some kind of event going on where you could get all kinds of stuff for free (we like free).This was some kind of bean flour that they ground with twigs and what looked to be dried seaweed. You mix it in water and pour the gritty mixture down your throat. Doesn't sound very delicious? It wasn't.You could also make tea the traditional way, by rolling the leaves around with your palms until your hands turn green, then drying the leaves in the sun. I did it only to be polite because the ladies let me take a photo and then wasn't too thrilled with my new green hands.On the other side of the temple away from all the hubbub some people were having a lesson in Confucianism. I wish I knew more Chinese. When I say "more", I mean "more than nothing".It was probably the nicest place to relax in the city. I wish I'd had more time to just wander around enjoying the fair and seeing some of the performances.I don't really know what kinds of performances were scheduled, but it appears one of them had monks. Or monk-like creatures.
Lunch and my new friend
I ate at the same vegetarian restaurant as the day before (the one with stuff that looked like meat) because I was curious to see what else they had. This time I got an imitation of sweet and sour pork!While I was sitting there eating by myself, I heard the owner lady saying the Japanese word for "grandmother". I thought to myself, "Wow, Chinese sounds so much like Japanese sometimes." I heard her saying the same word over and over again. "Grandmother. Grandmother. Grandmother." Then I looked up and saw that she was staring straight at me, and there was an old woman sitting next to her.

The owner lady thought I was Japanese. The old woman sitting next to her could speak Japanese. I suspect she called the old woman to come to the shop to keep me company, since I was eating by myself two days in a row. I didn't feel the need to explain that actually I was born in America and now live in Japan, and I just played along and pretended to be Japanese.

The old woman had grown up during the time when Taiwan was owned by Japan and compulsory education was taught in Japanese. I have no idea how old she was, but probably very old. She was super friendly and kept asking me the same questions and repeating the same stories. It was fun talking to her, mostly because she seemed so happy talking with someone in Japanese and had a huge smile on her face the whole time. Every once in a while she translated questions that the young couple sitting at another table had about me, like if I was travelling alone and how long I'd been in Taiwan. I stayed and talked with her for half an hour after finishing my meal, and then really had to continue on my way. Talking with my new friend was the best part of my day.

Elementary School
I wanted to know what this building was because it looked so new and modern. A peek into the windows revealed small wooden desks and tiny wooden chairs. The building was new, but the furniture looked ancient. What an unexpected contrast.The large park was bordered on two sides by classroom buildings, and on the third side was this gorgeous building. The doors were open so I peeked in... it was the school gym!A stream ran through the park where kids collected tadpoles. Wow. Is this the School for Super Rich Kids of Tainan?
The Town of Nankunshen
Learning from my experience of being lost in Lukang, this time I wrote the characters for a temple I wanted to go to on a piece of paper so I could show it to the bus driver and get off at the right stop when we got to the town of Nankunshen. The guidebook said it was a 40 minute ride, so naturally I started getting worried when I didn't see any road signs for the city I wanted to go to even after an hour on the bus. Had I missed the stop or gotten on the wrong bus? When I showed the bus driver the temple name, he shook his head. That's all. I continued to worry.

It turned out okay though. The bus ride actually took 80 minutes so the guidebook was wrong, and the bus driver let me know where to get off.The guidebook said this temple is known for the exuberant displays of ritual devotion by worshippers that flock to the temple on Sundays. It was Sunday, but no self-mutilation or people screaming or convulsing. Shoot, I was really hoping for some craziness.

The woman is carrying a pair of those crescent-shaped fortune-telling blocks that people pray with and throw onto the ground. The yellow incense made this temple all smokey and stinky, too.The stone carvings on the walls and pillars gave it a real Indiana Jones feel, and the black soot from years of incense smoke was a nice touch. Someone threw some "ghost money" into the incense pot just before I took the photo. Perfect!Again, fascinated by the craftsmanship of carvings in stone pillars.There was a newer part still under construction. Beautiful setting, and all wood instead of stone.I wasn't sure if I could explore this area because of the yellow tape blocking the way. Usually this means NO ENTRY but perhaps in Taiwan this means "COME IN!" so I went under the tape and walked around.The doorways were all different shapes, looking somewhat traditional yet modern at the same time.From up here you could see how big the whole other part of the temple was, and in the foreground some of the new part that they're still digging up.
Ladies with snails
There were ladies with food carts at the entrance to the temple. Every one of them sold the same thing: boiled snails and green moss. I was the only person walking out of the temple at that time and had all of their attentions. They thought that calling to me and holding out a ladle of snails and green slimey stuff would make me rush to buy some, and I'm sure it just boggled their minds why this tactic wasn't working on me. I took a photo, but it just turned out too dark because of the way the sun was setting. Sorry, no delicious snail treats photo.

Coolest shoe store ever
Back in Tainan the parades were still going strong. I went shopping at a nearby department store that had some super cool shops, like this totally awesome shoe store. It took up the entire 10th floor. Club music blaring, velvet sofas, leather armchairs, and dozens of aisles of shoes on lighted platforms and in glass cases. The lighted stands were suspended from the ceiling on wheeled rails, and they automatically rearranged themselves every few minutes. Simply unbelievable.
Girlfriend, anyone?
The hotel phone rang. It was the old man from the elevator the previous night. "I introduce you girlfriend?" Persistent little fella. No, I really don't need a girlfriend tonight either, thanks for asking.

Taiwan Day 5 - Tainan

Next Stop - Tainan 台南
This southern town is the oldest city in Taiwan, and was ruled by the Dutch in the 1600s (you can find a lot of ruins from those days). I absolutely loved this city, probably because I happened to be there during the "Tomb Sweep" holiday weekend and it was so loud and lively everywhere I went. There was a good mix of modern department stores and restaurants, with a ton of traditional temples thrown in between.

Altar of Heaven
This temple is unique because it doesn't have any images of the god. The original temple was built as a temporary measure until a proper temple could be built, 300 years ago. It still has a temporary feel.
Billboards
I found this fascinating, not because I felt the urge to see any of these movies in the run-down theater, but because each of the billboards are actually gigantic 4-piece paintings instead of posters! Do they do this for every new movie?
Matsu Temple - another one
The Matsu Temple in this city had a super gaudy entrance that made me weary of even stepping foot in the place.The inside turned out to be pretty plain, though.People prayed like this in all the temples. Sometimes they held long incense sticks, sometimes white and purple flowers, and sometimes two crescent-shaped red blocks that they held to their foreheads then threw onto the ground to have their questions answered. I watched for a while and couldn't figure out how to read the patterns.
The Official God of War Temple (Sacrificial Rites Temple)
I happened to be there during a service and from the name of the temple half-expected to find some kind of blood sacrifice on the altar. To my relief, it was just a guy giving a sermon while the massive crowd intently listened.
Chihkan Towers
This was a Fort back in the day (the Dutch day) to guard against invasion and when the Chinese took over they made it look real Chinese. There was a partially excavated entrance at the base that they left buried, in fear of causing the upper portion to collapse.The nine tortoises carried slabs covered in intricate Chinese writing. Too bad there wasn't an English translation included.I would have spent more time just relaxing in the park if I had more time, but there were too many other things I wanted to see!
Pig or Dog, you decide.
Dongyue Temple
The god here is in charge of deciding whether you go to heaven or hell, and the second chamber was apparently the path through hell. In hell, you can have the pleasure of hanging from a hook in your chest.Or having your stomach opened with a knife.Or having someone grind twigs into your eyes.Or being forced to drink boiling water.Or many other amusements covering the walls heading into the third chamber.

Lady Linshui's Temple
The front looked like any other temple, with ladies in the street selling flowers for you to offer at the altar. In the back there was some kind of ceremony going on. Four men held a portable shrine up to the altar, and another man held a chicken by its wings. Another man held a goblet under the chicken's neck. He had a long blade in his other hand, held it to the chicken's neck, and I ran out trying not to think of what happened next.
Food
It looks like chicken, but isn't. This vegetarian restaurant used wheat gluten to make it look like meat, and strangely feel like it, too. I'm not sure how I feel about making vegetarian food as meat-like as possible.
Parades
People were throwing firecrackers into the streets all day (and sometimes in front of passersby) and I'm positive I now have permanent hearing loss. I kept running into little parades everywhere I went. It was pretty dangerous; none of the roads were closed off and mini-parades hugged the edge of the road while motorbikes sped past. Eventually I saw someone holding a flier with the parade information and peeked over his shoulder. It was all in Chinese, what'd I expect? There were hundreds of groups listed. I think every temple, important family, artistic circle, and religious affiliate got a group together to take part in the event.While exploring the city I realized that the groups were following a set route that allowed them to worship at each temple, each in their own way. Some groups had dancers perform in front of the main shrine for several minutes with fans and swords, some had musicians that fervently beat on drums and cymbals, some carried portable shrines and violently swung them this way and that as if the shrine bearers were having seizures.Some groups carried ornate wooden structures that didn't seem to have any religious significance, making me wonder exactly who was taking part in the festival.Most of the groups carrying a shrine housing the image of a god did a strange two-step that swayed the shrine back and forth and made the streamers bob up and down violently. The beams were suspended by ropes to give the shrine extra bounce.When night fell, people got more rowdy and started lighting aerial fireworks in the road. Pedestrians (like me) had to keep an eye out for guys running away from boxes that spit out dozens of haphazard rocket-type flares. More than once I had to desperately flee from fireworks that had just been lit.The parades had started before I left the hotel at 9am, and were still going strong when I went to bed at midnight. Do people even sleep during Tomb Sweep Weekend?

Bar?
I didn't go in, but people were turning sideways to squeeze into this space between two buildings. Only one person could fit in there at a time and a few meters down I could see a door on the left. I should have gone in just to check it out, but my legs (and for some reason my back) were absolutely killing me.
Hotel Room Service?
When I got back to the hotel there was an elderly man sitting downstairs. I got my key from the front desk and he followed me into the elevator. He said, "I introduce you girlfriend." Um, no thanks. He was a friendly old guy, and I could only politely decline. Must have been like 90 years old. Just goes to show that you're never too old to be a pimp.