#in my city Kaohsiung /taiwan

[beyourselfchulanmaria]

城市的一隅 || A corner of the city

[waugh-bao]

Taiwan: Day 3

[thistransient]

Hello! I love your photos ^^ Any tips for someone visiting Taiwan (first time travelling in East Asia) in late October/early November? I was inspired by your hiking photos the other day, I love hiking but I'm a newbie... Thank you, have a lovely weekend!

Thank you, hello to you as well! Re: hiking, the popular trails around Taipei at least are pretty clear, well-maintained, and accessible by public transport, there are a lot of beautiful views that don't require too much exertion (in November if you're lucky it might even be cool enough not to sweat half to death!). Definitely try to go to Yangmingshan, as it should be silver grass season around then, very scenic.

I'm not sure if where you're coming from is more or less a) developed and b) tropical than Taiwan, and whether you plan on renting a vehicle or not, but some general advice:

If these are not the kind of tips you were thinking of and you want to divulge more specific interests, I can give more fine-tuned recs! Hmm maybe I should just make a list of underrated places around Taipei...

- the Easycard (悠游卡) is really useful, you can get it at any convenience store (last I know it was 100元) and use it in all cities for the bus/metro/non-reserved trains/bike rental/payment at convenience stores + some other shops. A lot of establishments are still cash-only though, so it's good to have enough of that (Cathay United ATMs don't seem to charge fees)

- I always bring an umbrella, if it's not raining then it's too sunny, and even if it's perfect weather you can shake it angrily at scooters that almost run you over (kidding...kinda...)

- Be very careful crossing the road, especially in the crosswalk when you have right of way, people love to run red lights, and bus drivers hitting people keeps making the news

- Personally I love the Youbike system (I think you need to register your Easycard to a phone number but the app makes it pretty easy), Taipei has a great bike trail system along the riversides (or you can just walk if you're not a bike person), I've also used them in Kaohsiung and Tainan

- It's a subject of debate as to whether you should drink the tap water, in theory it should be fine but most people boil or filter it just in case (or for flavour I guess?). Sometimes if I'm lazy and thirsty I just drink it, tastes tolerable and nothing averse has happened yet! Most metro stations have a free water bottle refill station though, I see them in parks sometimes too.

- Whether or not you can flush toilet paper is also up for debate. Often there will be a sign (with varying degrees of humour and/or threats) somewhere indicating where it should or should not go, as the pipes in some old buildings cannot handle it, but newer ones can.

- You can get into the metro stations and use the bathroom for free if you ask the station agent for a token (which is good for 10 minutes or so), this also works if you come out the wrong exit and want to go back through. Most bigger parks also have bathroom facilities, which are generally clean.

- My go-to 24-hour restaurants are Sukiya (すき家) and Yon Ho (永和豆漿), 7-11 is also a place of many wonders (print/scan/copy/pick up train tickets/receive mail/hang out and have a drink, the onigiri are a great snack and the pre-made meals are actually not bad)

[daylightaftertherain]

okay I got inspired by oscar's australian geography test so I made my version with taiwan, county names under the cut :]

Keelung City

New Taipei City

Taipei City

Taoyuan

Hsinchu

Hsinchu City

Yilan

Miaoli

Taichung

Changhua

Nantou

Yunlin

Chiayi

Chiayi City

Tainan

Taitung

Kaohsiung

Pingtung

Penghu

Kinmen

Lienchiang

[jacob-in-taiwan]

August 7 - Return to Taipei, Tea Ceremony, and Final Dinner

Today was a very bittersweet day. On one hand I’m excited to be going back home soon. I’ve spent more than four weeks away before, but since I go to school so close to where I live it doesn’t feel the same. I miss my family and friends, and all the other luxeries that come with being at home. But on the other hand, I’ve had the greatest experience in my life being in Taiwan. I’ll talk more on that later. 

To start the day we first had to leave Tainan. Another early checkout time and we were back on the bus. From Tainan to Taipei its about three hours, but we made a few stops along the way so it took a bit longer. Thats not a problem though. By now everyone in our group is so close and we enjoy being around eachother so much that a long drive just means more time to hang out. We spent it chatting and singing kareoke. Eventually we stopped for lunch at what I think is the coolest rest stop ever. It had a land bridge that went over the highway. Maybe to locals its just another stop along the way but I was really impressed. 

Eventually we made it to Taipei, and it felt great to be back. I personally really enjoyed Kaohsiung, and Tainan as well even though we were only there for a few days. However, nothign can compare to Taipei. Being in a big and busy city like that is just a different experience thats so hard to find elsewhere. Despite being gone for two weeks I felt right at home and could immedietely recongize what part of town we were in. Our first stop back was a tea ceremony. Looking back and reflecting on the trip its been really cool to see how tea ceremonies differ by region. How the north differs from the south, or even how the one today was different from the one in Jiufen or Yaoyue.

Since it took so long to get to Taipei we didn’t have any other activites planned after the tea ceremony other than dinner. I’m really happy we were able to all have one last dinner together as a group. Everyone on the trip was friends with eachother, but we didn’t always see eachother outside the planned activities, so it was really nice that I could see everyone at least one more time. At dinner we also made sure to give Peter all his gifts. We got him a thank you card and we all signed his gator flag he carried around. Additionally, we also decided to personally make Peter a photobook. I dont remember whose idea it was to give Peter a gift from the students, but we all agreed that we should do something nice for Peter. He was such a great tour guide and friend all trip, so it was the least we could do for him.

After that the trip was offically done. I said goodbye to a few people, but not all. Some people had bought so much stuff on the trip that they ran out of space in their suitcases, so they had to go out and buy bags. It was me, Brev, Jasmine, Faith, Jack, Austin, and Andy. We tried looking for luggage stores nearby, but eventually decided to just go to Ximen. That way we could buy bags but also have a little fun on our last night out. I had a great time walking around one of the first places I ever went in Taiwan. 

We got back to the hotel semi-late but the night didn’t end yet. To be fair, I don’t think anyone wanted it to. I had an extra day, but most people flew out the next morning, so they wanted to savor every last second they had in Taiwan. The guys all got together to do something we grew to love, playing card games. Ever since we got trapped in Yilan, playing card games was such a great way we would hang out. We’ve played a couple different games, but our favorite was a game called cambio. We played it in Yilan, Taitung, Kaohsiung, and Taipei. Almost every city we went to. For me, playing these games was extra special. The first day I was in Taiwan I landed at four in the morning, but wasn’t able to check in until three in the afternoon. I had other people with me, and after a couple hours of exploring we crashed in the common area on the fifteenth floor. One of the ways we decided to pass time that day was playing cards. So here I am, a whole month later with a life-changing experience behind me, ending my trip the way it started. I’m a sentimental person, so that was special for me. 

And that was it. After the games we went to bed. I woke up the next morning to say goodbye to the people who were leaving with Peter and after that I had my whole extra day to do whatever. I decided to continue the theme from last night and end the way I started. First I would go to the places I found the coolest to take them in one last time. Then I would travel the same route and see the same things I did on the very first morning when me and my plane buddies wander the city aimlessly. As I walked through the city I couldn’t help but smile. I was so clueless and lost the first time I walked that route, but now I felt right at home. I reminesced on all the amazing memories I made, and I know I’ll hold onto the closley for the rest of my life. One day I will be back in Taiwan. I don’t know when, but I will be back one day to reexplore this country I fell in love with. I want to thank Yeh Laoshi and Chief Redstone for putting together such an amazing program and providing me with the opportunity to have such a life-changing experience. I want to thank Terry for his amazing work getting us everywhere we needed. I want to especially thank Peter for being not just an amazing tour guide, but genuine great person and friend. And of course I want to thank any other person who had any kind of effect or interaction with this trip. As I’m writing this I’m currently already back in the states, flying from San Francsico to Orlando. School starts soon, and it will be back to normal life. But I am not the same person I was before the trip, and I glad that I’m not. I had an amazing experience and made amazing friends, and I can’t wait to see them all again. 

Thank you. 

[to-taiwan-from-fanny]

Independent Excursion 2: Academic Reflection of Malls and its Employees.

Dream Mall is the biggest mall in all of Taiwan and it’s located in Kaohsiung, directly accessible by a 30 minute train ride on the lime green line, so of course, I had to go. 

Coincidentally, I spent both of my free days in the city doing just that! The first instance was with Faith, where we traversed through all the floors one by one, hitting every single pop-up shop we saw on the way, and continuing Faith’s turtle stack, which was progressively getting more and more out of hand by day. We must’ve spent around 5 hours there, which led me to falsely believe that we had gone through at least a solid amount of the mall. Nay, it hadn’t even been a quarter of the way through. The mall had so many different wings that we had missed and even a pretty outside area I only got to briefly explore when we were taking the train of shame back at night. 

The second time around, we went with Andy, who ended up being Faith’s bag carrier for the whole 6-something hours we were there. I really wasn’t feeling well that day so I spent most of my time there blindly grabbing onto a boba keychain on his backpack and letting the two of them lead the way. Because I was mentally (and visibly) tired, I didn’t really buy a lot this time around, which is really impressive considering my borderline shopping addiction. 

Since Day 1 of being in Taiwan, I’ve noticed that the sales staff here are a bit, no, way more aggressive than their American counterparts. I’m a person that finds it really hard to say no, especially if someone’s taking time out of their day to approach me (and even if I know it’s just a part of their job description), making malls more stressful to me than they should be. Ever since Faith got socks forcibly tried on her and I got swindled into buying a 900 NTD umbrella, I’ve been on guard more than ever, ready to say “bu hao yi zhi, wo men bu yao” and run off with Faith. 

I always feel bad whenever I do this, though; they’re always so nice it’s almost deceptive, and I’m not alone in feeling this way. According to a study conducted by Lee, N., Beatson, A. and Lin, Y-J. (2010), salespeople in Taiwan are described in both positive and negative characteristics (from snobbish, forceful, false to clever, patient, and kind), a stark contrast to a 1995 study of Americans’ perception of salespeople which was far more negative. It seems that Taiwanese people are both way more empathetic towards employees and also better at being employees in general. 

While I can acknowledge how good at their jobs they are, it was still a terrifying prospect for my wallet being around them. For the first few days when it was just me and Faith exploring the malls, it seemed as if the salespeople were inescapable; hiding around the corner ready to jump me with a mouthful of information about vacuum cleaners. I wondered if it was something about me that screamed “I’m a tourist, please scam me!” and while a large part of it definitely was, it was also because we fit the descriptor of the target audience of malls.

A study conducted by Yang Ho-wen (2005) found that the average mall shopper for Taiwan Sugar Mall, a mall similar to Dream Mall, was “travelling further, younger, having short residential durations, single, with a higher educational level, higher personal income, and more concerned about parking facilities and store loyalty card scheme/coupons/promotional activities.” While I certainly don’t have a high personal income, with the way I present myself, I certainly understand why a shopkeeper would be keen to approach two young adults carrying large bags of stuff. Still a bit offended at how hard I got clocked, though. 

Self check-outs are also very sparse here in comparison to in the States, forcing me to interact with cashiers for even the most mundane of purchases, a slight inconvenience I was shocked to have experienced in Taiwan. It might be my close mindedness speaking, but I had assumed that progression inherently equaled convenience and that there’d be way more self-check out style systems in the country. I hadn’t seen a single self check-out lane in my entire time here but according to the Taiwan News (May 6th, 2023 edition), they’re slowly integrating them into the fabrics of daily life. 

Despite this, I don’t see the prevalence of sales keepers going away. The hospitality and eagerness of the people here have definitely been one of the key highlights of my trip and I can’t imagine a Taiwan without it, even if it meant a few more victims to a twenty eight dollar umbrella scam going on in Shin Kong Mitsukoshi.

Chen, Y.-H. (2011) ‘The service quality and Consumer Behaviour Analysis in Taiwan’, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 25, pp. 16–24. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.10.524. 

Service is our second name - Taiwan’s Amazing Convenience Stores: Taiwan news: May. 6, 2023 10:30 (2023) Taiwan News | May. 6, 2023 10:30. Available at: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/news/4883503 (Accessed: 07 August 2024). 

Lee, N., Beatson, A. and Lin, Y-J. (2010) ‘Stereotypes of Taiwanese salespeople at the service interface’, Int. J. Services Technology and Management, Vol. 14, Nos. 2/3, pp.217–232.

[irismfrost]

August 5 - Tainan: Calligraphy class and Ten Drum

As I suspected, I am still feeling the effects of Saturday night - I can never drink that much again/ stay out as late as I did. I do not need a 24+ hour hangover. I also barely slept last night because it was 10 pm by the time I got back from dinner and then I spent 2.5 hours packing for our transition to Tainan this morning and updating my scrapbook. I also just kept waking up in the middle of the night. I was dreaming and at one point, I dreamt that I got shanked and kidnapped - but not like a stab, more like a really hard finger punch in the gut. It broke some ribs and took the wind out of my lungs, like in my dream I was withering in pain which is how I was able to be kidnapped. It was in a parking lot and I wasn't even standing close to the sides - I was right in the middle so that I could see if anyone was coming. I think I was already on edge for some reason, maybe I knew I was a target - I can't remember that part.

Today, we are traveling from Kaohsiung to Tainan. One interesting thing about Taiwan is the naming conventions of the cities. In Chinese nan means west, pei means north, ting means east and so on. To the cities Tainan, Taipei, and Taitung are really just names. asked on location which is pretty cool.

Our first stop today was the National University of Tainan. There, we met the director of the literature department and got a class on calligraphy. Unlike the buddhist museum Saturday, these were real brushes which made it so much harder. We painted on these fans called 團扇 tuanshan (round fan). I chose to write the word for "eternity" 永恆, but I really only chose it because it seemed the easiest to write. I practiced so much and was still disappointed with my fan. It is tough. I also cannot write my name well for the life of me. There are so many details and it always comes out un proportional. My name is hard to say and hard to say, but it's all worth it because it's a nice name. Nonetheless, I had a lot of fun.

Next, we went to the Ten Drum cultural village - it used to be an old sugar refinery. It was sort of like a mini amusement park. We wandered around for a bit then saw a concert with the famous Taiwanese drums. The band that played is called Cross Metal. These guys were so energetic and really brought the stage presence. They were so coordinated and definitely knew what they were doing. They might become a part of my workout playlist. And we even got to take a picture with them at the end. It was pretty cool. I unfortunately did not get their Line LOL, but did tag them in my IG story. They were definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

Reflection

I'm excited to see more of Tainan tomorrow. Tainan is Taiwan's oldest city, first established by the Dutch in 1624 and was the capital of Taiwan for 200 years. This year is Tainan's 400 year anniversary, so there is even more energy here than there would be otherwise. I'm 1885 the capital was moved to Taipei and Tainan is the 6th largest city in Taiwan. Tainan has so much historical significance and you can see how old the buildings are here. As I mentioned in a different blog a while ago, the Dutch brought brick and cement to Taiwan, and there are so many old-looking brick buildings here. At the university, you can see bullets from the US when they were fighting in Taiwan embedded in the bricks in some of the buildings.

Calligraphy has been a very interesting activity. One thing that Dr. Yeh (the calligraphy professor has the same last name as our professor) said about the calligraphy was the way you hold your body. It wasn't just the way you hold your fingers on the brush or the orientation of the brush to the paper, though we talked about that too. He mentioned that you have to relax your body and focus on your breathing and it felt like calligraphy was closer to meditating than writing. It takes a lot of coordination, steady hands, and concentration - it also takes a lot of practice. Calligraphy in Taiwan came from China, and became a writing standard during the Han Dynasty in China (206 B.C.–220 A.D.). Calligraphy traveled from China to Japan in the 6th century, as Japan didn't have a formal writing system at that time. Learning to write must've been a huge privilege back in the day because it is so challenging to paint your letters (pre-pencil) and required good education and patience.

[jasminebutintaiwansojiemin]

July 30th, 2024 星期二 - Hiking Monkey Mountain, Art Museums, Rock Pizza but not Dwayne the Rock Johnson Pizza

For some odd reason, I decided to climb a mountain full of monkeys today. It was very cute seeing all the monkeys and their babies, but never again. I literally slept MAX three hours the night before and woke up to get some fruit before meeting to go on the hike. I swear I’ve been telling people this whole time that some fruits have worms in them and everyone was like nooooooooooooo but I quite literally found SO MANY worms in the dragonfruit at the hotel breakfast. We eventually headed out and took an above ground train closer to the mountain.

Climbing that mountain made me wanna helicopter home to the U.S. BUT I powered through and it was a good experience. It was very very very hot and a lot of the ground was muddy but it was worth it seeing all the cute little monkeys. So many had babies and I even say a few moms that had twin babies. The little noises they make are so cute and I had to avoid getting bonked on the head by a few monkeys who were sitting in trees and throwing fruit down. I did also see a monkey absolutely yoink someone’s food from them and unwrap the plastic with its little fingers. Throughout our hike, we got a lot of help from older Taiwanese people who were also hiking. They were super sweet and even took pictures of us. Also the view of Kaohsiung from the highest point we went to was pretty cool. The descent of the mountain was LONG but less dangerous than the route we took for the ascent. As soon as we got off the mountain we hit up at 7/11 and I bought a Melona popsicle. I devoured that think in the minutes tops. Then we took the train home where I showered and changed for class.

Our first stop for class was a fine arts museum. It had 5 floors and was full of many different types of art, from sculptures to paintings, to even a live art session. I inserted a few of my favorite art pieces from that museum. One of the ones I liked the most was the painting of the Chinese style doors with the talisman papers on the front. When I saw it, I immediately thought of whether it was meant to represent somewhere in Taiwan, or maybe the feeling of being an outsider to the majority of Chinese culture as a Taiwanese person. After the fine arts museum, we headed to a contemporary art museum. This museum was much more modern and contained art of non-Taiwanese and Taiwanese artists alike. There were a lot of pieces that utilized aluminum and glass work to express their art. This museum also contained a really cool cafe that I saw quite a few people working in—though I’m intrigued on whether they paid to get into the museum just to go to the cafe lol.

After this museum I went home and took a nap for a few hours. Upon awakening I headed to a pizza place nearby for a taste of home. I, of course, ordered a pepperoni pineapple pizza and ginger ale. It was a pretty good pizza and reminded me of Blaze pizza in a way. After dinner some of us took a stroll across the pier to look at the water. Then we switched and explored the city side, where I found a stationary store! We looked around there for a bit and it was so cute! I definitely will head back there tomorrow since it’s open until 10 pm. Then I headed home and knocked out.

Academic Reflection

For today, I initially decided to do some research on the prevalence of American restaurant chains in Taiwan. When we were in Taipei, I noticed the heavy prevalence of the most random U.S. chains—such as Starbucks, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Subway, TGI Fridays, Texas Roadhouse, and the omnipresent 7/11 convenience stores. However, I realized that there are actually quite a few Taiwanese chains that we have back in America.

One chain is Happy Lemon. I didn’t even realize this was Taiwanese until I saw one whilst driving down the street today. This type of restaurant serves boba tea and a wide variety of bubble waffles. I remember when it opened in Orlando, it was one of the first of its kind. Here in Taiwan however, I see bubble waffle shops everywhere, from actual store front to stalls at night markets. Happy Lemon opened in 2006, and by 2014 was deemed the world’s most recognized and respected tea culture brand. They accredit themselves with “bringing an expanding the tea culture to Mainland China and Hong Kong” as “elite pioneers”. They have over 350+ stores in places such as the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Dubai, and the Philippines. Through my research, I found out that they apparently created the cheese foam topping for boba tea, which is honestly a really popular topping even in the States. I thought this was interesting because not only did I not know that Happy Lemon even sold tea, I also didn’t know they pioneered so many staples of modern bubble tea.

[elijahhendley]

7月28號 Day 17: Mikan, Sushi, and Karaoke!

This morning I woke up ready to leave the hotel. I went downstairs to breakfast and found Yeh Laoshi, Chief, and Iris sitting at a table. What I forgot to mention in yesterday’s post is that I decided to stay up until 3:15am. So only waking up 5 hours later I was ready to go to sleep on the bus, and that is exactly what I did. We had a 3 hour bus ride back to Kaohsiung. Sidenote, I still have a problem with the spelling of that city’s name. This is because when we learned it in Chinese class, the pinyin is Gao Xiong. ALSO, the H in the middle of the name is just not needed. Anywho, back to the story. I slept the whole way to Kaohsiung. Our first stop was to a train station to visit our special guest. It was a CAT named Master Mikan. He actually works at the MRT station. It was pretty cool to see him because he only works once a month and we happened to be going to Kaohsiung the day he was working. We even got to take a picture with him and Austin’s instagram story got reposted. Then we stayed in the local area to get some food. I walked some distance away and saw the beginning of a idol ceremony going on and some people carrying a statue even tried to get me to carry it. It was ver awkward because at first I thought I was in their way and then they basically chased me in a small circle. After that, I met up with some of the others and was convinced by Jasmine to sing karaoke. I sang “put your head on my shoulders” by Paul Anka. You can imagine how that went. It was SO BAD. I did it for 50 NTD which I have yet to receive lol. After that we all got on the bus and checked into the hotel. The hotel is pretty nice. Then we got sushi. It was really good sushi and it was pretty cheap for what I ordered. I got an assorted nigiri plate. It had scallop, red shrimp, salmon, tuna, yellowtail, squid, and eel. They were all pretty good but my favorite was the Yellowtail. That’s probably why it was the most expensive. After sushi we went back to the hotel. We all decided to get dressed up and go to some bars and chill. . So I decided to wear my kurta from India because when else would I get the chance to wear it in Taiwan. One bar was chill and was playing halftime performances. We decided to pass over the karaoke bar, and the last one was a really expensive bar. There was a minimum payment and so I had to order a drink even though I didn’t want to. It was fun and then we all went back to the hotel to sleep. An interesting but fun day.

Until Next time, 再見！

[beyourselfchulanmaria]

城市的一隅 || A corner of the city

[jacksulkes]

July 30 - Monkey Mountain and Art Museums

We were told to meet in the hotel lobby at 1pm for today’s activities, so we had a free morning. I got up earlier and ate breakfast in the hotel because most of us were planning on hiking together in the morning. We headed out to Shoushan Mountain right after breakfast. It was a demanding hike because it was mostly up muddy rock steps. The view was beautiful. We could see the South China Sea and the city of Kaohsiung. We saw some monkeys on the way up, but once we got to the top, we saw so many macaques. After we got back to the bottom of the mountain, we went straight back to the hotel to shower right before meeting up with rest of the class. Our bus took us first to the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts. The first floor had statues, and then I went upstairs to all of the beautiful paintings. Then, we went to another art museum, the ALIEN Art Centre. They had a few exhibits of very modern artists. For dinner, I went with three of the guys to a nearby Taiwanese restaurant. I got my own hot and sour noodle soup, and we shared meat pies, scallion pancakes, beef rolls, and soup dumplings. The food was so good that we might come back again before leaving Kaohsiung.

Academic Reflection:

I first learned that the monkeys I saw are called Formosan rock macaques, and they are endemic to Taiwan. They are also the only primate native to Taiwan, other than Taiwanese humans of course. Today on the bus, Peter taught us about the Taiwanese military and how they require conscription for most young men. He said the exceptions are for men over a certain weight or under a certain height.

At the first art museum, I started on the top floor, which taught me all about this one artist’s life and how he feels like he is always running from his life. He had small statues exaggerating people running and colorful, geometric, chaotic paintings. On other floors, I learned about more traditional paintings of Taiwanese landscapes. They had some paintings of places that we are visiting soon in Kaohsiung. There was an exhibit with a projector showing Taiwanese art in different years. At the other museum, the ALIEN Art Centre, I saw much more modern art and learned about the two artists that had exhibits there. Their art was so much more abstract than the pieces I had seen at the first museum.

[tumblasha]

vacation review: taiwan

overall rating: ★★★★/5

cities visited (chronologically): taipei, taichung, kaohsiung, taitung

the good parts

i got to see Moomf (micosu oomf)

i got over the "i can't visit a country if i don't know the language" feeling

nature everywhere

night markets were so fun!

at least half of the population wears a mask at all times (even outside of taipei where the air quality is nicer!)

every train station + tourist spot had a stamp area so now i have a lil booklet filled with taiwanese stamps :,)

food! especially boba and soups :DD -so much liquid.

traveling on the back of a scooter is so mind-numbing, i love being a passenger princess

the bad parts

taipei's air pollution is a lil sad but def not the worst

getting over the jetlag and post-vacation sadness T_T

they killed that duck that i saw in that one tumblr post

overall summary

i think that taiwan is an excellent place for people of all places to visit! especially if you know english, everyone is really nice to english-speakers and makes an effort to gesture-speak or google translate through every conversation

this may be insensitive, but i think that the "made in taipei" brand (country pride of having many ~cultural influences) really works for tourism. previously, i saw friends and co-workers take their japan trip and do all the kawaii things (sanrio store, snoopy cafe, studio ghibli museum, etc), and got sad. taichung really embraces manga, anime, and other kawaii-adjacent things, and it satisfied my desire to go to japan. i've been having a hard time with co-existing with appreciating the good side of japan (mostly art and media) and learning abt the bad sides (colonial history), so it was nice being able to get a positive experience with low "double-think"

on post-vacation sadness

idk why but this was the first time that i came back from a vacation and i was Sad. like, maybe it's bc i got my period mid-trip and it was some weird post-period hormonal thing?? but i doubt it

looking back, i think that i have never truly been Alone until this trip? when i solo traveled in sp+pt, i was able to talk to the people in the hostel and go out with them. i wasn't able to talk to anybody bc a majority of the tourists spoke either mandarin or japanese, and idk either of those languages. i think that i was alone with my thoughts for too long -> leading to being on my phone too much -> leading to random bursts of crying (?) that lasted through a week after coming back to the US. it was bad enough that i took off all my jewelry and almost cut my hair X|

also any instagram posts that mentions taiwan / east asia kinda ruins my whole day. i wanna go backkkkkk

lessons learned

it's okay to be lost emotionally and physically! being alone is a constant battle of self-love and The Void

i need more international friends bc visiting them in their free time + their country of residence in their work time is so fun

i need to take more pictures of myself! i think somewhere in this trip i convinced myself to download dating apps again and i have no good pics. i also can't post a "taiwan photodump" on insta :(

tl;dr: go to taiwan! but go with friends!!

[evil-jennifer-hamilton-wb]

AU elements of the Detroit cluster fic

Canon says nothing about Detroit, I chose the city partially for that reason.

In my version of the city, endbringer damage to coastal cities has revitalized the cities economy as American manufacturing moved inward and reliance on international trade decreased. This has lead to heavy gentrification that results in a very stratified population. Like Brockton bay, Detroit also has a large amount of Japanese and taiwanese (AU element) immigrants.

The canon CUI is stupid and sinophobic. It does not exist. The yangban is cool and I'll find somewhere to put it, but it won't be a Chinese group.

Taiwan got hit by behemoth at some point in early y2k. Behemoth triggered the major fault line that presumably has a name, while simultaneously attacking Taipei. This caused Taroko, Hualien, and Taitung to be destroyed, and left Kaohsiung and Tainan as the only remaining major population centers. Remember that the country was still recovering from the 1999 quake. This is why my US east coast has a large taiwanese population.

The biggest divergence from canon is that Jack was stopped before he could talk to scion during the S9k arc. Gold morning was prevented, weaver succeeded and became a member of the protectorate (and is feeling very lost). Because so many heros died during s9k, the protectorate is in a state of transition. Scion is still a threat, just delayed longer.

[mettavirgomoon]

Taipei Triptych

Expansive dream-droplet, pierce my convulsing heart, a lake, an ocean, boundlessly solitary and unanswered for you pose no question but recline in your own certitude, ever-growing, while my poor frail organ struggles to thump in time, it is losing speed now, it is giving out, I am dead, I am dying in the tropical drizzle.

***

I crouch, a wet sock, heavy with forgotten tears, as Morita Doji in her dark sunglasses spins in the alley’s empty music shop. The damp cracked wall like the cracked skin on a hand I loved here, in this city. Morita died of heart failure some years ago and no one knows her real name. I am still crouching and the owner is watching. Do not watch me with shrapnel droplets in my heart. Do not ask me what I am doing here, in a music shop in Taiwan.

***

Nothing but wind and wind in my face and hair as the scooter lurches up the winding road and holding on with all my might I see the sea and the harbor, yes Kaohsiung Harbor is the largest harbor in Taiwan, and yes if you stand at this spot for a while, you can see the big cargo ships squeeze through its narrow channel. I would like to spit into the sea and be whole.

[austin-in-taiwan]

August 5 - Kaohsiung -> Tainan - University Calligraphy Lesson, Ten Drum Cross Metal Concert, Night Market

Today, we left Kaohsiung and took the hour-long bus ride to our final city, Tainan. Tainan is the oldest city in Taiwan and was the capital until 1887. First, we went to a university where we got a lesson in calligraphy from the professors there. The professors were excellent and made an entertaining lesson for us. We got to practice our calligraphy first with real calligraphy brushes on paper. We could choose from regular Chinese characters or the cursive style. I decided on regular Chinese calligraphy so I could read it in the future. Just as in English, the cursive is extremely hard to read for me! Then, after teaching us about the history of hand fans, we got to draw calligraphy on our round fan (團扇). I decided to write “Go Gators” on one side (加油鳄鱼) and Florida (佛罗里达) on the other side. See below for pictures of my fan! Once finished with the lesson, they generously treated us to chicken bento boxes, which were delicious.

After we finished lunch, we went to Ten Drum, originally an abandoned sugar factory but now a cultural park with tons of activities like laser tag, a giant swing, a zip line, and, more importantly, drums. When we got there, Jack and I first got to experience a drum lesson. There was a bunch of drums and a woman instructing at the front. Soon after, though, we met up at the theater and got to experience a concert by Cross Metal. It was an excellent performance by a mainly Chinese-speaking band (they also had some English lyrics). What was remarkable was the variety of instruments. There was a guitar, a keyboard, a regular drum set, three taiko drums, and a flute. I especially enjoyed how they incorporated the flute into their metal music performance.  We even got a picture with the band afterward!

Tonight, after our activities, a small group of us went to a nearby night market. I got some delicious food, including a pork bun sandwich, a spicy shawarma sandwich, and dumplings! One thing I will miss about Taiwan is all the delicious cheap food from the night markets!

Academic Reflection

Today, the lesson we received from the university we visited was fascinating but also very informative. First, we learned about the hand fans, which we drew our calligraphy about. There are two types of fans: the round fan or tuan shan (團扇) and the folding fan or zhe shan (摺扇). The folding fans were originally from Korea and Japan but were brought over and popularized in China afterward. These fans have been used and decorated with beautiful drawings and calligraphy for decades. Learning more about the background from the professor made the activity more meaningful to me. 

Furthermore, I enjoyed the Ten Drums cultural park and especially liked learning about the history of this region. The Ten Drum Art Percussion Group transformed this ex-abandoned sugar mill factory into a creative cultural park promoting local culture and history through music. Not only does it encourage the cultural music of Tainan percussion, but it also hosts museums and continues to show its old sugar mill history for the public to see. I appreciate what the music group did to not only show their historic music but also preserve the history of the sugar mill and promote it for generations to see.

[jacob-in-taiwan]

August 1 - Lotus pond and Qishan train station

Today was a rather light day for sightseeing, at least when compared with other days we’ve had. The first stop was the famous lotus pond here in Kaohsiung. If I remember correctly, Peter said that there were 16 different temples that surrounded the pond. We don’t have all day to go to each and every temple, so we only went around to a few, but it was still really magnificent to walk through them. My favorite was undoubtedly the one that was just a dragon, where we got to walk the length of its body. Unrelated to the temple, we got to see a lot of animals, such as turtles and ducks, which is always pretty fun. Today was also a really hot day, so as much as we wanted to stay and check the other temples out, we were also pretty eager to get back into some air conditioning. 

After a fun group lunch we were off to our second location, the Qishan train station. This was decently far away, but despite the travel time it was still cool to go see. Between the mini-rideable trains, costumes, and banana plushies in the gift shop, everyone seemed to have fun here. After we were done at the train station, that was it for the day. We still had an hour ride back to the hotel, but either way it was a quick day. 

I’m not sure if today’s two activities were specifically planned to represent this, but the fact that we visited both a train station and various temples show how through the use of rail lines religion was able to spread across the entire island of Taiwan. According to the reading “Religion in Taiwan at the End of the Japanese Colonial Period” it was rail links across the island that enabled religion to transcend its local confines. As we’ve traveled all around the island we’ve seen this effect for ourselves. Instead of being confined in one area, temples are scattered all around Taiwan. Churches are too, albeit to a lesser extent. Cultures and ideas were able to be interchanged in places previously not possible because rail lines were built. What's interesting to examine too is how more remote mountain villages have different, or modified, religions to those in more populated areas. This is of course because unlike the major cities there is no easy access to these places, therefore it doesn’t have the same cultural exchange. Overall, I thought today was a good lesson on how local and national cultures in Taiwan were created.