Japan – Episode 4 (Kyoto)

At a rough shod wooden table, drinking tea and Kirin beer, chill electronic tunes are bouncing off the concrete ceiling and colliding with our sore feet, full bellies and refreshed eyes.

It was a bullet train of 200kms an hour that took us across a sweeping view of Mt. Fuji, snow dusted fields abutting fall colored landscapes and a confusing arrival at a comparatively sleepy Kyoto station.

Our day began before this ride with a second consecutive visit to a French bakery, a nice walk around the Daikanayama neighborhood and a pack-laden 20 minute walk to Shibuya station after a French press fueled lazy morning goodbye to our Meguro flat.

From Shibuya station to our room in Kyoto it was a 3 hour journey. We are happy with our room which was the most suspect of places we’d booked based on pictures that somewhat conflicted with glowing AirBnB reviews. Reality lent itself more to the reviews. We gathered ourselves at the room and then set out for the Nishiki market. A busy 5pm Sunday evening crowd milled about the stands strewn well over a mile, offering knives, ceramics, clothes and all manner of knick-knack and food. We then lost tourist wandered our way to Jyunidanya shabu shabu and enjoyed a quality over quantity beef hot pot meal.

Upon leaving, we decided to walk home and I directed us towards the wrong iphone coordinates. This turned a 1.5 mile walk into a 3 mile day closer. Chea turned it into a game of beating our estimated time home though and it was a great end to our arrival in Kyoto. We are excited to see Kyoto in the full light of day and to catch the end of the Broncos game when we awake!

Japan – Episode 1 (Tokyo)

We left Taiwan this morning a little sad saying goodbye to our Taiwanese family and apprehensive about diving into one of the largest cities in the world. The flight from Taiwan to Japan was just 2.5 hours. After we landed, we bought train tickets (Tokyo is about an hour away from the airport) with surprising ease. As we were heading towards the train station, David gets stopped by a camera man, reporter and reporter’s translator. David quickly pulled me into the “news piece” and in a daze we are asked questions such as “why are you here in Japan” and “what do you want to do here?” We tried to answer as best we could and then we were on our way to our rented flat from AirBnB.

We knew that we would be living near Shibuya, an area that is often viewed as the epicenter of Tokyo. If we felt overwhelmed in Taipei, we felt for sure we’d lose our senses in Shibuya. Much to our delight, our flat is in a quiet but upscale neighborhood (Meguro) about 15 minutes from Shibuya. There are several coffee shops, restaurants and a local grocery store nearby. Realizing that we hadn’t eaten in awhile and that dinner was approaching, we walked a few short blocks to a restaurant called Alaska which was recommended by our host. We felt the restaurant selection might have been an unwise decision given its a vegetarian restaurant but out of sheer hunger went in. Inside, the restaurant had a nice homey feel, with a bit of hipster flare. English indie music was playing, the wait staff did not speak English but they were very nice with big, bright smiles. We ordered a vermicelli salad, margarita pizza and 2 soups to share, all of which hit the spot. After dinner, we walked to a liquor store to buy some beer and then to the local grocery store to buy some items for our little home – coffee, snacks, fruit, etc. We headed back “home” and dropped off our bags and were on our way again, walking a bit to explore our neighborhood. We walked over to the Daikanayama area, which is a funky district that has art galleries, clothing stores and other shops. We stopped in the Daikanayama Tsutaya bookstore which is open until 2am. It has multiple interlocking stores featuring different genres in their separate pods. One could easily spend hours here. I even stopped by the magazine section and caught some US magazines headlines such as who the sexiest man alive is according to People magazine!

We are now calling it an early night at home, trying Japanese beer and planning for tomorrow’s day!

Taiwan – Episode 10 (Alishan/Taipei)

We got up at 5:29 this morning and by 5:43 were out the door hiking towards the tea trail that our rudimentary map promised would lead us to the sunrise viewing deck. Along the way 2 dogs from the homes near the path joined us. We dubbed them sunrise and sunset and they went about escorting us along the dim path.

After we hiked further than we had before, we moved in indecisive fits and spurts as we weighed our current view, imagined possible views, and the ticking clock of the pending sunrise show. At each stop the next always won out as we followed wooden signs and trail marking ribbons to the mythical sunrise viewing deck. By 7am, the sun had risen and we were in a bamboo forest that was slowly hiving way to mammoth cypress trees. We’d had a couple of great views of layers of hillsides dressed with thick clouds about their valley middles and rounded heads and were now fully committed to making it to the deck.

The route was steep and straight but the lack of switchbacks was mitigated by railroad tie steps for most of the way. After nearly 2 arduous hours, we reach the viewing deck. Perhaps many years ago there was a spectacular 360 view but alas, the bamboo and large leafed fauna were now encased the deck allowing only hints of the grandeur beyond.

Feeling accomplished at making it to the deck we joyfully turned and started the chop-stepped lean backed retracing of our tea trail steps. By the time we made it back to Lauya, we’d seen a group of rice paddy hat wearing, bandana sporting, exactly as you’d expect looking older women picking tea leaves, and had amassed 15,234 steps, 253 floors and three hours of hike time. Sunrise and Sunset bid us farewell as they were exhausted from the long hike. As we headed towards our home, Spirit Dog came to greet us as if to say “hey old friends, why didn’t you ask me to join the hike?” The dogs at Alishan sure are hospitable.

We had a delicious breakfast and then were able to tune in the Broncos game compliments of Priscilla! It was a real treat to watch the game with the valley backdrop and the Broncos kicking butt!

It was with regret that we climbed in Mr. Chen’s car and heard for Fenchihu at 11:15. Turns out Fenchihu was an endearing collection of thin street walking shops surrounded by the now familiar green hillsides and dynamic clouds of the area. We had a great time wandering the shops, sampling food, picking up souvenirs, having lunch and sharing a leisurely cup of coffee while we waited for the Forest train. There are many hikes in this area but we were all hiked out.

Once on the Forest train we were surrounded by the beauty of descent through the hills moving from about 3,700ft to 1,500ft in elevation over an expansive view, brightly flower filled ride. The speakers on the wobbly train that trundled along at a spectators pace intermittently emitted a tour guides notes and a children of the world type soundtrack. The train ride was quite enjoyable and was a wonderful departure from an area we enjoyed so much. Thank you to Aunt Olivia for buying us this experience!

Arriving in Chiayi, Chea quickly secured a cab ride for us to the high speed train station where we started hurtling towards Taipei to see aunt Grace, Uncle Lucky and Martin.

Uncle Lucky and Aunt Grace are quite precious. After, nearly 40 years of marriage they laugh and joke with one another like they are in their twenties. We were told that we would be spoiled rotten which is a bit of an understatement. Upon arrival, we were whisked away to a famous noodle shop in New Taipei City and had beef noodle soup and dumplings. Martin joined us at this time and Chea forced a hug out of him. #awkward
For dessert, we got shaved ice with lots of interesting toppings. 2 large bowls only cost roughly 3 U.S. Dollars. After dinner, we were treated to Thai massages for our arduous hike in the morning. The experience was both pain and pleasure!

I continue to feel so blessed by all of these travel plans that Chea, Shirley and Olivia made for us! We arrived in Taiwan with train routes planned and tickets purchased and that has made this journey down the east coast and back up the west a great success!

Taiwan – Episode 8 (Alishan)

Another big travel today. At 7:20am, we stood at a Kenting bus stop with a vague promise of a bus coming soon. Taxi drivers swarmed as Chea fended them off with explanations about our bus plans and I wielded my boosa (no) word. The bus did finally arrive at 8:03 and we were moving towards our increasingly close 11:03 train connection. We were deposited at the subway at 10:33 and after a short subway ride we hurried about until we realized we needed to leave the station and cross the street to catch our train. With relief, we took our seats on the 172 heading to Chiayi at 10:53.

Now, Chea navigated us to our awaiting shuttle bus and we are on the final leg of the journey to Alishan. We are due to arrive at 1:35pm and are hoping for a cool deck with a beautiful mountain view as we are currently in a van thick with humidity, clammy air and 7 mouths competing for air and volume with each other and some Asian version of 98 degrees.

This is Chea picking up the blog again. We arrive at Lauya Homestay, a cottage like oasis with lush flowers in the gardens, 2 cats and 3 dogs (one of which is an adorable puppy). We meet Defo, the innkeeper and his wife. Defo speaks the best English so far out of everybody we met and I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that I didn’t have try to translate difficult mandarin. We also learned that Defo and his wife saved all 3 dogs that live on the property as they used to be strays. This gave me hope that strays in Taiwan are not completely hopeless. Defo gave us very lengthy instructions on hikes nearby and how to get into the Alishan national forest. Given our rather complex travel day, we decided to go on a small hike that’s not very difficult. This “easy” hike led us up a steep hill for 20 minutes. Along the way, a yellow lab/mutt approached us with his tail wagging feverishly. He has a collar on but owners did not appear to be nearby. As we’ve with most dogs in Taiwan whether stray or not, they all seem to be very self efficient. The dog would run 9 or so yards ahead of us and then check often making sure we were still following him. It truly felt like he was our guide on a hike. It was this that reason that we aptly named the dog “Spirit Dog.”

The hike began a little bit scary with silver dollar sized spiders strewn above us connecting the canopy of trees with their webs. We soon realized they weren’t interested in us and with Spirit Dog’s help we made it high into the Tea Trail that is named after the tea farm that it winds through. The clouds obscured much of the view but leant a mysterious grandeur to the green hills and rows of tea plants that dotted the landscape. We turned back at a bamboo forest that we will certainly explore further tomorrow morning. Spirit Dog wanted to continue on but upon seeing that we had turned around, he walked with us all the way back to Lauya where he hopped the fence and played with the other dogs. We hope maybe to see Spirit Dog tomorrow.

For dinner, Defo drove us a few miles down the road to two restaurants. We went to the one that had fried noodles which we ordered. Feeling hungry, we decided to order fried shrimp also. Our visions of delicious fried shrimp evaporated as a plate of deep fried, krill type tiny shrimp arrived. Without the availability to peel or the size to remove the head, the shrimp had to be eaten whole. Not wanting to be rude, we ate it all but felt a little sad about it.

We got a ride from Defo back to the Homestay and asked the den mother if we could have some tea. With a big smile, she told us she could fix us many different kinds of tea and that we could ask her to do so anytime. She wore an apron with a cat chasing a butterfly, a turtle with flowers sewn onto it. She looks like Mrs. Kim from the Gilmore Girls but nicer. Everything that occurred today from the friendly hospitality of the owners to the lovely pets that live at the home to the wondrous scenery that surrounds us has captured our imaginations and filled us with thankful joy!

Taiwan – Episode 7 (Kenting)

Today felt much better than yesterday after a full night’s rest. We got some breakfast at Shark Bites Toast, a brunch spot that serves odd combinations of food such as pancakes and meatloaf, French toast and a hot dog and toast topped with pesto and cheese. Nonetheless, it was a good experience. We met an ex-Patriot who is from Boston and currently lives in South Korea. He is returning back to states after a tour of Southeast Asia. He quickly told us that Taiwanese people are much nicer than Koreans. Upon learning that he couldn’t buy extra potatoes (my guess is that the restaurant only has a certain amount of potatoes prepared for each dish and this one cannot order extra sides), he said he takes it all back about Taiwanese people being nice and in a huff proceeded to eat his meal. I think America would prefer not to have this ex-patriot back!

After, breakfast, we decided to really experience Kenting by renting a scooter. It was a bit confusing to do so I had a hard time closing the transaction without an international drivers license. We somehow managed to skirt the law perhaps and rent one – they did have to make a phone call to a man with a miniature claw like hand that looked to eternally be holding a pall mall cigarette. To confirm the soundness of letting the scooter to an unlicensed couple, he started the scooter, stood to the side holding the handle bar, said something to Chea and looked at me expectantly. Chea let me know I needed to show him I could ride. I took off with amateurish jolts but did get moving down the road. After navigating back to him – off we went!

The town is quite sleepy during the day and only stretches about 1 mile, so the scootering was easy enough with very little traffic. There was some confusion with the scooter such as, how to start the scooter, how to unlock the seat trunk, and guessing how fast we were going (speedometer broken). But, the handling was easy, the ocean breeze was fresh, the scenery alluring and the road wide open.

Our first stop was to leave the scooter and take a half mile walk to the southern most tip of Taiwan. The oval observation deck over the coral rock pocked beach was studded with camera clicking tourists and was only about 20 ft in circumference. The view and surroundings were underwhelming but the concept of the south tip was gratifying.

We scootered away and found our way to a series of picturesque cliffs. We picked our way to an overlook and took some photos. The lava like corral rocks were uncomfortable for sitting and soon we were again on the road. Beautiful and expansive view off the southeast coast of Taiwan though!

Puttsing along, we came upon a group of stopped cars and several brown blurs hop-running across the road. When we arrived the pack of maybe 12 goats was divided on either side of the road. Those who’d crossed were disinterestedly munching greenery while those would be crossers were anxiously milling about and sporadically crossing to munch.

Continuing along the east coast we had a wonderful view of the coastline zipping by. It rained lightly and we slowed the imaginary speedometer. Two hours into our coastal journey, we hit the end of the road and headed back from whence we came.

We arrived on the outskirts of town and stopped to eat at smokey joes. The restaurant was a Cheesecake Factory affair with a book of a menu that offered tofu, pizza, hamburgers and oddly enough, pig knuckles were highlighted on a glossy sign outside. The fried tofu and veggies we shared was tasty and unbeknownst to us, the kumquat tea we ordered was not only good but came with a piece of chocolate cake! The meal was an American experience complete with Internet radio blaring American pop hits, English commercials, and familiar wait service.

Our next stop finally uncovered a coveted sandy beach! We had a quick swim under overcast skies and shivered on the beach until we fell comfortably into our books. Stealing a bit of saltwater and crashing wave ambience was a real treat!

Dashing off towards the west we found more traffic and the falling night and so we turned back towards home. Luckily, we weren’t far out as it started to rain hard. Being too dim for my sunglasses, I hugged the right side of the road, dipped my visor, and scrunched my eyes against the rain. With a wet t-shirt contest winning v-neck undershirt we arrived back home and returned our scooter 5 hours after we rented it.

We’re taking it easy listening to bob Marley, packing for tomorrow’s travel and planning for dinner now. Kenting was a sleep deprived difficultly yesterday but was enjoyable in adventure, scenery and relaxation today!

Update: we just had a tasty Taiwanese dinner – 3 cup chicken, empty heart vegetables, pork and tofu stir fry. David also struck up a conversation with an 18 year old boy who works at the restaurant. They played some pretend hoops. Zan!

Also, there are a bunch of fire crackers going off outside our hotel for the Taiwanese elections.

Taiwan – Episode 6 (Kenting)

Chea here. There isn’t much to report today. We got up this morning at 4:30 in the morning and hopped in a taxi to Hualien station. There, surprisingly, our tour guide Jared stopped by to say goodbye again. Jared apparently lives very close by and wanted to show his gratitude once more. We took a train ride that was about 4 hours long, walked a few short, confusing blocks to a bus stop where we got on board a fairly empty bus with a very grumpy bus driver. Sometimes words are exchanged so quickly that I barely have anytime to process. As we drove along to our next destination, in which stops mentioned bore no recollection, I pulled my compass out to make sure we were still traveling south. Thankfully we were. As we got closer, and I only knew this because I was looking up locations of each stop on Google Maps, I used my phone GPS to locate the hotel (I was fairly certain Mr. Grumpy driver was not going to do us any favors by pointing out where we need to stop).

Kenting is a very picturesque beach town with lots of interesting rock formations and greenery. We had some time before check in time so we shopped around (David picked up very snazzy swim trunks) and grabbed lunch. Without my family or new Taiwanese friends, food is a challenge especially when then menu has neither pictures nor English. We ended up at a restaurant that had an English menu, signs that said “air conditioning” and “coca cola”, and Eminem songs blaring. There is no doubt we fell into a tourist trap but a girl’s gotta eat. My first time trying to order by pointing prompted the server to bring noodles rather than vegetables!

Our hotel room is small but clean. The toilet is right next to the shower (no wall) which is challenging. After gathering our bearings, we headed back out in swim suits ready to bask in the sun and enjoy some relaxation. After 10 min of walking it starts to rain. We briefly discuss going into a massage parlor but the various confusing signs indicated we might be getting a foot massage or a full body massage sitting upright in a chair or perhaps something more uncomfortable. We decided to pass on that.

Sightseeing when you’re running on low is difficult. At this point, we’ve maybe had one full night of rest. In fact today, we found ourselves digressing back to Denver time.

One of the most heartbreaking things that I’ve seen on this trip are the stray dogs. In Kenting, they run rampant. They look to be non-violent and seem to be pretty street savvy. Tourists walk by the dogs as if they are nothing but mere squirrels. The dogs roam in packs probably looking for food that people drop. According to a few Internet sources, these stray dogs are not to be touched as they probably have parasites or other diseases. Tonight as we walked along the night market, we saw them everywhere. Out of guilt, we dropped a few pieces of leftover chicken for stray dogs as we saw them. I’m sure we’re just adding to the problem but what is the other alternative? It doesn’t appear that Taiwan has very many animal shelters. Right now, this is really the biggest impression of Kenting… I was told by Jared that Taiwan can be a bit cruel in that dog owners often abandon their dogs or opt to buy small, designer dogs. Even is strays could be saved, the chances for adoption are rare. All I can wonder is what can be done and I fear the answer is nothing.

Today was the first day I really missed home. It was my mom’s birthday yesterday, and today in Taiwan is Thanksgiving (not recognized). I miss family sitting around the table and the warm comfort of good friends.