4.28.2009 Taoist gods' birthdays

This month, along with having Tomb Sweeping Day, there has seemed to have been at least half a dozen taoist gods' birthdays. There have been 2 or 3 times this April when Han and I have been en route to some weekend fun and have gotten held up in traffic by the gods walking across the street... .... and there have also been many noisy mornings, the very few where I get to sleep in, where I've been woken up by firecrackers, drums and horns. The parade in the following video is one we caught (or got caught up in?) while driving to Sanxia to see a photography exhibit at the Hakka Museum.

1.05.2009 Pencil Crayon Chopsticks

Labels: Only in Asia

NSFM - Not safe for Michelle

My big sister has an ocean related phobia or two so I rate this video as NSFM.

The Osaka Kaiyukan Aquarium blew me away. I'd live there if they let me. Definitely worth seeing if you have time in Osaka.

1.02.2009 On the top of 101 during New Years'

I've seen the fireworks go off of Taipei 101 since New Years' for 2006. It seems like every year I hear that "this is the last year". Last year Han and I got completely locked on his scooter for hours, thankfully with a great view, in the middle of traffic during the festivities. We swore regardless of whether there were going to be fireworks or not it was going to be OUR last year to go outside to see the fireworks, for sure.

Until.... Han found out we could get INSIDE 101 to see the fireworks when they went off. He had heard that the tickets were limited to 2000 people but now we doubt that....and again they claim this will be the last year...

We headed for 101 straight after I got off work. Even at 7:30 the crowd inside Taipei Main Station was incredible. It was a sea of people all pouring onto the MRT trains which seemed to fill up in the blink of an eye. Overall it seemed the metro did a great job of keeping things smoothly running and things felt much more organized than previous years.

We grabbed some food in the eatery and then around 9 decided to go up to the 89th floor (where the observatory is) to stake out our place before everyone else got the same idea. I found the perfect spot. A great view of the Living Mall and a great view of the Neihu ferris wheel where Han and I had our first date.

We ended up waiting 3 hours for 3 minutes of fireworks but I do have to say it is one of the coolest things I've seen in my life. Maybe just because I've never seen anything like it or imagined I would. My knees turned to jelly a few times as I saw swirly bursts of light that seemed to be only 10 meters in front of my face and others that looked like shooting stars. The excitement and disbelief in everyones' voices along with the vibration underfoot as the fireworks went off only added to the feeling of awe. It was hard to believe I was seeing what I was seeing.

Sadly my new 4GB CF card wouldn't format in my camera so I only had a 64MB in another slot and was only able to get 1 minute worth of footage that in no way does the experience any credit. I honestly was paying little attention to my camera and had my nose nearly pressed to window almost the whole time.

One note on the video is that all the twinkling white lights from down below between fireworks are the flashes from peoples' cameras going off!

Here is someone else's video from outside of 101:

Labels: 101, fireworks, taipei, taiwan

9.29.2008 Both the cheapest and most fun day I had in Japan

Cheap fun and Japan seem to be rarely uttered in the same breath, especially coming from a tourist, but it does exist. One of the days that ended up being one of the cheapest days Han and I had in Japan was also the most fun.

Originally when I had planned to go to Japan I had wanted to spend only a minimal amount of time in Tokyo. I wasn't into seeing another big city and really wanted to go and see places that I thought would offer more of a cultural experience of Japan. I honestly thought any city, no matter how big and modern, was going to be boring and redundant after awhile.

When Han decided to come along I had two options, either go off and see a lot of different places in Japan, or being with Han and spending a longer chunk of time in Tokyo with a smaller part of our trip seeing different places. As Han is still a student (just started his Master's program!! woo hoo) he couldn't afford to do an "all around Japan" trip with me but we haven't had a lot of time together lately because of our schedules so I decided Tokyo for 2 weeks and 1 week of traveling around on a JR Train Pass.

To my surprise we only touched the tip of the ice burgh of fun things to do in Tokyo. I still came back to Taiwan with a Tokyo guide book earmarked with tons of things I wanted to see and do but never had the chance to.

Day 4 I wanted to discover some of the beauty within Tokyo so we started at the Meiji-jingu "Tokyo's grandest shrine". It was truly a gorgeous spot and even though I'm not thrilled with the photos I took there the memory is still fresh in my mind. The smells, the sounds, the heat. It was like being transported to the countryside while being in the middle of the city. The shrine itself only takes up a small portion the 175 acre forest grounds. The shrine is for Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken who ruled during the time Japan's isolation from the rest of the world ended.

We strolled around the shrine, hit the treasure museum on the Northern part of the grounds and then headed for Asakusa for a boat cruise. I love water, I love seeing cities from the water, and I loved boats. I wanted to visit Hama Rikyu onshi-teien palace gardens and one of the ways listed to get there was by boat. Han and I made our way to Asakusa grabbed some Japanese curry and found the boat ferries. Unfortunately by the time we arrived the gardens were closed so that wasn't an option for where we could get off. Instead we decided to take the ferry as far as it would go. In this case to Odaiba.

The boat was comfy, the time of day was gorgeous and it was such a great little relaxing trip.




Once off the boat we decided to go over and explore Odaiba. It had really interesting buildings and we had heard that it's a romantic spot with a lot of places to eat. Most of the buildings on the Odaiba, which is a man-made island are futuristic looking and make it look like some big amusement park from the distance. Even the subway ride over felt like a ride as it crosses over the water running along side a busy looping bridge with cars zooming both ways.





We decided to skip the romantic spot until later and head over to the Toyota Mega Web not quite sure what we were going to find.





The Mega Web ended up eating up the rest of our night. Built as kind of a showroom it not only shows, it plays! Aside from all kinds of new Toyota models that you an open up and sit in, and even test drive with advance reservation there are all kinds of simulators, hands on exhibits, displays of futuristic technology and even a theater that you have to buckle up in to experience what it's like to be Super GT race car driver. All of it free and all of it fun. We did dish out a modest fee to ride the electric cars around the whole showcase and to the other buildings.





Even though I'm not the auto-geek Han is I still had a blast and was as sad as Han to be booted out at closing time and had no regrets on missing out on the romantic stuff.

Sony is supposed to have a similar kind of showcase both in Japan and here but we never made it to the one in Japan, I'm looking forward to seeing if the one in Taiwan is as fun.