This is How Things Are (in Taiwan anyway…)

I did a post on small oddities in Japan, so I guess I should do the same for Taiwan. It’s a little harder though because many “unusual” things are the same here. And I’ve been in Asia for close to 3 weeks now and a lot of it is becoming more “normal” to me.

That said: Taiwan is dingy and somewhat dirty. Not garbage-in-the-street dirty, but dirt-and-old dirty. It’s gritty. The buildings are old and renovation is something you do only if it’s falling down or leaks in typhoon season. If the paint hasn’t completely peeled off the walls and is falling in your dinner, the room doesn’t require a fresh coat of paint. Dust and rust really are protective coatings and commercial buildings are NOT what an American would call clean. Cobwebs are the norm and dust bunnies aren’t quite as big as real bunnies, but they’re almost as dense and substantial.  There is, however, virtually no litter in the streets.  In spite of the fact that outdoor trash containers are pretty much non-existent, people here tend to not litter.

Typical Taiwan cityscape

But still, you can’t say that they don’t care about their properties.  Many, many homes have pots of plants in the front and most of those include a mini water garden with blooming water lilies.  But there are almost no trees in the cities or anything growing that isn’t in a small pot in front of someone’s home.  Everything is paved over with concrete or asphalt.  I constantly feel like I’m running out of air here.  It’s starting to make me miss Japan….not to mention the US!   I definitely have the US bias toward clean, less cluttered landscapes with lots of green.  But this is their culture and their culture has other priorities.

So the entire affect is that all cities (except Taipei, which considers itself thoroughly modern and caters to people of all nationalities and wants to make them feel at home) look their age. And if you get out of downtown Taipei, it’s still pretty much the same.  If the building was built in 1951, it looks the part.  And probably has only been painted one time since then, if at all.  People sweep the street in front of their home or business (sidewalks are virtually non-existent in most cities), they don’t litter, I’ve seen only one place with graffiti.  Add to the over-all run-down nature of the country the fact that it’s humid and thus hazy almost all the time and it’s just kind of depressing.   Cars aren’t washed.  Scooters either.  A clean scooter or car really sticks out as unusual.  Come to think of it, I have yet to see an actual car wash.

Then there are the bathrooms.  A good 80% of the public bathrooms I’ve been in here have no toilet paper.  About half of the ones that do have paper have one dispenser on the wall just before you go into the stall aisle.  You take what you think you’ll need and go into a stall.  But most of the time that dispenser is empty.  So buy pocket packs of tissue and carry a couple of those at all times.

Also, strengthen those thigh muscles ladies.  If the bathroom doesn’t have a handicapped stall, there’s a good chance that all the toilets are the in-the-floor squat variety.  Also, it seems that a lot of women have very poor aim so there’s a good chance the floor will be wet as well.  So as you squat there, trying desperately to squeeze it all out in a hurry before your trembling thigh muscles give out completely, remember, if you fall, you will be sitting in someone else’s urine.  And don’t forget that all-important aim lest you fill your own shoes with your own.  Because we aren’t used to squatting, we don’t get down as
low as most Asians can and that aim becomes all the more important.

Speaking of tissues, Taiwanese people use them for everything.  They are napkins in restaurants, and toilet paper in bathrooms.  They wipe noses, butts and tables.  I have yet to see a roll of paper towels or a roll of T.P.  It’s tissues or nothing.  And don’t call them Kleenex, people won’t know what you’re talking about.  But the Kleenex brand is sold here and is upscale, thicker and more absorbent than other brands sold here.

People drive like lunatics here.  Bicycles and scooters frequently pull out into traffic without so much as a glance at oncoming traffic.  Red lights are a suggestion.  Traffic “laws” are suggestions, not laws, unless you cause an accident, then they dictate who’s at fault….more or less…..Oh, and there’s a box painted on the street at almost every traffic light.  That box is for scooters and bikes and cars stop behind it.  Which allows the scooters to pull away from the lights first and autos trail behind and pass if possible.  Which mostly isn’t possible.  And everything, including the entire family is carried on the scooter.

Everything is carried on the scooter including the dog

The family carry-all. I’ve seen 4 on a scooter…

a gaggle of scooters taking off at a green light

Another “oddity”, if you will, is that almost every home has a shrine to the family’s ancestors in it.  The shrine will be lit by red lights and often takes up the entire top floor of the family’s home.  The family will burn paper boats, cars, horses, houses, etc. to send to their ancestors for their use in the next life.  They also send those who have passed on money by giving real money to their local temple in exchange for fake money they can send to the ancestors.  This supports the temple and the temple money becomes the real thing once it is burned and passes over to the ancestor.  And you must honor and provide for your ancestors or they will wreak havoc in your life, haunting you big-time!

Speaking of temples, they are everywhere.  And they are painted, carved and detailed within an inch of their lives.  They are richly decorated and nothing is done on the cheap.  Carved stone is granite or marble, not something that looks like granite or marble.  Doorways and altars are always in threes and doorways have a piece of wood across the bottom that is close to a foot high that you have to step over to enter the temple or shrine.  This is because bad spirits can’t perform that action.  Stepping over something is beyond their capabilities.  They also can’t turn corners.  So a sharp bend in an alley or street will keep the baddies away.

Signs in Taiwan can be interesting.  They can be strange combinations of old and new characters, with English translations above or below and very, very inventive spellings.  If you’re driving, signs are either virtually non-existent, or highly misleading.  A sign may say 3 Freeway with an arrow pointing left.  Then you drive 5 miles before you see another sign for the 3, with another arrow either pointing in the same direction or sending you off on another street.  This can go on for 10 minutes or 30 minutes before you come to the actual freeway.  Or, even more fun, can stop entirely, leaving you guessing where it is that the freeway went.

Note the different spellings for “vegetarian”

Trip to Mt. Fuji (No “Yama” Mama)

Today my niece’s husband was off from school so it was off to Mt. Fuji for all of us. “All” means my niece, Mia, her husband, Natsuo, and their two children, Hidemi, Satsuki –who are 5 years and 18 months respectively.

Hidemi, Natsuo, Satsuki, Mia at Mt. Fuji

On the drive up, they introduced me to Japanese rest areas. These are not your average U.S. rest areas. More like a small mall. Some are larger, some are smaller, but they contain the requisite bathroom (or 4) and a gas station, plus several eateries, shops carrying all sorts of goods, ice cream and dessert establishments and entertainment. The one we stopped at had a clown making balloon animals for the children and a Rock, Paper, Scissors competition going on in a small open-air amphitheater behind the mall. They take their Rock, Paper, Scissors very seriously in Japan. They had 3 lovely young ladies officiating and coverage by some radio station, but no, I didn’t stay to watch. Instead I was treated to a cup of Japanese-style ice cream. And not ordinary ice cream. This ice cream was made with special high-grade milk from a local dairy that even had a picture of the farmer that owns the dairy. Talk about “local” food! When you go to a grocery store here, the better-quality produce is in special packaging and has a picture of the farmer who grew the fruit or veggie plus a map showing the location of the farm. And those items are not cheap! But they are good….yep, I tried some!

Small portion of rest area

The ice cream was very thick and rich and smooth as silk.  What it was not was disgustingly sweet.  It probably contained one-third the sugar of US ice cream and I have to say that I found it vastly superior to any US brand I’ve ever tried.   I can only eat a single scoop of most ice creams.  The cloying sweetness just overloads both my taste buds and my stomach in a very short span of time.  I could have eaten an entire pint of this and not have been on sugar-overload.  A quart probably wouldn’t have been enough to make me a diabetes candidate.   While we’re on the subject of food differences, the Japanese don’t feel the need to over-color everything either.  I bought a pack of four different flavors of Pez candy.   Four different flavors, but all were the same color — white.  So nice to not have the item I’m eating look like a day-glo reject from a nuclear accident.  (OK, no bad jokes about Japan and nuclear accidents — BEG, wink, wink)

Anyway, on to Mt. Fuji.  For those who insist on saying “Mt. Fujiyama”, please know this:  “Yama” means “mountain” in Janese.  So when you say, “Mt. Fujiyama” you are saying “Mt. Fuji mountain”.   My bit of new knowledge for the day.   Since there is a storm on the horizon, so to speak, we had some concerns that the building clouds would obscure our view of the peak.  And it did seem like it might be a problem as the mountain was only viewable from the waist down on the drive up.  But as the road climbed higher and higher we passed through the lower level of clouds into clear sky and the top of the mountain came into view.   By the time the car was parked and the kids were in their jackets and shoes, the last vestige of cloud had cleared the mountain and left us with an unobstructed view of the peak.

Mt. Fuji

Side note here:  before walking up to the viewing area, we hit the restrooms.  This is where a truly civilized country can shine.  I suppose having a bidet on every Western-style toilet is nice (I haven’t actually tried one out yet.  Not quite sure how much trouble it would be to dry off afterwards…) the icing on the cake here was the fact that all of the toilet seats were heated!  Yes, heated.  It gets cold up there.  Fuji is HIGH.  Even in the summer it can be down-right nippy.  Sitting on that toasty warm seat is a delight.  While I’m at it, let me mention that to save someone with intestinal discomfort from possible embarrassment, they also had the sound of a babbling brook emanating from speakers beside each toilet, set at a volume that was loud enough to drown out any possible sounds of escaping flatulence.   Every other restroom I have been in here had the option of the sound of a flushing toilet available at the push of a button in order to mask any other sound that the stall occupant might not want others to hear.   This was the first place that had pleasant masking sound as a standard feature.  Adorable.

After our little bathroom break, we walked up to get a better look at the peak (and the large selection of shops and restaurants surrounding the parking area…)  As we passed the last souvenir shop we saw about 20 horses tied to rails with several people hawking their “wares”.  The opportunity to have your picture taken on a horse with you little one in your lap…for a mere (approximately) $7.00 US.  Your camera, you print out at home.  The $7.00 was to sit on the horse.  For about $13.50 US, they would walk the horse around the area for about 5 minutes.  For only $28 US, that walk could be extended to 15 minutes!  Natsuo obviously wanted to take Hidemi on a ride, or, at the very least get the picture on the horse.  But the ride was obviously his preference.  Mia was wearing a short skirt and Satsuki was too squirmy and intimidated by the horses to go.    I didn’t think Natsuo wanted to go alone.  Or maybe didn’t want to give himself permission to spend all that money on the short ride with his son, I don’t really know.   But it seemed to me like he could use some moral support for the idea, so I offered to rent a horsie for myself and go along for the ride.

Horse Ride

This whole set-up was meant for the kiddies.  Not the adults.  Well, for the adults in the sense that they could spoil their child a little and get a picture of the whole event for posterity.  It was not meant for the adults alone.  Which is to say that most of the Japanese in the area seemed to find my taking the ride on the horse by myself enormously amusing.   Although they were too polite to actually laugh about it in front of me.  So, of course, I had a wonderful time poking holes in everyone’s expectations of what “should be”.

After the “ride”, I got some wonderful pictures of the native flora and had time to rue the fact that there wasn’t time for me to spend more time hiking around up there.   We went in a couple of shops, bought some souvenirs and then visited a temple tucked behind the stores.  By then most people had left, the sun was nearing the western horizon and the temperature was becoming decidedly nippy.  So after another visit to those adorable heated seats, we headed down the mountain and went to find dinner.  (note to all:  the Japanese version of lasagna bears no resemblance to actual lasagna aside from the cheese on top.  Please don’t order it thinking it will.  It’s not bad tasting, but it’s definitely NOT lasagna!)

Beginnings of fall color

Fall woods with a touch of fog