Sponge Bear
Self-imposed exile on Formosa.
URL: http://kaminoge.livejournal.com
(visit)
Tags: japan and taiwan
Latest Posts
海角七号
- Jan 04, 2009
Well, I finally got around to watching the hit movie "Cape No. 7" in its complete form, with English subtitles, and all hype outside, I found it to be a very enjoyable, touching film. For reasons I'd rather not delve into, the story was very moving on a personal level, but I would've enjoyed it in any event. You don't have to be Taiwanese to understand the story, and there were no political undertones that I could detect, which makes it all the more mystifying why the gove...
Places best avoided: Jiji
- Jan 03, 2009
I don't know what it is, but for the first three days of the new year, I have been unable to get out of the apartment at an early enough hour. Today, we took the train to Jiji (Chichi/Shūshū) 集集 in Nantou (Nant'ou/Nantō) County 南投県, only the one we caught left Fengyuan (Hōgen) 豊原 at 1:35, and with the wait to change trains at Ershuei (Erhshui/Nisui) 二水, it was after 3:30 by the time we arrived at our destination. Then again, an early start might not have been such a good t...
失望
- Jan 02, 2009
Today was one of those days that doesn't quite work out the way you had initially hoped. The plan was for my daughter and I to visit the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts , which is reputed by Lonely Planet to have an excellent play area for children. In order to give my wife some time to herself, and to make the trip more interesting for Amber, I wanted to take the train from Fengyuan (Hōgen) 豊原 to Taichung (T'aichung/Taichū) 台中, and then hop on a bus to the art museum....
Day One
- Jan 01, 2009
On a chilly and windy first day of 2009, the three of us drove into Taichung (T'aichung/Taichū) 台中 to do some shopping at Sogo そごう. I have a total of four days off to start the new year, but as of yet, no firm plans about what to do with all that time. My daughter poses on the way to Sogo; inside the department store, you can find reserved seating for good coffee.
Happy New Year!
- Dec 31, 2008
2008 has almost left the scene, and while I can't say that it has been a great year for me, it hasn't been a bad one, either. The same can't be said for Taiwan, unfortunately. There is the rapidly deteriorating economy to be concerned about, of course. But although things are going to get much worse before they get better, the economy will eventually turn upwards again. Politically, however, the situation has been getting bleaker and bleaker since May, and only a die-hard ...
Changes in the weather
- Dec 30, 2008
I hope everyone had a good Christmas. I was fortunate in that I was able to arrange my work schedule so that I would have the morning off, and thus get to see Amber open her gifts, of which she got too many, I'm afraid. The expectations bar has been raised! Other than Christmas, things have been quiet on the Kaminoge front. This morning, as is becoming the case on Tuesdays, I woke up at 6 in order to get out into the mountains in the Sintian area and do some walking. Where...
No snow here
- Dec 23, 2008
The last entry on this blog is the result of what happens when I leave my computer unattended in order to use the bathroom, and my 2-year 11 month-old daughter assumes control. If only I knew what she was trying to say!Christmas is almost upon us, and while friends and family back home are digging out from under the snow, here in central Taiwan the weather has been clear, sunny and, while not warm, certainly nothing like the freezing temperatures being felt in most of the ...
Xmas Shopping
- Dec 21, 2008
Christmas is not widely celebrated here in Taiwan, but doing some final shopping today in Taichung (T'aichung/Taichū) 台中 left me feeling as exhausted as I would have back home in the States. Or is it that I'm just getting older? My daughter, on the other hand, had a seeming inexhaustible supply of energy all through the afternoon and into the evening, before finally conking out in the car on the drive home. And while she may be too young to comprehend the meaning of Christ...
Trying days
- Dec 19, 2008
The conveyor belt sushi restaurant 回転寿司 at the local Carrefour カルフール proudly boasts that is uses koshihikari rice コシヒカリ for its sushi - or so it thinks. The hiragana 平仮名 needs a little work, for it looks like "tsushihikari" つしひかり.Taiwan has been obsessing about it for a while, but the Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ editorial staff has only now gotten around to commenting on the arrest of Chen Shui-bian (Chin Suihen) 陳水扁. You mean there were other news stories happening around the wo...
