[12/25/07-1/3/08] Hanging out in Kaohsuing
I haven't really done much down here but hang out with family since I'm staying at my grandparents house. My taiwanese and mandarin have been improving since I have to talk to people a lot. I'm getting my scroll mounted finally. My calligraphy teacher at Taida wrote some poem using the characters in my Chinese name so I'm getting it mounted so I can hang it up on the wall. I went and got my hair washed which included a head massage and then a cut. Lena got the straight perm which took her 5 hours.
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| Kaohsuing |
[12/23/07-12/25/07] Hanging out in Taipei
We got to Taipei around 1pm and had to take a cab to the downtown area from the airport. My sister and I went to the NTU hospital to go visit my sick uncle. We hung out there for a few hours telling him about our vacation in Japan. We were a bit tired from all the constant traveling so we decided not to go out that night.
The next day we hit up Ximending and some underground malls to see what cheap goodies we could find. Lena bought a ton of socks and I bought a new umbrella and some scarves. The weather wasn't that great in Taipei very overcast and rainy.
X and Daniel were in town so I hung out with them for a little bit before they went to go visit an old teacher. Man stuff in Taiwan doesn't seem to really open before 11am, which can be pretty annoying if your already up by 7am. We went to Gongguan to hang out and see if we could find a bookstore that was open. My sister and I needed to go visit our uncle again before taking the bullet train down to Zuoying which is a bit north of Kaohsuing.
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| Taipei |
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| Taipei Day 2 |
[12/17/07- 12/22/07] 7 Day Tour of Japan Kanto and Kansai
Day 1:
Lena and I visited the Tokyo Imperial Palace in Tokyo where the current emperor and empresses live. We were only able to see a little tiny portion and took pictures in front of the eye glasses bridge. Our tour guide Tomo spoke very fluent English and studied English for a year in Alabama. We then headed to Asakusa to look at the huge red lantern and large buddha. There were Shinto and Buddhist shrines. We learned how to purify ourselves before we entered the temple and prayed. I prayed that my uncle would get better. Next we head to Ginza, which is the most expensive shopping area in Japan. There were tons of expensive brand name stores like LV, Burberry, etc. Me and Lena obviously didn't have enough money to buy anything around there nor did we really feel like dropping that much money on purses or other stuff. We just walked around taking pictures of the buildings. The LV building was really cute with the colorful design. We then went to go see the Meiji Shrine. The tree leaves were really pretty with their bright reds and orange colors. We stayed in Shinjuku at night and wandered around checking out the stores.
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| Japan Day 1 |
Day 2:
We went to Fuji-Hakone National Park where we got to ride a boat across Lake Ashi. The boat looked like a pirate ship from Disneyland or somewhere. There were even statues of pirates around the ship. The boat ride was pretty nice but it was really cold and windy. After a while Lena and I had to go downstairs to warm up. From there we went on a cable car on the Hakone ropeway. The cable car ride was only 7 minutes long but we got to see a lot of the hot spring vapors. The cable car ride was through Owakudani Valley and we tried to see Mt. Fuji but the clouds were blocking it. The hot springs have sulfur inside of it and it's a popular thing to cook eggs in the water with the sulfur. The boiled egg has a black shell but the inside looks just like a normal egg. Supposedly, the legend is that if you eat an egg you will live an additional 7 years but you can only eat at most 2 and if you eat 3 you will just get a stomach ache. We spent the night in Atami and our room was right next to the ocean. The hotel is built into a cliff so the top floor is the lobby and the guest floors are below. The hot springs are on the ground floor. In Japan when you go to a hot spring you aren't allowed to wear any clothes and you must first wash before you enter the water. They had charcoal shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. We couldn't stay in the hot water for more than 5 minutes. Both of us started getting a bit light headed from the heat. For dinner we had a Kaiseki dinner and wore yukatas, which are light kimonos that you wear during the summer. Kaiseki is lots of small dishes that are very pretty. It was a lot of food and I didn't have anyone to give my leftovers to =(.
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| Japan Day 2 |
Day 3:
From Atami we took the Shinkansen bullet train to Shin Osaka. The train ride was approximately 2 hours on the train while driving would take 8 hours. Our poor bus driver had to drive our luggage over at night. We then visited the Osaka Castle. Lena and I already saw the castle last time we went to Japan with our parents on the Mandarin tour so it wasn't really anything that special or different from last. A lot of the castles and temples were very prone to burning down due to fires so they had to rebuild them often. After the castle we then went to a sake brewery museum to learn how sake is made. They let us try different sake and they had some fruit flavored ones with orange and plum. The regular sake also won an award last year. For dinner we had kobe beef. Kobe beef is soo expensive because the fat is marbleized into the meat. They feed the cows sake and let them listen to classic music too.
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| Japan Day 3 |
Day 4:
We went to Nara park where they are tons and tons of deer. These deer just hang out around the temple and are considered to have the spirit of the forest within them. They were really cute and would even bow before we fed them. Then we headed over to Todaiji Temple. At the temple we saw the largest buddha housed in a wooden house. We then drove over to Kyoto to see the Nijo Castle.
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| Japan Day 4 |
Day 5:
We got to visit the Kyoto Imperial Palace. Kyoto was the original capital of Japan before it was moved to Tokyo. So we saw where the emperor stays when he's in Kyoto. We weren't allowed inside any of the buildings but took a tour around the compound. They did background checks on everyone before they were allowed to take part in the guided tour. We then headed over to the Nishijin Textile Center where we saw them make kimonos. I saw people drawing out the patterns then weaving it into cloth. There was a 15 minute kimono fashion show that was a bit cheesy and more modern. They kimonos didn't look super tradition and appeared to attempt to be fashionable. We had some free time around Gion and just took some pictures. I didn't really feel like buying much.
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| Japan Day 5 |
Day 6:
We went to Kameoka to take the Saggano Romantic Train. The train wasn't really romantic but it did show some pretty Japanese scenery. Then we were off to Arashiyama to go see a historical downtown. The day started out rainy and it wasn't that fun to constantly be walking around outside in the rain. I did get to see a really cool bamboo forest thou. We saw Kinkakuji temple which was a golden temple. I tried to get some good shots in while holding my umbrella. We walked around Shinsaibashi which felt very much like the night market shopping areas in Taiwan so I wasn't too impressed. I got some really cute knee high leggings thou.
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| Japan Day 6 |
[12/09/07] 49niners vs Vikings Football Game
Erik's PWC friends are big 49niner fans and bought tickets to the Minnesota Vikings game. Of course I had to root for the Vikings since Erik has loved them forever. I'm not that huge of a niners fan so I didn't really mind. We thought it would be freezing since it's at Monster park so we dressed really warm. That's why we both look like marshmallows in the picture below =P. The weather was actually really warm and we were pretty hot till the sun started setting.
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Tailgating
is great |
Taking
a break from drinking |
[12/07/07] PWC Xmas Party at the Tech Museum
Erik's xmas party was at the Tech Museum and had a Roaring 40s theme, so we decided to dress up as a mobster and flapper girl. The party was not bad although they definitely needed more food. To make up for the lack of food there was plenty of booze at all the open bars. I definitely wanted to drink more since I could feel my feet hurting. I really wanted to take the professional picture, so I made Erik wait in line with me for about 40 minutes.
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Flapper
girl and Mobster |
Erik
is so gangster |
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Deette
and Erik |
Letting
my feet rest a bit |