Jan. 1 New Years Day
So today, Leslie and I got up super early...well 7am, to go and catch the bus to go to the Formosan Aboriginal Village Cultural Theme Park in the next county. We got on the 8am bus and it took us 2 hours to get there. There were a bunch of young peoples going there as well. The place is located up in the mountains area, near Sun Moon Lake. SO it was a beautiful ride up to the park.
We got to the park and the first ride we went on was this knock off of Disneyland`s Space Tours. LOL It was soo old and so not exciting. But all the Taiwanese people were like OMG that was so crazy! lol Leslie and I just looked at each other and was like "what was that". =P Anyways, we then went in to the amusement center and rode the ever exciting carousel. And then rode the pirate ship which was so much fun actually. lol But again, the other peoples were like screaming and everything and only Leslie and I dared to hold our hands up. haha. We be brave cool girls. THen we rode the awesome knock off of Space Mountain where the inside was just totally all black and no lights or music and couldn`t see a thing. lol That was a fun ride though.
Then we walked a bit more towards the Formosan villages up the hill/mountain and saw some wonderful penis statues (see my pictures) and awesome aborigines. And we went further up to get onto the skyline/ropeway over to the Sun Moon Lake. The line was f-ing long that day. We waited a supposed 1 hour compared to the original 2 hours so we were lucky. So there was a kid that dared cut in front of us. And at first i was like, maybe he`s with the family behind us and just wants to see the carriages go up so I was fine with it, or he`s with the people in front of us. But then I remembered talking to the people in front of us and they were all couples and there`s no way they`ll take their siblings with them on a date trip, and the family behind us only had lil lil kids cuz I talked to them too. And I also saw him look back and smirk at people or friends in the back. So I was sure he was cutting. That one smirk gave it away. I asked him who he was with and he tried to lie to me and then I looked at him and gave a more severe "Say it louder" expression and he just shrank and wasn`t sure what to say. So I told him we were behind these couples and I don`t appreciate you cutting in front of us. I felt kinda mean, but alot of asian families and kids do this and I get soo annoyed and tired by this kinda thing and no one else saying anything that I take matters into my own hands and do it. bleh. Neways, The ropeways was awesome! Super high and freaky, but I kinda like high places, but going down was a lil freaky because the hill just drops below you and you`re floating via these ropes up on top.
So we get there, and the first thing I notice are all the hot guys standing around. That was nice. haha. But there was a shit load of people waiting to ride the gondola to the theme park. The lake was beautiful though! I wanted to stay there longer, but I didn`t want to miss the bus back home. So we left to get the bus, waited for an hour and a half for a supposed 15 minute wait only bus. It was stuck in ridiculous amounts of traffic because it was new years Day and everyone wanted to spend it on the beautiful lake. In the end us and these 5 other girls from Hong Kong decided to take a taxi together as it would cheapen the price becuase it was about $15 because we were on the other side of our destination. The girls were really cute htough and was surprised that I could speak cantonese to them. They weren`t expecting it and just though I was Taiwanese who could speak English. I get that here in Japan too. haha.
We get halfway and the taxi driver told us to get off and charged us just $12 because he has to go back and get the other peoples stuck there since the bus isn`t coming. In a way, it`s valiant of him and in another he just wants to make more money. lol So we walked on the lake trail back to the big bus stop that would pick us up to go to Taichung. It was a beautiful scene and I do want to go back to the lake and stay in the luxurious hotel with a lake view oneday. When I am rich and famous I will. For sure! So we finally got to the bus stop and found out that the 4:30 bus was super late and it was already 5pm. Come 6pm the 4:30 bus came to pick us up. Due to horrendous Taiwanese traffic, 1 hour later we arrived at the theme park to pick other people up. It`s supposed to only take like 15 minutes to get over there from the lake. I was worried about getting back to Taichung on time since we have to get my supervisor, but luckily we arrived in Taichung station without further incident, but since we arrived so late, everything was already closing so we ate at Subway. I hadn`t had a sandwhich in a long time, so it was nice.
The one guy who made the sandwhiches there was ridiculous hot! But I`m pretty sure he was a college kid. Which made me feel old. lol But he had an ear piercing and spoke English pretty well and that made him even hotter! So he fixed up our sandwhiches for us and we went upstairs to chill and eat them as we waited for my supervisor`s bus to get here. Come 10pm we headed over to the station to meet her. ANd as I expected, because she`s a Hokkaidian and Taiwanese weather in the winter is like summer in Hokkaido, she was wearing a t-shirt and jeans. haha. it was warm I have to say. Leslie thought so too, yet everyone was still dressed like it was Hokkaido in the winter. We caught one of the last trains back home and my aunt came to pick us up at the train station to go home.
We got home and Su absolutely loved the dogs! Hurray! Who wouldn`t? They`re fat and funny dogs. We settled in for the night and watched TV until like 3am and then went to sleep.
Jan. 2 Saturday
We woke up at 10am got dressed, drove over to my hospital, parked my car there, and walked up the stone stairs/hiking trail next to my hospital to Bagua Mt. It was a pleasant yet tiring walk up, but we made it in time for the morning market and bought lotsa foods and stuff. Then we went to see the Big Buddha. There were lotsa Vietnamese tour groups there and they kept saying hi to us because we were such an interesting group of peeople. lol It`s so hard explaining in Chinese to people who we were and where we`re from and our relationship with each other becasue that`s what they all seem to want to know. We`re all technically from Japan, but two of us are originally from America, one of us is studying abroad and one of us an English teacher, and the Japanese person is my supervisor/co-worker. It`s a mouthful. haha
We took lotsa pictures and I was able to eat my little conch shells snails in spicy soy sauce that I used to eat so much of when I was a kid. =P And I saw boiled ostrich eggs and goose eggs like EVERYWHERE! I wanted to buy an ostrich egg just to try eating it because it was so damn huge, but advised myself against wasting my money...lol We walked back down the hill to my car and drove to get delicious drinks. In the afternoon we went to buy stuff at Carrefour because they had stuff that Japan doesn`t, like American products for CHEAP! Ah, I missed these things. So we all bought a lot of stuff to take back to Japan to use. haha. At night we went to the nightmarket and bought and ate lotsa food (gaining 20 pounds and all). And afterwards we went to go get an awesome relaxing/painful massage for the whole body for just around $27! Woo! I felt very relaxed and dizzy afterwards though, i have to say. Su got herself a foot massage since she didn`t wanna get the full body one. The masseuse were very friendly and kept trying to talk to me, but talking to me while giving me a full body massage is dangerous, it`s already hard to breathe as it is and you want me to talk? But I will, cuz I`m trying to be friendly. ~~
We came back home at around 12pm (the massage place opens until 6am which made me kinda question it a little ^_~) and went to sleep because we had to catch another early bus in the morning to go to Taipei.
Jan. 3 Sunday
Got up and said goodbye to my family and dogs and left to go to Taipei. It`ll be my first real sightseeing trip there. hehe. So when we got there we first took the subway to get to the hotel which is supposedly located close to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. We got outside and i was amazed! The roads were soooooooo wide and big and clean compared to Taichung! But then again, we are in gov`t area. So stupide me, I forgot to write down the address of the hotel and only know the English name of it so we had a hard time trying to get the taxi drivers to take us there. But finally we found it as we drove along the roads. At least I knew what road it was on, just wasn`t sure of the exact location.
We got in the hotel and it was so fabulous and modern looking! Everything was contemporary modern art style and it was so oshare/fashionable. The beautiful ladies who worked at the desk spoke English as well, so it was easy for Su and leslie to understand. We couldn`t check in yet, so we just left our bags with them first and then went to see the President`s house. Obviously, you can`t go in because there were guards just everywhere so we stood outside, stared the guards down, and took pictures. Then we left. And off to the Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall. We originally wanted to go to the Palace Museum, but it was way too far away and would take us too long to get there and would deter us from seeing other things. So we decided against it and went to the Memorial Hall instead. It was a huge place! It also included the National Theater, the National Opera House, and the large courtyard upon which that day they had a special exhibit with a huge ass blown up Gulliver body which you can go inside to view the anatomy of a human.....it costs money, so we didn`t. heh. We then went to go see the Theater area, but you cant go in unless you have a ticket for a show. And finally we headed over to the memorial hall where just as we arrived they were doing changing of the guards.
Now that was cool. The guards looked hot and damn good in their uniforms as well as the body guards around them cuz they were wearing their black suits. =P I`m a sucker for men in suits and uniforms. I just like how they look, not necessarily who they are. Anyways, at the memorial hall there was a huge bronze statue of Chiang Kai Shek sitting on a chair much like the marble carved Pres. Lincoln in D.C. And then we went down the elevator to go check out the exhibits downstairs and found out that they were having a dinosaur exhibit. So we bought tickets for it and went in. Interesting, but not amazing. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel, checked in and found a fresh new condom on the table in the room. And immediately we were all like "Omg, is this a love hotel? And saw that the bathroom doors were made of transparent glass....and so was the shower stall. woooooooOoOo. And to make sure of it, we flipped on the TV to check if there was porn, but no, no porn. We still weren`t so sure, so we said we`ll wait until night to check out the TV to see if there is porn on.
Afterwards we jumped on a bus and headed over to the Taipei 101 building, the tallest building in the world (well that is until on Jan. 6th I read that Dubai`s bldg. is now the tallest). When we got on the bus I first asked the busdriver if this goes to Taipei 101 and he said yes. After my friends all sat down he motioned for me to come over, and he started talking to me. He was interested in who we were and found it interesting that I was like the tour group leader. haha. He was a cute young guy actually and really liked to talk to me. He recommended all sorts of places for us to go and helped me set up a sightseeing plan even though we were leaving the next day. I didn`t tell him that because I felt he really wanted to tell me these things so I let him talk like we were staying here for awhile. He even helped to tell us that we were at the stop for the Taipei 101 otherwise I would never have known.
On our way to the bldg we passed by a lot of hot young guys and I was wonderin why whenI noticed that there was a car convention going on in the bldg next to Taipei 101. We decided we would go after we went to Taipei 101 (which we didn`t end up going back to the convention). We got in, took the elevator up to the 5th floor to buy tickets to get up to the tower and realized how expensive they were. It costs $16 to go up in the world`s fastest elevator to the 89th floor. >.< So expensive, but we decided to go up since it was a once in a lifetime chance I suppose. Oh, and all the guards were kinda hot too. So filed in line and went into the elevator and the whole elevator turned dark and the ceiling lit up with shooting stars. You could also see how fast you were going and what floor you were on via the moving picture of the elvator going up the bldg. We got to the 89th floor in 37 seconds! Amazing!
The view from up here was amazing! And breathtaking. Althouhg we couldn`t see very much because of the fog since the air wasn`t so good today. But towards evening, since we stayed up there for a good 1-2hours we saw the lights of the city below and watched as the sky cleared up. It was magnificent. We even went to the 91st floor`s outdoor observatory so that we could brave the high winds and look over the rails to the world below. It was such a wonderful feeling! ^^ We then went back in and took pictures with all the cute lil Damper Babies (see pictures). They`re wind damper mascots, so they call them Damper Babies. I wanted one, but for lil figures they cost $6 and I didn`t want them that bad. Anyways, we then went off to the Shilin Night Market from there.
At the Shilin Night Market there were just hot guys EverYwhERE! I was ecstatic. haha. I bought lotsa heels cuz it`s cheap. I swear, the main things that I bought in Taiwan were the Taiwanese puppetry merchandise, food, and shoes. When we went to go eat Taiwanese shaved ice and I had to translate in English and Japanese (even though I realized that I could just speak one of the either since they both understood enough) and then back into mandarin/Taiwanese for the shopkeepers I sometimes would accidentally spill Japanese while speaking mandarin. And it kinda confused the people. haha. But I heard one of the workers talking later saying how I had to translate the Chinese first into Japanese then English then Japanese and back into Chinese again. lol I thought it was funny hearing him say that.
After buying stuffs we went back to the hotel cuz we didn`t want to miss the last train back and turned on the TV to find that there was porn on 3-4 channels!! YES! So we were in a love hotel!!! Woo! So we all sat around watching porn for a good 15 minutes because we were so fascinated by it. (Picture my supervisor, my friend Leslie, and I all sitting on the bed watching porn with fascinated faces. LOL =P) I have to say, the porn with story/plot in it was kinda interesting, while the other ones just were funny to watch. Anyways, we spent a wonderful night altogether on the king sized bed. The next morning Su and I left at 6am to catch a Taxi to the bus station that would take us to the airport to head on back to Hokkaido. Our plane, btw, was extremely small and only had 31 rows dude. lol But no incidences. Everything was good and calm.
And that is the end of my wonderful 9 day Taiwan vacation. Otsukare! My pictures are all posted, so take a look if you`d like! Love you all!
Showing posts with label Taiwan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Taiwan. Show all posts
Monday, January 11, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
More Taiwan!
Dec. 28th Monday
So today was a day of maintenance. I was able to borrow my uncle`s old car to drive Leslie and I around, but it took me a lil while to get used to driving on the other side again. The car was a cute lil burgundy Nissan Verita. I loved it. It was just a little bit hard to drive. So we went morning shopping for things. I bought some fake nails to glue onto my fingers because I missed having my nails decorated/blinged out like a gyaru`s nail. It makes your hand just so much more interesting. haha. The nails were pink with light pink and white sparkly criss-cross designs at the tip and on some of them there were acrylic white flowers and fake diamonds. It was sooo cute! (Check out my pics) But sadly they only lasted a day. ;_; Then we went to go buy some milk tea, after all, we`re in the land that created it and boba and all. I missed it hardcore because it`s so damn good here. So I ordered my sweet mung bean drink from my favorite store. I love the place. We also bought some awesome popcorn chicken and Taiwanese tempura. Oh man I missed this. Street food bought from vendors is the best. And I knew from that day I was gonna be gaining a hell of a lot of weight. Actually, I knew before I went to Taiwan that I was gonna become fatter and eat from day to night. Cuz that`s what you do in Taiwan. Eat and shop.
In the afternoon we went looking for a hair salon cuz Leslie wanted to get her hair dyed and cut and I decided to get a hair treatment. After getting lost 5 times and almost hitting a rogue moped driver (I swear, moped drivers are freakin crazy and reckless in Taiwan. Oh, and there`s no concept of pedestrians here.) we found a cool looking place with young people who work in there. And there was one ikemen guy in there. So at first it was a lady who was talking to both me and Leslie, but when I asked her about the hair treatment stuff she called over the treatment specialist who turned out to be that hot guy. I was like "no way, oh man. I`m gonna have a heart attack" lol. So he touched my hair and after asking him what was best, I decided to go along with his recommendation. He took me over to the washing basin and started to wash my hair. Along with the hair wash was the most amazing head massage EVER! Damn it felt good! His hands were like magic! Leslie said I was there for a good 10-15 minutes and said that he must`ve liked me enough to massage for that long, kya! Yeah, it did feel like a long time, but I enjoyed every second of it. >D Leslie got her hair dyed a beautiful burgundy red color and my hair felt soft and silky aftewards.
We went back home ate some wonderful Taiwanese hot pot with lamb and then left to go to the night market for some shopping. I got there and ate food again....lol Then came back home to play with my doggies. Oh, and it was only 16 degrees C outside but people here were sporting thick winter hokkaido style jackets. I was like WTF? It`s warm outside! But then again, I have gotten used to Hokkaido weather.
Dec. 29th Tuesday
So today we went to Taichung!! Yay! Took the train over. Actually we woke up at around 11am and watched some TV and ate lunch before heading over to Taichung. ehehe. So our goal today was to watch Avatar in 3D. We went over to ShinkongSanye or Mitsukoshi and watched the 2pm showing. It was soooooooooooooo GOOOD! Watch it peoples if you haven`t watched it! The story is pretty typical, but it`s the graphics that you have to watch it for. It`s beautiful, like ridiculous beautiful. And it really is like a pocahontas story. =P Anyways, afterwards we went to the Taichung Fengjia Night Market to shop and eat dinner. We just went to eat alot of stuff sold by the vendors, got some mega long ice cream, ate stinky tofu, and drank Indonesian pulled tea which was manned by this hot looking in-man`s-clothes-girl. There`s a lot of them here in Taiwan. I believe they`re lesbians. But I think they`re terribly hot and sexy. I`d totally go for them because they just look soooo good. They`re girls who dress up like guys, act and walk like guys, and do their hair like a guys. I actually have a couple friends like them and I think they`re hot! And they usually always have some really hot girl with them too, maybe their gf? Anyways, Taiwanese lesbian couples are hot hot hot. >D
We had a wonderful evening and caught a taxi back to get one of the last trains back home.
Dec. 30th Wednesday
Today is Lugang day. Lugang is the second oldest city in Taiwan and its chocked full of historical stuff and old alleys. It`s also very Buddhist. Lugang translated into English means deer alley, but I didn`t see any deer. Anyways, the meat buns here are the most famous and this is about the only place you can get dragon whiskers candy. It is made from sugar spun into thin strings so they look like whiskers and they wrap them around sesame or peanut powder so it looks like a cocoon of sorts. I love it and missed this as well. I went to the temple to do some praying because I haven`t done so in a while. I did the usual thing then went out to buy some wonderous mini deep fried shrimp. Then we walked around the old alleys where there were vendors everywhere and we bought liquid molasses candy that are in bags with sticks sticking out of them closed off with a rubber band so that the liquid cant flow out. You cut off the tip of the bag at the top and start sucking out the molasses. It`s super sticky but not extremely sweet, just perfect. Walked around a bit more and then went on back home late evening. I also bought mung bean and milk powder cakes. Lugang is also the only place for these things. Anywas, getting back home we were pretty tired from the days excitment but still went to the Changhwa night market inmy town. And there we bought papaya milk and ate more foods. Yup that`s all you do here.
Dec. 31st Thursday
Spent the day in Taichung again. Just chillin and shoppin and then went to the Sogo Dept store for a nice New Years Eve dinner. We ate at California Skylark. I ordered a nice 3 course steak meal and Leslie ordered a four course one. Appetizer was a shrimp and mushroom grill. Soup was puff pastry chicken cream soup. Entree was steer steak and chicken nuggets on a teppan plate. And my drink was fruit tea with an assortment of cut fruits floating around inside. It was delicious! We then went home and went upstairs to the roof to watch the fireworks at midnight to bring in the new year. Woo 2010!
So today was a day of maintenance. I was able to borrow my uncle`s old car to drive Leslie and I around, but it took me a lil while to get used to driving on the other side again. The car was a cute lil burgundy Nissan Verita. I loved it. It was just a little bit hard to drive. So we went morning shopping for things. I bought some fake nails to glue onto my fingers because I missed having my nails decorated/blinged out like a gyaru`s nail. It makes your hand just so much more interesting. haha. The nails were pink with light pink and white sparkly criss-cross designs at the tip and on some of them there were acrylic white flowers and fake diamonds. It was sooo cute! (Check out my pics) But sadly they only lasted a day. ;_; Then we went to go buy some milk tea, after all, we`re in the land that created it and boba and all. I missed it hardcore because it`s so damn good here. So I ordered my sweet mung bean drink from my favorite store. I love the place. We also bought some awesome popcorn chicken and Taiwanese tempura. Oh man I missed this. Street food bought from vendors is the best. And I knew from that day I was gonna be gaining a hell of a lot of weight. Actually, I knew before I went to Taiwan that I was gonna become fatter and eat from day to night. Cuz that`s what you do in Taiwan. Eat and shop.
In the afternoon we went looking for a hair salon cuz Leslie wanted to get her hair dyed and cut and I decided to get a hair treatment. After getting lost 5 times and almost hitting a rogue moped driver (I swear, moped drivers are freakin crazy and reckless in Taiwan. Oh, and there`s no concept of pedestrians here.) we found a cool looking place with young people who work in there. And there was one ikemen guy in there. So at first it was a lady who was talking to both me and Leslie, but when I asked her about the hair treatment stuff she called over the treatment specialist who turned out to be that hot guy. I was like "no way, oh man. I`m gonna have a heart attack" lol. So he touched my hair and after asking him what was best, I decided to go along with his recommendation. He took me over to the washing basin and started to wash my hair. Along with the hair wash was the most amazing head massage EVER! Damn it felt good! His hands were like magic! Leslie said I was there for a good 10-15 minutes and said that he must`ve liked me enough to massage for that long, kya! Yeah, it did feel like a long time, but I enjoyed every second of it. >D Leslie got her hair dyed a beautiful burgundy red color and my hair felt soft and silky aftewards.
We went back home ate some wonderful Taiwanese hot pot with lamb and then left to go to the night market for some shopping. I got there and ate food again....lol Then came back home to play with my doggies. Oh, and it was only 16 degrees C outside but people here were sporting thick winter hokkaido style jackets. I was like WTF? It`s warm outside! But then again, I have gotten used to Hokkaido weather.
Dec. 29th Tuesday
So today we went to Taichung!! Yay! Took the train over. Actually we woke up at around 11am and watched some TV and ate lunch before heading over to Taichung. ehehe. So our goal today was to watch Avatar in 3D. We went over to ShinkongSanye or Mitsukoshi and watched the 2pm showing. It was soooooooooooooo GOOOD! Watch it peoples if you haven`t watched it! The story is pretty typical, but it`s the graphics that you have to watch it for. It`s beautiful, like ridiculous beautiful. And it really is like a pocahontas story. =P Anyways, afterwards we went to the Taichung Fengjia Night Market to shop and eat dinner. We just went to eat alot of stuff sold by the vendors, got some mega long ice cream, ate stinky tofu, and drank Indonesian pulled tea which was manned by this hot looking in-man`s-clothes-girl. There`s a lot of them here in Taiwan. I believe they`re lesbians. But I think they`re terribly hot and sexy. I`d totally go for them because they just look soooo good. They`re girls who dress up like guys, act and walk like guys, and do their hair like a guys. I actually have a couple friends like them and I think they`re hot! And they usually always have some really hot girl with them too, maybe their gf? Anyways, Taiwanese lesbian couples are hot hot hot. >D
We had a wonderful evening and caught a taxi back to get one of the last trains back home.
Dec. 30th Wednesday
Today is Lugang day. Lugang is the second oldest city in Taiwan and its chocked full of historical stuff and old alleys. It`s also very Buddhist. Lugang translated into English means deer alley, but I didn`t see any deer. Anyways, the meat buns here are the most famous and this is about the only place you can get dragon whiskers candy. It is made from sugar spun into thin strings so they look like whiskers and they wrap them around sesame or peanut powder so it looks like a cocoon of sorts. I love it and missed this as well. I went to the temple to do some praying because I haven`t done so in a while. I did the usual thing then went out to buy some wonderous mini deep fried shrimp. Then we walked around the old alleys where there were vendors everywhere and we bought liquid molasses candy that are in bags with sticks sticking out of them closed off with a rubber band so that the liquid cant flow out. You cut off the tip of the bag at the top and start sucking out the molasses. It`s super sticky but not extremely sweet, just perfect. Walked around a bit more and then went on back home late evening. I also bought mung bean and milk powder cakes. Lugang is also the only place for these things. Anywas, getting back home we were pretty tired from the days excitment but still went to the Changhwa night market inmy town. And there we bought papaya milk and ate more foods. Yup that`s all you do here.
Dec. 31st Thursday
Spent the day in Taichung again. Just chillin and shoppin and then went to the Sogo Dept store for a nice New Years Eve dinner. We ate at California Skylark. I ordered a nice 3 course steak meal and Leslie ordered a four course one. Appetizer was a shrimp and mushroom grill. Soup was puff pastry chicken cream soup. Entree was steer steak and chicken nuggets on a teppan plate. And my drink was fruit tea with an assortment of cut fruits floating around inside. It was delicious! We then went home and went upstairs to the roof to watch the fireworks at midnight to bring in the new year. Woo 2010!
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Christmas and Taiwan!
Dec. 25th Friday, Christmas Day and Elementary Bounenkai
So after a fun day at the elementary with the kids today (I had absolutely no classes whatsoever) there was the bounenkai for the elementary staff. Ueno-sensei was still as oshare/fashionable as ever with her Vivien Westwood clothes and bag. I love this teacher, we have the same tastes in wierd things like Rilakkuma/Mameshiba/and Vivien Westwood. Noso-sensei (whom I also adore cuz she`s such a sweet teacher) drove us over to the ryoukan where the bounenkai was held. This ryoukan was in like a back alley area where I`ve never seen before and it was old, but had a very Japanese rusticness about it.
So when we got into the room we had to pick a piece of paper that matched where we would sit. At the elementary and middle school there is no heirarchy seating. It is all based upon chance and matching, which is pretty cool cuz you get to sit next to people you`ve never sat near before. So I got a picture with a Prius on it and sat down with Tanaka-sensei (the nurse) to my right. And then I heard a "Yes we can" from behind me and saw Mr. Wonderful sit down to my left. Now, this is not the first time we`ve sat in proximity together actually. The first time was the welcome party for me and him so they had us sit next to each other, him on my right. The second time we sat diagonal from each other. And now he drew the picture that matched the one to my left. Each time we drew pictures we somehow ended up getting seats near each other or next to each other. Could it be....fate? lol Not getting my hopes up though. ^_~ Anyways, he looked soooo good in his black suit and he also had black leather gloves and a black long coat. In fact, he kinda looked like a host it was so hot. Serious. I wasn`t the only one who thought that either. One of the other male teacher was also wearing a suit and going around pouring beer for everyone and Kikuchi-sensei was like "You look like a host" And then the other teachers chimed in and said "But Mr. Wonderful looks just like one." And I was sitting next to him so I was like does that mean I`m like his client? =P He was hot that night I have to say.
Anyways, Mr. Wonderful and I had wonderful talks about stuff and he told me all about Fuji-san and the cave underneath it. I would love to do those things. I have a penchance for adventures and exploration. hehe. Anyways the dinner was wonderful! It was Hokkaido`s famous kegani/hairy crab, baked scallops, kobe steak salad, chawanmushi, hamachi (fish), and oyako-don (salmon and salmon roe rice). SOOOOO Good! And then to end it, the 5th grade teacher did a presentation on the big 10 news of the year. One of them was me coming to the school and he also had a special thank you for me for teaching the kids fun games and doing wierd gestures so the kids will remember the vocab. Hehe, I felt happy and glowy. Then we went to go to nijikai at an all you can drink bar place for 90 minutes. Upon aftewards we went home via taxi or the vice principal`s car. I should`ve gone home via the vp`s car because then I could`ve sat with Mr. Wonderful!! >.< But it`s okay, the taxi was a nice ride and I was able to talk to my 5th grade teacher more. He paid for the whole taxi ride which cost $30!!! I insisted on paying for half of it, but he paid for the whole thing instead! Dude! I owe him one.
Anyways, I went home, packed, and barely slept cuz I was happy and excited that i get to finally get out of the snow and everything so that I can go and visit family in Taiwan. Ah, warm Taiwan.
Dec. 26th Saturday
So I got there on time and everything (which btw, I now hate the Chitose Airport`s international flight section because the lines are so ridiculously long and not enough counters and stuff and only one security check which ended up causing the long ass lines) and got on the plane at 3pm which it was supposed to take off at 3:45pm. And we ended up taxi-ing on the plane until 7pm.........yes...It was definitely not going to take off. And what`s worse was that there were about 4 tour groups all from Singapore on the plane in the seats near me. Luckily for me, no one sat next to me and I had a window and aisle seat open, so I spread myself on there. But the tour group was all around me and complained alot and were loud and annoying.
I have to say, no offense to anyone because I`m actually also one and so are my parents, but many (not everyone) Asian people from China and southeast Asia just have no consideration for those around them. And this always annoyed me. Everytime. I think that maybe only Japanese people don`t annoy me as much. At least they kind of have the courtesy to take in consideration for those around them. Seriously, I had tour group families sit in front of me and behind me and they would just crowd around the area talking loudly to each other, making an abundance of complaints, and actually crowding into my seat area. I was like `dude, I sit here and you`re leaning all over my chair and getting all up in my space yo!` I kinda felt sorry for the non tour group families sitting around because they also had to endure the same thing. I also felt bad for the flight attendants because they were trying their hardest to calm everyone down but everyone was complaining that it was their fault! It isn`t! It`s the weather! What did you expect from Hokkaido in the winter? Happy sunflowers and coconut trees under a beautiful blue sky?!!
I was sooo annoyed and I could tell that the flight attendants were too! I`d totally want to punch someone if they kept coming to complain to me about the plane not taking off. I`d rather sit in the plane for a couple hours than have the plane take off in the blizzard, slip on black ice somewhere during take-off and have a fiery crash. And it wasn`t just our flight either. 4 other flights sheduled to take off around the same time were also delayed. The main problem was that they couldn`t get the 2 main runways cleared of all the snow and ice in time for us to leave. It was reasonable because if you looked outside you`d understand. And I do understand that many of the tour groups had to catch a connecting flight to Singapore from Taiwan and were frustrated that they`d miss their flight, but I`m sure the airport will organize something since you paid all that money and you have to get home somehow. But complaining like that will get you nowhere under these circumstances. At least the mother who sat in front of me apologized for the situation with everyone complaining and crowding around me. She actually helped me a couple times because maybe she felt bad for all the disturbances. But they still continued.
But just fyi, that was not the first time I experienced this. Everytime I get on the plane to Taiwan or from Taiwan back to America, Taiwanese and southeast asian families/groups always annoyed me because they were so loud and loved to complain about everything and paid no heed to courtesy. I`m Taiwanese and Southeast Asian, but I have to say out of all the Asians on planes or in groups, they annoy me the most. Sorry, but my Mom is the same way and she`s Southeast Asian, I love her and all but her friends and her really annoy me when they get together and stuff like that because it's basically the same as the above; my Dad`s Taiwanese, but he`s really not that bad. Just please please please take in consideration those around you, don`t be stupid and let others think so of you, and first try to understand why things are happening the way they are before you make judgements and complaints. If you do so, other people won`t make rash judgements on you, maybe won`t dislike you, and be a little more open to your feelings. Because all I could think about during that time was not how I had to wait for so long on the plane (cuz I`d really rather be safe than sorry) but of how annoyed I was with the tour groups around me!!!! I don`t know, maybe I`ve been living in sweet polite (maybe fake?) Japan for so long or am pretty Americanized (where space and courtesy is well enforced otherwise you`d get your ass kicked) that these things annoyed me soo much.
Anyways, sorry for the long rant on the plane tour groups stuff. I was just terribly annoyed and couldn`t really do anything about it because I was the lone person in the section with all the tour groups and I didn`t want to get ganged up on if I said anything or ruin my teacher`s reputation. bah. I kinda feel like a coward now and stupid for not saying anything. But ah well. The flight ended up being cancelled until the next morning and so the airport/airline provided hotel rooms for us to stay in. And I have to say, I totally didn`t mind the flight being cancelled because these rooms were serious nice! They were huge! I told them I was just by myself, but they gave me a double sized bedroom! The hotel was called Classe Hotel, sits on top of a hill, and it just opened in August. It was a beautiful hot springs spa hotel and would probably cost 100-something a night to stay (luckily free for us). The view from my room was spectacular. I could see mountains and distant city lights. My bathroom was gigantic with so much space in the middle of it I wasn`t sure what to do with it. haha. I had a vanity as well! The only thing is we arrived at around 1am when the hot springs were closed. So no chance for that. But I took full advantage of the room for the night. hehe.
Dec. 27th Sunday
The bus came to pick all of us passengers up to get over to the airport in the morning after a splendid free breakfast buffet. This wonderful Taiwanese couple from last night who helped me get a room when I was confused with what was going on (because all I could hear was complaining and all the airport people were being bombarded by the complainees that I couldn`t really get a chance to talk to them about what was happening) also were with me so I made new friends. They came to Hokkaido to tour on their own without a group. (Like I said, not all Taiwanese/Southeast Asian people are annoying, some are pretty nice) They helped me along and everything and I was able to get on the 11:30 flight to Taiwan, same seats and everything. Again, I spread myself over the two seats I had free. Woo. I finally watched District 9 on the plane! It was good!
I arrived and got through customs at 4:30pm and waited around for Leslie to arrive from Tokyo at around 5pm. And boy was I so glad to see her! I missed seeing my friends from back home and seeing her was a wave of exhiliration and relief. I`m finally with my old friends and family again. I missed them so terribly much. Oh, btw, Fahrenheit is Taiwan`s representative, like how Rain is for Korea. I saw their life sized cutouts welcoming me in Taiwan immediately upon entering the arrivals hall. lol We both caught a bus over to Taichung and had a wonderful fun talk which I haven`t done in a while on the way over. My aunt and uncle came to pick us up at the Taichung bus stop and then we went back to the house. Upon arriving I was so happy to see my 2 wonderful dogs, Kin-chan and Bobby. I missed them soo much! They got skinnier!...I think. Anyways, my grandma was happy to see me as I was her. I missed Taiwan and I missed my family. Actually, it was a pretty funny change from seeing the white covered winterland of Hokkaido to seeing the still lush moist green fields of Taiwan. I was like, man, I don`t need my jacket. And indeed I really didn`t. It was not cold whatsoever. Well, to us Hokkaidians and the one from Tokyo. The coldest it got was 13 degrees C and it was mainly 17-18 degrees C most of the time. So I actually got hot on some days.
So Happy New Years to all and I will write more on Taiwan later! Peace! Oh! And, pics are all up. All 300 of them! So check out my old updated album and my 3 new ones! My kids are all in them as well!
So after a fun day at the elementary with the kids today (I had absolutely no classes whatsoever) there was the bounenkai for the elementary staff. Ueno-sensei was still as oshare/fashionable as ever with her Vivien Westwood clothes and bag. I love this teacher, we have the same tastes in wierd things like Rilakkuma/Mameshiba/and Vivien Westwood. Noso-sensei (whom I also adore cuz she`s such a sweet teacher) drove us over to the ryoukan where the bounenkai was held. This ryoukan was in like a back alley area where I`ve never seen before and it was old, but had a very Japanese rusticness about it.
So when we got into the room we had to pick a piece of paper that matched where we would sit. At the elementary and middle school there is no heirarchy seating. It is all based upon chance and matching, which is pretty cool cuz you get to sit next to people you`ve never sat near before. So I got a picture with a Prius on it and sat down with Tanaka-sensei (the nurse) to my right. And then I heard a "Yes we can" from behind me and saw Mr. Wonderful sit down to my left. Now, this is not the first time we`ve sat in proximity together actually. The first time was the welcome party for me and him so they had us sit next to each other, him on my right. The second time we sat diagonal from each other. And now he drew the picture that matched the one to my left. Each time we drew pictures we somehow ended up getting seats near each other or next to each other. Could it be....fate? lol Not getting my hopes up though. ^_~ Anyways, he looked soooo good in his black suit and he also had black leather gloves and a black long coat. In fact, he kinda looked like a host it was so hot. Serious. I wasn`t the only one who thought that either. One of the other male teacher was also wearing a suit and going around pouring beer for everyone and Kikuchi-sensei was like "You look like a host" And then the other teachers chimed in and said "But Mr. Wonderful looks just like one." And I was sitting next to him so I was like does that mean I`m like his client? =P He was hot that night I have to say.
Anyways, Mr. Wonderful and I had wonderful talks about stuff and he told me all about Fuji-san and the cave underneath it. I would love to do those things. I have a penchance for adventures and exploration. hehe. Anyways the dinner was wonderful! It was Hokkaido`s famous kegani/hairy crab, baked scallops, kobe steak salad, chawanmushi, hamachi (fish), and oyako-don (salmon and salmon roe rice). SOOOOO Good! And then to end it, the 5th grade teacher did a presentation on the big 10 news of the year. One of them was me coming to the school and he also had a special thank you for me for teaching the kids fun games and doing wierd gestures so the kids will remember the vocab. Hehe, I felt happy and glowy. Then we went to go to nijikai at an all you can drink bar place for 90 minutes. Upon aftewards we went home via taxi or the vice principal`s car. I should`ve gone home via the vp`s car because then I could`ve sat with Mr. Wonderful!! >.< But it`s okay, the taxi was a nice ride and I was able to talk to my 5th grade teacher more. He paid for the whole taxi ride which cost $30!!! I insisted on paying for half of it, but he paid for the whole thing instead! Dude! I owe him one.
Anyways, I went home, packed, and barely slept cuz I was happy and excited that i get to finally get out of the snow and everything so that I can go and visit family in Taiwan. Ah, warm Taiwan.
Dec. 26th Saturday
So I got there on time and everything (which btw, I now hate the Chitose Airport`s international flight section because the lines are so ridiculously long and not enough counters and stuff and only one security check which ended up causing the long ass lines) and got on the plane at 3pm which it was supposed to take off at 3:45pm. And we ended up taxi-ing on the plane until 7pm.........yes...It was definitely not going to take off. And what`s worse was that there were about 4 tour groups all from Singapore on the plane in the seats near me. Luckily for me, no one sat next to me and I had a window and aisle seat open, so I spread myself on there. But the tour group was all around me and complained alot and were loud and annoying.
I have to say, no offense to anyone because I`m actually also one and so are my parents, but many (not everyone) Asian people from China and southeast Asia just have no consideration for those around them. And this always annoyed me. Everytime. I think that maybe only Japanese people don`t annoy me as much. At least they kind of have the courtesy to take in consideration for those around them. Seriously, I had tour group families sit in front of me and behind me and they would just crowd around the area talking loudly to each other, making an abundance of complaints, and actually crowding into my seat area. I was like `dude, I sit here and you`re leaning all over my chair and getting all up in my space yo!` I kinda felt sorry for the non tour group families sitting around because they also had to endure the same thing. I also felt bad for the flight attendants because they were trying their hardest to calm everyone down but everyone was complaining that it was their fault! It isn`t! It`s the weather! What did you expect from Hokkaido in the winter? Happy sunflowers and coconut trees under a beautiful blue sky?!!
I was sooo annoyed and I could tell that the flight attendants were too! I`d totally want to punch someone if they kept coming to complain to me about the plane not taking off. I`d rather sit in the plane for a couple hours than have the plane take off in the blizzard, slip on black ice somewhere during take-off and have a fiery crash. And it wasn`t just our flight either. 4 other flights sheduled to take off around the same time were also delayed. The main problem was that they couldn`t get the 2 main runways cleared of all the snow and ice in time for us to leave. It was reasonable because if you looked outside you`d understand. And I do understand that many of the tour groups had to catch a connecting flight to Singapore from Taiwan and were frustrated that they`d miss their flight, but I`m sure the airport will organize something since you paid all that money and you have to get home somehow. But complaining like that will get you nowhere under these circumstances. At least the mother who sat in front of me apologized for the situation with everyone complaining and crowding around me. She actually helped me a couple times because maybe she felt bad for all the disturbances. But they still continued.
But just fyi, that was not the first time I experienced this. Everytime I get on the plane to Taiwan or from Taiwan back to America, Taiwanese and southeast asian families/groups always annoyed me because they were so loud and loved to complain about everything and paid no heed to courtesy. I`m Taiwanese and Southeast Asian, but I have to say out of all the Asians on planes or in groups, they annoy me the most. Sorry, but my Mom is the same way and she`s Southeast Asian, I love her and all but her friends and her really annoy me when they get together and stuff like that because it's basically the same as the above; my Dad`s Taiwanese, but he`s really not that bad. Just please please please take in consideration those around you, don`t be stupid and let others think so of you, and first try to understand why things are happening the way they are before you make judgements and complaints. If you do so, other people won`t make rash judgements on you, maybe won`t dislike you, and be a little more open to your feelings. Because all I could think about during that time was not how I had to wait for so long on the plane (cuz I`d really rather be safe than sorry) but of how annoyed I was with the tour groups around me!!!! I don`t know, maybe I`ve been living in sweet polite (maybe fake?) Japan for so long or am pretty Americanized (where space and courtesy is well enforced otherwise you`d get your ass kicked) that these things annoyed me soo much.
Anyways, sorry for the long rant on the plane tour groups stuff. I was just terribly annoyed and couldn`t really do anything about it because I was the lone person in the section with all the tour groups and I didn`t want to get ganged up on if I said anything or ruin my teacher`s reputation. bah. I kinda feel like a coward now and stupid for not saying anything. But ah well. The flight ended up being cancelled until the next morning and so the airport/airline provided hotel rooms for us to stay in. And I have to say, I totally didn`t mind the flight being cancelled because these rooms were serious nice! They were huge! I told them I was just by myself, but they gave me a double sized bedroom! The hotel was called Classe Hotel, sits on top of a hill, and it just opened in August. It was a beautiful hot springs spa hotel and would probably cost 100-something a night to stay (luckily free for us). The view from my room was spectacular. I could see mountains and distant city lights. My bathroom was gigantic with so much space in the middle of it I wasn`t sure what to do with it. haha. I had a vanity as well! The only thing is we arrived at around 1am when the hot springs were closed. So no chance for that. But I took full advantage of the room for the night. hehe.
Dec. 27th Sunday
The bus came to pick all of us passengers up to get over to the airport in the morning after a splendid free breakfast buffet. This wonderful Taiwanese couple from last night who helped me get a room when I was confused with what was going on (because all I could hear was complaining and all the airport people were being bombarded by the complainees that I couldn`t really get a chance to talk to them about what was happening) also were with me so I made new friends. They came to Hokkaido to tour on their own without a group. (Like I said, not all Taiwanese/Southeast Asian people are annoying, some are pretty nice) They helped me along and everything and I was able to get on the 11:30 flight to Taiwan, same seats and everything. Again, I spread myself over the two seats I had free. Woo. I finally watched District 9 on the plane! It was good!
I arrived and got through customs at 4:30pm and waited around for Leslie to arrive from Tokyo at around 5pm. And boy was I so glad to see her! I missed seeing my friends from back home and seeing her was a wave of exhiliration and relief. I`m finally with my old friends and family again. I missed them so terribly much. Oh, btw, Fahrenheit is Taiwan`s representative, like how Rain is for Korea. I saw their life sized cutouts welcoming me in Taiwan immediately upon entering the arrivals hall. lol We both caught a bus over to Taichung and had a wonderful fun talk which I haven`t done in a while on the way over. My aunt and uncle came to pick us up at the Taichung bus stop and then we went back to the house. Upon arriving I was so happy to see my 2 wonderful dogs, Kin-chan and Bobby. I missed them soo much! They got skinnier!...I think. Anyways, my grandma was happy to see me as I was her. I missed Taiwan and I missed my family. Actually, it was a pretty funny change from seeing the white covered winterland of Hokkaido to seeing the still lush moist green fields of Taiwan. I was like, man, I don`t need my jacket. And indeed I really didn`t. It was not cold whatsoever. Well, to us Hokkaidians and the one from Tokyo. The coldest it got was 13 degrees C and it was mainly 17-18 degrees C most of the time. So I actually got hot on some days.
So Happy New Years to all and I will write more on Taiwan later! Peace! Oh! And, pics are all up. All 300 of them! So check out my old updated album and my 3 new ones! My kids are all in them as well!
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