Colette's experience in Nihon: July 2005

The Moriyama Fire Festival

In January, the city of Moriyama has a Fire Festival. Drunk men wearing barely anything (remember it's January and freezing!) carry HUGE straw torches throughout the town. They bring these torches to a temple where they arrange them in a circle and then light them on fire. When I was there, I saw some guys climb on top of the burning torches. They would then jump off when they got hit by the burning ashes. Idiots I tell you. For all you pyro fans, this is definitely the festival for you.

Straw torches were placed in front of this temple.

What the torches looked like.

A close up view of one of the torches.

Nearly clad men bring a straw torch into the temple grounds.

They arrange the torches in a circle in the middle of the temple grounds.

The torches slowly catch on fire.

Let the mother F***** burn.

Burn Mother F@%**#.

Burn!

One guy tries to climb on top of the burning torch.

Ichi, ni, san...they count in time to pick up the large torch.

A group of guys tries to pick up the large straw torch, still burning mind you, to haul it away from the temple grounds.

As the large bales of straw were taken away, people tried to light the remaining stalks on fire.

My Trip to Taiwan

During my Christmas break, I was able to visit my friend Davis and his family for 10 days. It was nice to be able to see a different part of Asia and after having been to Taiwan I can tell you that it is a lot different than Japan. It was weird for me to hear a language that was different than Japanese. I can now distinguish when someone is talking in Japanese or Chinese. They are completely different languages. I think learning Chinese is even harder because there are all these different tones that you have to pronounce. The only thing that is similar about the two languages is that they both use kanji and that's only because the Japanese borrowed it from the Chinese. Even though I was in a completely different country with different customs, I still found myself doing some "Japanese" things like bowing or saying sumimasen when I accidentally bumped into someone. One of the nice things about going to Taiwan during X-mas was that it was hot, especially down south. I was also glad that I was able to see different parts of Taiwan from the southern tip to the northern countryside. It was also nice not being stared at. When I'm in Japan I get stared at almost everyday. Sometimes it seems like the Japanese have never seen a white girl before. It kind of gets annoying after awhile. In Taipei, however, I didn't get stared at. I think because it's more of an international city. So thank you Davis for being my tour guide and of course for all of your translations!

On the night before I left, Davis said that he was going to stay up and help me pack. Yeah right!

Taiwan's Temples

Although Taiwan has freedom of religion, the common Chinese religions include Buddhism, Taoism, and folk beliefs. Taiwan's temples are also quite ornate compared to Japanese temples. The one temple I saw in Taiwan had intricate dragons carved onto the pillars and incense burner. There were also huge floor length candles that were lit.

Outside one of Taiwan's temples.

A view of inside the temple.

Some of the large floor length candles that were burning.

The National Palace Museum

The National Palace Museum in Taipei houses some of the worlds best examples of Chinese artifacts. The treasures were originally held in the Forbidden City in Beijing. During the war, however, the extensive collection was transferred to numerous cities to avoid destruction. The artifacts were finally relocated to Taiwan in 1945. The museum opened in 1965 and has over 620,000 Chinese artifacts ranging from calligraphy and pottery to jade. Some pieces date back to 3000 BC. Since the collection is so large, only a few thousand pieces are displayed at a time. The rest are stored in huge underground vaults that are carved into the mountain side. I wasn't allowed to take any pictures inside the museum, so if you want to see the elaborate collection you'll have to go to Taiwan. :)

The National Palace Museum.

A close up view.

Me on the front steps to the museum.

Davis and I in front of the entrance to the museum.

HAPPY 2005!

For New Years, Davis and I went to a bar in downtown Taipei where we met some of his friends. They had rented out a private room, but there still weren't enough seats for everyone. After a night of drinking, we decided to go to another bar. However, by the time we actually got a taxi (the subway had already stopped working for the night and it took us over an hour just to get a cab) it was close to 4 AM. By this time, everyone decided to not go to the other bar, but instead to just go home and crash.

The subway was packed as we headed downtown to celebrate New Year's Eve.

Happy New Year!

Davis with his crew.

Yehliu

After we got back from our trip down South, Davis, his dad, and I headed up North to Yehliu. This is a famous area for its unique rock formations. The sandstone contained in this area has been carved out by wind and water erosion to create some interesting shaped rocks. Unlike down South, it was really cold and windy up North.

A view of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan's Northern coastline.