Taipei, Taiwan

My second stop of my trip to Asia was the northern Taiwan city of Taipei. Nestled between five mountain ranges, the city sits in a basin and is transected by four rivers. Of course, with the mountains there are tunnels and with the rivers there are bridges…resembling my hometown of Pittsburgh.
That is where the similarity ends. Taipei is densely populated making land extremely precious. As a result, they build up.  The new highway is high above the other roads and most of the new construction is tall….like Taipei 101 which I believe gets its name because it is 101 stories tall. Mixed in with these modern architectural wonders are the historical sites and evidence of their Chinese culture.

For example, the National Palace Museum houses numerous Chinese artifacts such as jade carvings. Most of the carvings take on the form of an animal or plant such as the famous Jadeite cabbage, one of the most popular and impressive pieces in the museum. I was stunned to see jade earrings and a tubular jade necklace dating back to 6000 B.C. I also learned that Chinese calligraphy was a form of artistic expression using the same fundamentals as painting.  Another exhibit A Garland of Treasures featured a group of small but precious artifacts such as curio boxes called the "toy chests of the emperor" used in the daily life of the imperial court.

The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall was completed in 1980 to honor the former President. The large blue and white monument is impressive in stature. Inside is a sculpture of the leader, flanked by two guards. We arrived just in time to watch the ceremonial changing of the guards.

On the memorial's grounds known as Freedom Plaza are the National Theater and National Concert Hall, both built in the Chinese style. The three structures form an enormous plaza and public recreation space with Chinese gardens. My host recalled visiting the gardens as a child to feed the fish in the pond.

The day wasn't complete until we visited one of the Night Markets. The markets offer a huge variety of snacks sold cheaply from stalls, some of which have been in business for decades. It is also a chance for the children to play pinball for a chance to win a stuffed animal or to scoop fish from a plastic fish pond. I loved everything about the Ning Xia Night Market since I had never seen anything like it before. The street is closed to vehicles and filled with vendors and their customized food carts where they grill, steam, fry and even dip fresh fruit into melted sugar. I happily tried the veggie spring roll and pork dumplings, but wasn't brave enough to sample the stinky tofu or barbeque squid.

 

 



Night Market with Caleb, Abe, Sue, Albert, Grace and Cindy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Japan-Pony Baseball

When I began my sabbatical, I knew that much of my travel during the six months would be as I accompanied my husband on his business trips. Our friends and I always tease him that it is hard to distinguish his work days from his vacation days. After twenty-five years of marriage, I finally understand that travel IS work. Most people couldn't keep up the pace of checking into airports, going through security, dealing with luggage, enduring long layovers and weather delays, renting cars and staying in hotel after hotel.

Most of what my husband does is a job like any other. The perk, however, is that the end result of his work is helping kids. During our trip to Japan we had a chance to visit three baseball leagues and see their facilities, coaches, parents….and the kids. It would be an understatement to say that this was the highlight of our trip.

At each field, the kids were in full uniform waiting outside for us to arrive. The team captain was the one to greet us…in English! Most of these boys were about thirteen years old and their English was limited. They read from a piece of paper the speech that they had prepared. After my husband greeted the players and shook their hands, the teams presented us with gifts and in some cases hot tea and small cakes.

It was a great afternoon out in the suburbs of Tokyo. Looking at all the parents who came out to support their kids, I realized their lives are very much like ours back in the USA. On our way out of town, we even found PONY vending machines in the area!

Hakone, Japan

Hakone Ropeway

They say it's not about the destination, it is the journey that counts. Our trip to Hakone included a subway, bullet train, scenic mountain train, funicular, gondola, ferry, bus and a taxi to reach our final destination of a traditional Japanese hot springs bathhouse…. and getting there was half the fun!

Bullet Train

 

We started out in the morning leaving our hotel which was located adjacent to Tokyo Station. We were the guests of the Yamauchi family who met us and together we awaited the bullet train, which was another first for me. The train with its sleek, long nose pulled into the gate. An entire cleaning crew hurried through the cabin, dusting and sweeping the cars and then changing the seat direction as they put down fresh covers on the headrests. Our journey out of Tokyo lasted only 30 minutes and I am told we reached speeds of 320 km/hour or 198 mph.

Mountain train

The next leg of our trip was the scenic Hakone-Tozan Railway Line. Hakone-Tozan This is a mountain railway composed of several small trains. The cars carry you up into the mountains around scenic vistas. In order to ascend the steepest sections, three switchbacks are involved. At each one, the driver and conductor trade cars and turn the train in the opposite direction.

Funicular

Gondola

Halfway up the mountain, we caught a ride on a funicular very much like the Pittsburgh inclines. From there, we boarded the Hakone Ropeway which is a gondola that carried us above the Owakundai area which is a crater filled with sulfurous fumes and hot springs that were visible from high above in our gondola. Owakudani The car also afforded us great views of nearby Mt. Fuji.

View of hot springs

Mt. Fuji

At the top of the mountain, we changed cars and rode another gondola down the backside of the mountain toward Lake Ashinko.  This is a popular tourist destination for those looking for a break from nearby Tokyo.

Lake Ashinko

Ferry

 Once we reached the lake we boarded a Viking inspired ferry that carried us across the lake where we boarded a bus that carried us around the lake to a bus depot in the area of the hot rivers and bathhouses. From there, we took a cab up the hill to our destination. See Japanese guesthouses in Hakone

As we arrived at the bathhouse, we were greeted at the front door and given slippers since you always remove your shoes upon entering. Our hostess provided us with traditional kimonos, socks and a jacket to wear over the kimono since it was a cool night. We changed into our outfits, pausing for photos. Next, we went downstairs where the men's and women's changing rooms lead to the separate baths. See Fukuzumi

Blowfish

After a relaxing soak in the sulfurous, warm water, we dressed in our costumes and returned to our private room for the evening. Our waitress brought us plate after plate of traditional Japanese dishes... so many.... that I lost count after ten. Just like dinner in any culture, we had good food and good cheer with our hosts making it the perfect end to a perfect day. Completely relaxed and content, we change back into our street clothes and took the quicker, more direct route back to Tokyo Station.

   

Tokyo

View from Tokyo Tower with Mt. Fuji in background

Over the years, I have come to the realization that I am slightly OCD. I crave things that are neat and orderly and find tranquility when surrounded by them. On the other hand, clutter and disorder make me uncomfortable. Immediately upon arriving in Tokyo, I found an obsessive-compulsive's paradise.
My very first impression of the city was that it is so clean. The sidewalks are devoid of litter. The taxis are gleaming inside and out. The cabbies wear white gloves and cover the headrests with white lace. People walk in an orderly manner, only crossing when and where indicated, and queue when waiting in line. For a major metropolitan city, vehicular traffic runs smoothly where cars never run a yellow light let alone a red light. I never heard a horn honked, and this is a city of 13 million people!
  

Mrs. Yamauchi and her sister-in-law

My first day in Tokyo we were met by Rika and Nami who are the mother and aunt of the Japanese student, So*, who lived with us for a few months. With my new good friends and tour guides, we left the hotel early that morning for our visit to the Sumo stable. (See my earlier blog.) From there, we stopped at the enormous Tokyo fish market which, at noon, was already closing down for the day. Nearby, we stopped for lunch at a sushi restaurant known for its tuna which couldn't be any fresher since it was purchased from the fish market across the street only a few hours earlier.

 
Our next stop was the Ginza shopping district. Since it was a beautiful sunny day, we walked to the Ginza…stopping for photos in front of the Kabuki Theatre. The Ginza is mainly for window shopping since it is Tokyo's version of Fifth Avenue with its designer fashion stores. More in line with our budget, we spent some time and money in a traditional Japanese paper store that sold homemade cards, calendars, notepads, calligraphy, etc. We also walked through the large department store on the corner. Our hosts knew that I am a fan of SK-II cosmetics so they found the cosmetics counter where I was treated to a makeover by an SK-II consultant.

With my make-up already done, we quickly changed clothes at our hotel and headed to a dinner banquet held in honor of PONY's upcoming fortieth anniversary of Japan PONY and in honor of my husband beining in town. The event was held at Hatoyama Hall, a beautiful Western-style residence built by Ichiro Hatoyama, a former Prime Minister of Japan. His grandson gave me a tour his family's home and allowed me to sit in his grandfather's chair. All of the Japan-PONY representatives were such wonderful hosts…you would have thought that I was the First Lady of the United States, being welcomed so warmly and treated so royally by those at the event.

We took a quick sight-seeing tour of Toyko to see three of its tourist attractions. First, was the Tokyo Tower which is an Eiffel-tower inspired structure originally constructed for TV broadcasting. It now serves as both a communication and observation tower. Once the tallest building in Japan, it is now second to the Tokyo Skytree which opened in 2012.

 
Next, we visited the Imperial Palace which is the residence of Japan's Imperial Family. This didn't take long, since the inner grounds and palace are closed to the public except for one or two days each year. What we could see was a large park surrounded by moats and the picturesque guard houses at the outer rim.

 

Finally, we went to the touristy Senso-ji Shrine. As soon as I spotted it, this spot reminded me of what I had always imagined Tokyo would look like. The enormous shrine was directly ahead of me, past the ornately decorated gates where hundreds of people were moving about. To the left sits a five story pagoda. All around the shrine is the Asakusa shopping streets filled with tourist trinkets and food stalls.

 
*There is a side-story to our good friend, So Yamauchi. He came to Pennsylvania in September 2013 to intern at Pony Baseball Inc.'s headquarters. So lived with us for about a month and had met our good friends and neighbors, the Nicolellas, on several occasions. So was at a Pirates game with my husband and Anthony when during the game Anthony mentioned that his son, Vincent, had been to Japan as part of the PONY Friendship Tour.  Vincent, coincidentally, stayed with a family who had a son named So. (Anthony had talked to his son about this, but they assumed that So was a very popular name in Japan and never dreamed that it could be the same So.) Upon hearing this, So pulled out his cellphone and showed Anthony that he had contact information for Vincent Nicolella, which turned out to be Anthony's son who actually stayed with the Yamauchi family in Japan eight years ago!

The Yamauchi Family