Taipei Toy Festival 2010

Last one.

Taipei Toy Festival 2010

more photos and a link to the official site. If you scroll over the menus, you should see the English.
http://home.pmo.com.tw/pmo/monster/

Taipei Toy Festival 2010

It took place at Huashan 1914 creative park. Here is a link to an article about the show:
http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1313873&lang=eng_news&cate_img=35.jpg&cate_rss=news_Business_TAIWAN&mbn=420C56324089B156E73E348F96095E88

Taipei Toy Festival 2010

I was able to go to this toy festival last Saturday. I always enjoy toy shows - so many creative people get involved with making toys that it's usually more interesting than a contemporary art show at a museum. Just like in the states, kids in Taiwan are a little bit too into Japanese culture, and while I love Japanese culture even more than the next guy, I would sometimes like to see more individuality shining through in their work. Still lots of good stuff though. Also, it was held in an interesting space, I wish I knew something about the history of that place. Another thing that I like about toy shows is that things are for sale and people who aren't ridiculously wealthy can buy these pieces of art. The prices are reasonable starting around $500 NT or so. There is no point in going into my favorite pieces, you can judge for yourself. I will try to get lots of photos up.

Tainan pt 7

So that's it. I got up the next day, had one last Dan zi mian, drank some milk tea, and walked for 30 minutes to the bus stop. Just missed a bus, so I got to wait and it was super hot. But that's ok, I had a nice time. I was sorry to get home, oh well.

Tainan pt 6

Here is a pic of the night market, Chikan at night, the place where I bought the coffin bread, and the coffin bread itself under the jaundiced light of my hotel room. Looks like I time traveled back to the 50's for my snack, which is possible. Yuck.

Tainan pt 5

After my nap, I went out again and saw the Confucius temple. This time I had my umbrella, which was handy because it was raining again. The temple was pretty nice, and very quiet. It was interesting to be a tourist in what felt like a ghost town most of the time. Not much tourism happening on Monday and Tuesday, pre-season. Also, the whole time I was in Tainan I think I saw about 7 westerners. I did hear some Mainland accents and japanese, but westerners were not around much. Which was kind of nice. I got more respect when I spoke Chinese, and when I busted out the little bit of Taiwanese I know, I got some laughter. Not bad.

After the temple, I went looking for this restaurant that the front desk person told me about, but I couldn't find. I think it had closed down. Then I went to the night market to eat dinner. Tainan's night markets are famous, but I was there too early, on a rainy night, and it wasn't one of the more famous markets. It was ok, I had stinky tofu, some kind of Taiwanese version of a burrito, and an attempt at Indian Chai (that wasn't too good, though. No flavor). I considered going out to watch the world cup again, but I decided it's better just to save the money, so I just watched it back at the hotel. That was okay. I brought home something called coffin bread, a leftover from American GI's apparently. It's white bread with some cream sauce covered mixed vegetables and seafood shoved in a hole in the bread and covered with something deep fried. Richard tells me American soldiers call this "shit on a shingle." The first part seems accurate, it's just terrible. I was hoping that the Taiwanese had improved it, adding some delicious local flavor, but no, just bland yuckiness. It cried out for hot sauce, which I had foolishly forgotten to bring with me. Not recommended. Then I went to sleep.

lunch and buildings

This was my lunch and those other things with roofs are buildings I saw.

Tainan pt 4

So, the rain finally stopped and I resumed walking around. It was a weekday, so there weren't very many people around, and a lot of the shops were closed, but it was interesting to walk. Many things to see, but I was getting hungry, so I started looking for food. I finally ended up at a place written up in my guidebook (Chou's shrimp rolls) which, indeed, had outstanding shrimp rolls with great tempura batter. The Dan-zi mian were good, but not as good as what I had the day before. It really hit the spot, and I appreciated the chance to take a break from the heat and sit in air conditioning for a while. After lunch I walked around a little bit more, saw some nice old broken down buildings, bought some interesting black sugar cookies for gifts, and finally decided I had seen enough. I could have taken a taxi ride to see some museums, but they didn't sound that great and I had been walking in the sun for several hours. I was pretty wiped out and ready to take a nap. So, back to the hotel to crash for a couple of hours. A good choice I think.

Tainan pt 3

The next day, I got up early to head over to the Anping section to see Fort Zeelandia and wander around. It was already fiery hot, and I drank a papaya milk and a huge winter melon tea as I walked around. Fort Zeelandia was an old dutch fort when they had a trade presence here and it was interesting to see some dutch items and Indonesian items that ended up here as part of the trade route that the Dutch had set up. Eventually, Koxinga came over and lay siege to the fort and eventually kicked the Dutch out. This fact is used by both pro- and anti- unification people to justify their positions - everything is open to interpretation. The fort was interesting, it was cool to see the levels of ruins from different periods, and it was a beautiful day. Finally, the sky opened up and I ran for the nearest cover (I forgot my umbrella) and ended up spending about 20 mins watching rain come down and waiting to start walking around. The pics above include an old, semi-destroyed wall, a statue of Koxinga, and the view from up on the fort itself.

And a few more

more pics in and around Chi Kan.

Some more random images

Just some pictures of random things I saw walking around the city.

Tainan pt 2

After lunch, i walked a few feet to see the Chikan Towers. As soon as I got there the sky opened up and rain poured down. I got bored of waiting under a roof - my feet and legs were getting soaked anyway - so I made a dash to the main building. Really nice. I especially enjoyed the stone hallways under the building, which were unfortunately difficult to reach since the rain had accumulated in very deep puddles. After I finished checking out the towers, I walked around the area a bit, looking at a couple of temples nearby and enjoying the old buildings and stone streets. My feet and socks were soaked, and I was exhausted and not yet adjusted to the heat, so I went back to the hotel for a nap.

My room was like a cave, nice and dark, and the bed was pretty nice, so I slept like a baby. When I got up it was already getting late. I went for another walk around the neighborhood, saw some more temples, etc., and generally explored. I found the bar where I would watch the world cup later and had some mian xian with oysters and garlic fried greens for dinner. I get cranky if I go too long without any green vegetables. Went to the bar to watch Netherlands play someone, a boring game in a smoky bar, but the Anchor Steam was cheap and it looked cool and I had a good seat. I decided not to stay for the second game - cigarette smoke burns my eyes - so I went home to crash.

Tainan pt 1

When I got to Tainan, I was shocked to see blue sky. In Taipei it had been raining for 40 days and 40 nights, and I had forgotten that sometimes the sky is a color other than gray. I took the high speed train, which was nice except for the lack of information at the station. I was looking for a hotel and no one could give me any advice at all. Poor. I took the free shuttle bus into town and ended up in the middle of nowhere. Stupid bus driver wouldn't tell me anything, it's possible his mandarin was not very good and I couldn't ask in Taiwanese. So I took a taxi who took me to a place that fit my criteria: clean, not too expensive, in a convenient area. It probably would have been cheaper if he didn't take his cut, but at least he helped me find some place. It was nice to drop off my stuff and go get lunch. I wanted to try two things Tainan is famous for - dan zi noodles and the fried shrimp rolls. Unlike Taipei, people in Tainan were actually kind of impressed that I can speak some Chinese and my hotel staff were pretty nice and helpful. They sent me in the right direction and off I went. You can see that the pics of my lunch are too dark, I was still learning how to use this camera. The noodles at this place were really nice, great texture and a perfect, salty enough but not too salty, flavorful broth. The fried shrimp roll was also good, served with a mixture of that apricot duck sauce and wasabi and pickled ginger on the side, both excellent for cutting the grease of deep fried shrimp. The home made winter melon tea was also good and refreshing.

blah

It's been about half a year since my last post. Just working knocks the stuffing out of me. I have been playing around in Brazilian Ju jitsu class, which is fun but hurts a little bit. I've been writing silly music reviews with my friend Dan at http://www.amixedreview.com/. I've had some visa issues, but I may have finally got a solution to that. The heat is back and I'm itching for some leisure. Feels like I haven't had a real vacation in a long time. Now I'm looking for a better job so hopefully I will be able to save some $$$ and take a little break soon. But who knows what the future will bring. It doesn't feel like I have been getting any breaks lately, but maybe I have been and things could be a lot worse.

acting/modeling job in chang hua pt.2

At the end, I was supposed to give some kind of testimony to a girl playing a reporter. Since it didn't matter what I said, and no one there spoke English particularly well, I gave her a running commentary of the direction I was getting, with editorial response about why it was impossible or just a bad idea. Example :"He said don't move my head but use body language and now I feel like I can't move and I'm supposed to move this hand but not that hand and smile while seven people are yelling at me in two languages and I only had three hours sleep last night I wonder if I'm still smiling..." It was funny and needs a science fiction ending to the narrative of the commercial, I'm sure. As I left, the agent pointed out the owner's brand new BMW next to his brand new Mercedes, so I guess there is a market for orange mold.

I was happy to finally leave, it was dark already and we had a long trip. The cell phone was louder now, and the guy who really did nothing the whole time was singing along, but quietly so you could only hear him on the plosives, like "t" "s" "k" sounds. It was really annoying, and I started anticipating the next sound, which added to the annoyance factor. When Oksana got out halfway through the trip back (she lives in shinju) I realized he was just holding back out of the embarrassment of singing in front of a female, because he started singing louder. It reached a crescendo when Bon Jovi's it's my life song came on. A truly dreadful song, made worse by the tiny treble heavy speaker, augmented by chinese accented english sing along. And broken up by the coughing fits that came from this guy the entire trip back. The air was quite polluted at some points of the trip, and this guy smoked a lot, thankfully only on breaks. He would open the window for air, which just made it worse as the air was thick with dew and pollution, and the open window was doing weird things to the pressure in my ears. I was testing myself to see if I would crack and strangle this guy, but i'm happy to say i made it. yay me. After telling me they could drop me in Banchiao, they dropped me near an inconvenient MRT station on the far side of Taipei and I made it home 13 hours after I left. My pay, $2000 nt, about $65 us dollars. But it was kind of interesting and maybe they will give me another, better job next time since I did this one. I was going to meet richard last night, and that had to be cancelled, which was annoying. Oh well.

acting/modeling job in chang hua pt. 1

I got a call on friday asking if I would be interested in the job. In broken English, she said something about it being in Taichung. Her English was not clear so we switched to chinese. I said, well, maybe, send me the details in an email and i will think about it. When I got the email, it said I had the job, without an audition, and it listed a taipei address. Foolishly, I assumed they had changed the address to some place people would be willing to go. I showed up, after a bad night with under 3 hours sleep, wearing my suit, and found out I had a 3 hour taxi ride to Chang hua ahead of me. I considered leaving, explained to the agent that they hadn't been clear with me, and ultimately decided to make a little money and have an adventure in a place I hadn't yet visited. The taxi was not comfortable, but I commandeered the front seat, which was bearable. At some point, one of the 2 taiwanese guys (1 was the agent, the other seemingly did nothing but smoke and annoy) started playing awful music on a cell phone, which was very annoying. I didn't sleep. We finally reached a town and they bought us lunch. The annoying guy was pushing for a boring looking lunch place - I said "bye" and went to the vietnamese place nearby. They begrudgingly followed me, and I enjoyed my lunch of sour and hot noodles with fried spring rolls in lettuce with mint and basil in sweet sauce. None of them had had vietnamese food before. The Ukrainian girl, Oksana, has lived in Taiwan for 2 years and never eats out, preferring to cook potatoes and meat for herself. She asked for something "not spicy." When I think about tying to sell food, it's people like this who scare me- no interest or adventure at all. Just eat and do the same things over and over again- nothing new. Oksana had come to taiwan to get her MA because she got the best deal here- fair enough, it just seems like a shame to me. She has learned no chinese and just took vacations to sit on the beach. I love the beach, but there is more to life.

After lunch, we sat in a 7-11 and waited for the production crew to come get us and lead us up the mountain. I had been told to bring all kinds of different clothes, so my backpack was too full to squeeze my chinese book in. I was happy to find my flashcards later- they really helped to kill time while waiting. I sat and tried to hold up a conversation with Oksana for an hour while we waited.

They came and led us up the mountain to the factory. I enjoyed the clean air and the old chinese style houses we drove by. Many Taiwanese prefer new homes, so when they get $$$ they rip down the old. In rural areas with less money, the old sometimes survives. Nice. When I came in, they put a white lab coat on me and did my makeup. Of course I didn't need any of my other clothes, just a white shirt and a tie. Then they did my makeup, which was quick. It took much longer for Oksana, and while I waited I tried the product the commercial was for. It seemed to be a special kind of mold, grown on organic rice. It was orange and brewed into a tea. When she was done, we went through an airlock, sprayed with alcohol, then more alcohol spraying, until we came to a large growing room filled with glass bottles. Mold was growing, first white, then green, finally orange and tendril-y in each bottle. I tried to find out what this stuff was supposed to do, but they could only tell me, "it's good for your health." It was funny that we went to so much trouble to decontaminate, but a guy in the crew was chewing betel nut and things really weren't that clean. With multiple long breaks, we (Oksana and I were filmed together, as the foreign scientists_ eventually did our scenes, staring in amazement at the strange, orange growth, listening and pretending to write as a taiwanese scientist explained things to us, then trying to look surprised a lot. They weren't recording sound, so we could say whatever we wanted, but it had to look like we were talking in many scenes. Oksana isn't much of a conversationalist, so I had to do most of the talking, which was a challenge. For one part, some people were yelling "smile! smile! smile!" while another was yelling "look surprised! look surprised!" and another "raise your hand!" another: "lower your hand!" and various other things in english and chinese. Try to smile and look surprised. Not that easy!