The Cat Village (Natalie)

                                                                The Cat Village

    On Sunday, we had all planned to go to the Houtong cat village, but Ansel and Dad came down with a stomach bug and had to stay home. We decided to get out of the house and let them rest, so we headed off bright and early. To get to the village, we hopped onto the subway to the train station. After the subway, we transferred to another train which brought us to the village. Mom accidentally purchased local train tickets instead of the express train, so it took us over an hour to get there (oops!) Luckily the train ride was comfortable and above ground so we could watch the city melt away and enjoy the scenery. On the way home we took a much more comfortable (and much more direct) bus. 

    When we arrived at the village, we were immediately greeted by a black and white splotched cat, with an adorable black mouth that made him look like he had been eating a lot of blueberries. 

After we finished petting him, we crossed over the train tracks and entered the cat village. Just to be clear, there are 2 sides you can get to out of the train station. The hillside is the official cat village. On the other side the terrain is more flat. It is also more touristy, filled with shops, little restaurants and ice cream vendors. It also has a small coal mining museum which teaches visitors about the history of the village. There are cats on the touristy side, but not as many as the hillside. After we finished petting the cat in the train station we immediately headed out to the hillside. It was raining, so most of the cats had taken shelter under cover. The first cat we found was a dark tabby. 

This was the first cat we gave a treat to. Charlotte and Mom found four cats in a sheltered part of the trail. There was a plumb brown and white colored feline who was very fluffy and looked like a ragdoll, as well as two skittish black cats and one calico colored kitty. 

We had pre-purchased cat treats and recommend doing that, as the treats in the village are normally overpriced. We saw many more cats, some of them skittish some bold, a variety of colors and patterns. The most common cat we saw were dark tabbies. 

                                

                

                                    

                                    

                                    

    There are certain areas in the village where you are allowed or not allowed to feed the cats. Some of the locals feed the cats at set meal times so you don't have to worry about them going hungry; it's just fun to feed them.

              

    For lunch, we stopped at one of the many small cafes at the top of the hill and ordered quiche, sandwiches, hot chocolate and salad. Then we headed over to the flat side for ice cream. After we finished with lunch and the cats, we were feeling good and still energetic, so we decided to take a bus to Jiiufen old street, a festive street full of good food and small shops. We walked 15 minutes out of the village to the bus stop. We took a bus and planned to stop at the 7 eleven but may have gotten off at the wrong stop and had to hike to the street. 

                                    

    When you first enter the street, the lighting takes a little getting used to because the roofs of the shops are so close to each other they block out the sunlight. The street is lit with red lanterns. The first thing that caught our eye was a small shop that had a wall of pet outfits including a dragon costume for a small dog or cat and little traditional pet kimonos. After looking around that shop for a while, Charlotte got hungry so Mom purchased a sweet hotdog on a stick. (Yep, that's Asia for ya. Sweet sausages are normal here). Charlotte loved it and ate the entire thing. We next stopped at a street vendor for some little bricks of tea. We also peeked into a cat themed shop. Feeling hungry, we then found a beef noodle soup place and ordered up some soup, beef rice, soup dumplings, and cucumber for dinner. We had a hard time getting home because we were a little confused by the bus system, but eventually we made it home by 7:30. 

             

                                                     

            

    I would recommend Jiiufen old street as a "After cat village" activity. The cat village (as always) gets 5 out of 5 stars! 

                                                

Taroko Gorge Tour (Natalie)

    On our second day in Hualien we took a tour through the Taroko gorge. That wasn't the only place we went to during the tour though, we also made stops at the beautiful Qixingtan pebble beach, multiplw Japanese temple sites, and monkey village. 

    We had to get up early because the tour guide planned to pick us up at 7:30. The reasons for this was (1) we got more time, and (2) the gorge had timed entry and exit, so an early start would line us up perfectly for the 10 o'clock entry. Our guide's name was Allen; he spoke English fluently, which helped everyone understand all of the information he shared with us during our 8 hours together. 

    The first stop we made was at the Qixingtan pebble beach. It was so windy that if you stood at the top of a staircase to the beach and leaned into the wind... it would hold you up! We collected pebbles of all shapes, sizes and colors.  After we walked about a kilometer along the beach, we met Allen and he drove us to our next stop.

                                                 

                              

                              

                              

                              

                                        

    Our next stop was an area that used to have a Japanese temple. The Japanese controlled Taiwan for over 50 years. After the Japanese were forced out of Taiwan, the incoming new government from the Chinese mainland wanted to try and erase reminders of the Japanese culture. Much was destroyed, including many Japanese temples. We visited a former Japanese temple that was almost destroyed. A catholic priest inherited the temple before new government took over. He realized that it must be an important Japanese site because of pillars framing the land and built his church in a way to repurpose (while simultaneously preserving) the former temple site.

                          

 

                                        

    The priest claimed it as part of his church so no one would destroy it. You can't see the temple anymore because there is a church standing were it used to be. There is also an art installation depicting Mary. However, the gates are still in tact, as is the extensive Japanese garden and rock formations. We spent a little time looking around the land and a little time in the church. After we finished, we headed out to the gorge.                                               

                                               

    After a short wait and a visit to the Visitor Center, the timed entry began at 10am sharp. We were let in and drove along a narrow road built into the cliffside. The road into Taroko Gorge National Park is incredibly twisty and turny. In some places, only one vehicle can pass at a time. In others, you need to use mirrors and slow down to avoid going off the edge. Hualien is known for dramatic weather showcasing earthquakes and typhoons. There are an average of 14 typhoons a year in Hualien. A typhoon is tropical cyclone. Because most of the park is steep cliffs, road slides often occur during periods of heavy rain and especially after earthquakes. Hualien is recovering from a dreadful earthquake that happened last spring, killing several hundred people and severely damaging homes, schools and the infrastructure along the gorge. Allen, our guide was one of the only a handful of people willing to drive us into the gorge. Many other tour companies are still too scared to drive into the gorge. Many places inside the gorge were closed including the beautiful Eternal Spring Shrine temple built into the side of the gorge. The gorge's most common rock is marble, so we saw a lot of white rock. 

  

                                                          

                                                  

    The only place we stopped inside the gorge was a small village/area that was known for it's monkeys. The only kind we saw were Formosan rock macaques. Allen told us that they were aggressive and would grab a piece of fruit out of your hand. We stayed pretty far away from the wildlife, but did take lots of pictures. We also hiked up to a temple on a hillside (so many stairs!!!) and received lucky candy from a Buddhist monk. 

    Allen picked us up at noon and we drove out of the gorge with the timed noon departure. The last historical spot Allen took us was the biggest temple in Hualien called the Gang Tiang temple. It had two huge dragon pillars that concealed spiral staircases. They were so cool. 

                                               

    We went to an aboriginal restaurant for lunch. When we first got there we noticed that there were a lot of stray dogs and cats. We saw a kitten sitting under someone's chair begging. We ordered the set menu for three people though we had four. Allen said it would be enough, and he was right! It turned out to be a feast. Some of the dishes included soups, sausage, tofu, chili peppers, fiddle leaf fern shoots and much more. The place was known for their bamboo rice, which consisted of rice packed into a medium bamboo shoot, sealed with a leaf and steamed. You open it by banging the bamboo on a hard rock until it cracks open; we had 3 bamboo rices, but could only eat 2. There was just too much to eat! We ended up with multiple to-go boxes. 

                                   

    After lunch, we also took a waterfall hike along the Sakul trail. We were some of the only hikers there. We ended the day at a Japanese temple honoring the men who sacrificed their lives for their country. 

    We would definitely recommend taking a tour in the Taroko gorge if you happen to be staying in Hualien.

Tokyo: Shopping and Sushi Making (Charlotte and Sam)

Last week we traveled to Japan to ski. However, because our ski resort was not close to an airport, we flew into Tokyo and spent a night in the city before and after our week skiing. 

One of the places I wanted to visit was the big Hello Kitty Sanrio store. We rode the subway from our hotel. It wasn't far. The store had a huge wall filled with Hello Kitty stuffies. It was shaped like a heart and my dad took a picture of me. 

 

One of my favorite things about the Hello Kitty store was seeing all the stuffies. I got to bring one home. It was a Hello Kitty stuffy that has a zippered pocket behind her head. Inside the pocket is a pink Hello Kitty reuseable shopping bag. It is practical and cute. Hello Kitty is dressed in a Japanese kimono. The stuffy also has a clip to attach to my purse. (My purse is special because I made it in Taipei at a kids craft station. I used a sewing machine for the first time and a lady who spoke English helped me),

Another experience we had in Tokyo was making sushi by hand. We made two kinds of sushi: maki and nigiri. First, you weigh the rice, then spread it on your seaweed sheet. Then you layer strips of fish on the rice and roll everything together into a tube shape using a plastic or bamboo slotted mat. 

Then you gently press the roll to shape everything. Finally, you unroll the mat and cut the sushi into slices. This is maki. 

To make nigiri, you weigh the rice and use your hand to shape it into an oval shape; it looks like a cloud. Then you place one slice of fish on top of your rice cloud. This is how you make nigiri. In the picture below, the nigiri sushi is on the outer edges of the board.

 

After we made our sushi, we ate it for lunch! I like sushi, but this sushi wasn't my favorite. We had tuna and not salmon. Salmon is my favorite. For dessert we ate fish cakes. These are not cakes made out of fish. The cakes are baked in the shape of a small fish and stuffed with different sweet fillings. There was red bean, custard, and sweet potato. We tried the red bean and custard. The custard was very hot and I had to eat it carefully because I didn't want to burn my mouth. Custard was my favorite flavor. Red bean was my mom's favorite flavor.

Nozowa Onsen

Last week we traveled to Japan. On our trip, we visited Nozawa Onsen. Nozawa Onsen is a small village in the mountains about two hours away from Tokyo by bullet train (shinkasen). Nozawa Onsen is very special because it has an amazing ski resort and roughly a dozen onsens. 

An onsen is a natural hot spring or local hot tub. It is free and many people, visitors and villagers alike, go there daily. To prepare for an onsen, you need to bring certain items with you, to include: a towel, a bar of soap and a bottle of shampoo. 

 

When you arrive, you first take off your shoes and socks. These go into a little cubby on the bottom shelf. It is important to put your shoes and socks in the bottom cubbies. The top cubbies are for clean clothes and other belongings. 

After you put your shoes away, you have to take off all of your clothes (even your underwear!) and get a bucket. Buckets are provided at the onsen. You don't have to bring your own. Once you're naked, you use your bucket and pour water from the onsen onto the tiled floor. Then you sit down next the onsen on the warm floor and get used to the hot water temperature by pouring buckets of water on your body. Once you're warm, you soap your body, shampoo your hair and rinse off using the bucket. Once you're totally clean, you can hop into the onsen.

The sides of the onsen are made of wood and the floor is also wood. There is a wooden divider that separates the hot side from the super hot melt-your-face-off side. Once you're in the water, you can choose to soak on the hot side for a bit, or if you're brave, you can test the super hot side and decide if you want to move over. Not all onsens are the same temperature. The onsen that was closest to our hotel was pretty hot. After you feel satisfied with your soak, you wade out of the onsen and dry off with your towel. Then, you head over to the cubbies and put on your clothes. After that, you put on your shoes and socks and exit the onsen building. 

When you leave the onsen you are likely to feel like Mario, super energetic and ready to do anything!