Taipei, Part 1

I'm once again horrible at writing posts in a timely manner, but here we go! I flew out of Hong Kong on Friday morning on Hong Kong Airlines and was delighted to find that I had for some reason been upgraded to first class. Since this was first class on an international airline, that meant a whole cubicle to myself with a seat that turned into a bed, unlimited wine, and excellent service.

 

This is probably the only time I'll fly in such an amazing seat, so I took a ton of pictures. The flight attendant thought it was adorable and helped me arrange my food to be more aesthetically pleasing:

There were also some lovely views of various islands as we made our way towards Taiwan:

The flight was unfortunately very brief (about 1.5 hours) and we soon landed in Taipei. My friend Dana was kind enough to meet me at the airport and escort me back to her place via the fantastic Shinkansen (high-speed rail, installed by Japan). Her apartment is in an amazing neighborhood just near the famous skyscraper Taipei 101:

We decided to start eating immediately, since I wanted to try everything Taiwan had to offer in less than 72 hours. Our first stop was Din Tai Fung, a very famous chain of dumpling restaurants that was started in Taipei. This place is famous for its perfectly crafted Xiao Long Bao, or soup dumplings. These things are absolutely incredible. I had 10 and I wanted many more.

They're essentially filled with pork soup and encased in a very delicate skin. The process of eating them properly is a little complicated, and involves carefully puncturing the skin, slurping the soup, then dipping them in a soy/vinegar sauce. Here I am failing at this and dropping my dumping in my sauce:

We finished off the meal with some very yummy taro dumplings for dessert:

Afterwards we went to the kitchen window and watched as the cooks very carefully prepared each dumpling, throwing out any that didn't meet their high level of perfection:

Afterwards we walked around the city a bit and stopped by a local night market. Night markets are an important part of Taiwanese culture, and typically include a wide offering of foods and goods.

The eating continued, and I got to try several little snacks. I apologize in advance for not knowing the name of anything I post here; I really just ate whatever Dana told me to! These "goo balls" were a yummy dessert, filled green tea, red bean, and a few other things:

Many stands offer a variety of vegetables and meats that you can get deep fried. I had deep-fried chicken hearts!

Afterwards we closed the night out by grabbing some beers and doing laundry at a laundromat. Taipei doesn't really have open container laws, which is great when you just want to relax in the extreme heat with a cold beer. I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but the weather in Hong Kong and Taipei was HORRIBLE. Very hot (in the 90s during the day without much of a drop at night) and extremely humid. I felt sweaty and gross nonstop. Avoid visiting either of these places in the summer!

Hong Kong, Day 2-7

I'm back from my trip and more or less recovered from the jetlag and illnesses I brought back, so it's time to catch up on those blog posts! As I said, most of my time in Hong Kong was spent at a scientific conference, so my sight-seeing was kept to a minimum. The conference was held at HKUST, which is unfortunately far from the downtown area of HK but has some really great views. This was the view from my bedroom, for example:

On Tuesday a group of us managed to hop down to the nearby village of Sai Kung for some amazing seafood. It's a nice little village on the water:

We went to a restaurant where you choose your own fish and shellfish to eat from a variety of tanks:

We had an amazing feast of of fish, clams, abalone, prawns, and more:

A few days later I took a solo trip into the city to get lunch at the cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant in the world, Tim Ho Wan. Despite hearing stories about waiting hours to be seated, I was seated and served nearly immediately. The signature dish at this dim sum restaurant is cha siu bao, or BBQ pork buns. These really are incredible- they're slightly crunchy on the outside and filled with delicious, sweet BBQ pork:

 

The incredible thing about this restaurant (besides the amazing food) is how cheap it is. I enjoyed a very filling meal with a variety of dishes for only $10:

After the conference wrapped up in the evening, a bunch of us went back downtown to walk around the Temple Street night market. Though I didn't do much shopping, I did grab some yummy snacks and had a great time seeing the city at night. Afterwards we walked down to the harbour and went up to a bar on the 30th floor of a building overlooking the water. Pictures don't really do it justice, but it really was a spectacular view of the Hong Kong skyline at night.

Unfortunately the drink prices were crazy high and I had to be up early for my flight to Taipei, so we hopped in some taxis back to the university and called it a night. I have lots to say and show from my weekend in Taipei, so look for more posts in the next few days!

Hong Kong, Day 1 Part 2

As I said in the previous post, my sight-seeing had to stay very brief due to the fact that I needed to cross the city to attend a conference. Rather than going to the original lunch spot I had chosen (which didn't open for an hour), I opted to stumble into any place that looked yummy and welcoming. I did indeed find such a place, and the owners very kindly welcomed me in and advised me on what to order (in very good English). Since they specialized in noodles and fish balls (essentially just balls of processed fish), I got a soup with wide noodles, fish balls, and wontons.

It was super delicious. The noodles were a very lovely texture, though extremely hard to pick up with chopsticks. I think it took me about four times as long to eat my bowl as everyone else in the restaurant. I also had milk tea with my meal, which is a very famous beverage around Hong Kong. It's simply English black tea with milk, but it's quite yummy.

One thing that surprised me is that at casual establishments like this, you share your table/booth with other people. A young couple (locals) sat down with me and we ended up having a really great conversation about things to do in the city. They gave me some good tips on food and bars, with an emphasis on places that were most "legit" (that word is a great American export). I was additionally surprised that when I asked for a glass of water, I was given a glass of near-boiling water. It seems like it's very common to drink cups of hot water, likely because everyone boils the water that comes out of the tap and it takes a lot of effort to cool it.

Once I was full of noodles and fish, I hopped on the tram (once again, ridiculously easy to navigate) back to my hotel to pick up my bags and head to the nearby ferry station. The Star Ferry (which actually encompasses a number of ferry lines that cross Victoria Harbour) is one of those things that you're supposed to do while in the city, since it affords some pretty spectacular views of both sides and is affordable and efficient. After a short wait at the pier, our boat arrived:

The ferry had a very spacious upper deck that allowed me to get amazing views of Hong Kong Island as we made our brief trip across the water.

Once we arrived at Tsim Sha Tsui, I quickly made my way to the MTR station. After a very easy ride out to the Diamond Hill MTR station (where the conference people recommended we catch a taxi from), I thought I'd be getting to the conference with plenty of time to spare. However, I faced the very first language barrier of the trip when my taxi driver knew zero English and also didn't know where the university was. It was incredibly stressful and involved lots of phone calls and frantic pointing, but I eventually made it to HKUST right before the start of the conference. The location is lovely, albeit inconvenient:

And even though they have me in a very crappy little undergrad dorm, I can't complain because this is the view from my bedroom in the morning:

There probably won't be too much to report for a few days, since I'm mostly here to attend scientific talks. I'll update once I have some more pretty pictures!

Hong Kong, Day 1 Part 1

I am in Hong Kong! I'm at a conference for the week, so there won't be a whole lot to post on this blog, but I do have a little bit of sight-seeing to share with you. I arrived Friday night and the conference didn't start until Saturday afternoon, so I explored a bit on Saturday morning. My hotel was in the Wan Chai area, which put me in a good location to explore Hong Kong Island (the southern part of the city, which is separated by Victoria Harbour). I woke up bright and early and started the day off right with some delicious pastries from a nearby bakery. I managed to check off two of the items on my must-eat list by finding an egg tart and pineapple bun:

They were both crazy delicious. The pineapple bun has a very sweet, crunchy layer on top with a nice soft interior. After stuffing my face with food, I hopped on my first form of transportation that day, the tram:

These trams run across the length of Hong Kong Island and are quite historic. They're also an insanely cheap (2.3 HKD or about 0.35 USD for any ride) and fun way to get around, since you can sit on the upper deck and get a great view of everything. They are quite slow and crowded, though. I took this tram a few stops down to where I was able to walk to the beginning of the Peak Tram. This is a very old funicular system that goes up to the top of Victoria Peak:

 

There was a decent wait to board, since this is a very popular tourist destination and there is only one car that goes up and down the hill. The tram goes up the hill at an impressive speed and angle considering how low-tech it is. The top of the peak gives some of the most incredible views I've ever seen:

The other side of the peak, which faces away from the city, also has some quite lovely views:

Once I was done gawking at the scenery, I took the tram back down and had a lovely walk around the Central district. This is the historic center of the city from the British colonial days and is an awesome place to wander around. There are lots of little pedestrian-only streets filled with shops and food vendors:

The whole area is very lovely (though hilly) and a good way to kill an hour or two. Since I was on a tight schedule, I had to find a place to eat lunch and then quickly get all the way across the city to the conference. I'll actually save all of that for the next post since I have many more pictures to share!

Observations:

• Hong Kong is way more tropical than I thought it would be. I knew it would be hot and humid, but didn't think the humidity would be quite this bad. The heat itself actually isn't horrible, though. And somehow it hasn't rained since I arrived, which I hear is quite rare.
• People are very, very friendly and helpful. Nearly everyone speaks English incredibly well and is happy to help me find my way. 
• This city is ridiculously easy to navigate. All public transit announcements and signs are in English and everything is very intuitive. Things are way more clearer than pretty much any US city.
• Everyone is dressed way more casually than in Japan. I was in slightly fancy clothing due to the conference and I felt a bit out of place since most people were in jeans and shorts.

Final Japan Post

This is seven months late, but I never really finished my posts on Japan and wanted to do that before I started posting about my newest adventure. I'm actually at the airport right now on the way to Hong Kong, followed by Taiwan.

But first, let's wrap up the Japan trip. On our last full day in the country, we explored some other areas of Tokyo. In the morning we went down to the Tsukiji Fish Market, which is famous for having insanely fresh fish (literally just caught) for sale. After walking around the market area (no pictures, it was quite crowded), we popped into a well-known sushi place to grab some fresh fish. It was conveyer belt style so we could just grab whatever looked good. The highlight of this meal was definitely the fatty tuna, which was honestly one of the best things I've ever eaten.

 

After filling our bellies with insanely delicious sushi, we walked up to the Ginza neighborhood, which is know for its high-end shopping. There was a big pedestrian-only street lined with hundreds of nice stores (some Western and some Japanese). I'm pretty sure I spent an hour in a 5-level stationary store. Poor Tommy and Bryan!

 

After this, we headed to the Imperial Palace in the Chiyoda neighborhood. The palace is located inside of a very lovely park and the views of the palace itself are quite lovely:

After enjoying the sunset in the park, we traveled to Shinjuku and went to the observation deck of the Metropolitan building. From here we got some great views of the city, and could also catch a glimpse of Mount Fuji in the distance (it's on the ride side of the picture, just above the clouds:

We spent the night wandering around the neighborhood of our hotel (Ikebukuro, which was very lively), visiting some good craft beer bars. We went to the airport fairly early on Sunday so that we could hang around the in the Narita mall before flying home (and fill our bags with amazing Japanese candy).

That about wraps up the Japan trip! I might do one more post that contains our final itinerary, for anyone who is traveling there and would like to do the stuff we did. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Day 7 & 8: Fukuoka and Hiroshima

I've been back for a month now, but people have complained that I never finished my posts. I'll do the best I can to remember what we did!

On Thursday morning we hopped back on the Shinkansen to go a few hours southwest to Fukuoka, a city on the island of Kyushu. This place is quite a bit off the normal tourist path, but we made the journey for one reason: sumo! We were interested in seeing sumo while in Japan and there happened to be a country-wide tournament going on in Fukuoka. Since we were armed with unlimited rail passes, we decided to be adventurous.

After a lovely train ride, we arrived in Fukuoka in the early afternoon. Our hotel was just a few blocks away, conveniently located near many shrines and also on the way to the sumo tournament. We stayed at a very old, traditional-style guesthouse called Kashima Honkan. It was sort of like a hostel, with shared bathroom facilities and pretty bare-bones amenities, but the historic aspect was cool.

After checking in, we walked down to the sumo tournament venue and took our seats. We made it for the last two hours of the day-long matches, which features the best wrestlers in the country (though I have no idea how to judge that). The matches themselves are incredibly brief, but have a lot of ceremony and intimidation tactics involved. A man sings the names (chosen by the wrestlers) of the competitors, followed by lots of circling and slapping and squatting. Then, the wrestlers run at each other and grapple for a few moments before one falls down or exits the ring. It was surprisingly exciting!

Afterwards, we went out into the city in search of food. This was somewhat challenging, since this is definitely not a city that caters to English-speaking tourists. And of course, we managed to walk through the red light district. We eventually would up at a big shopping complex called Canal City, which contained an area called "Ramen Stadium." Fukuoka is the birthplace of tonkotsu-style ramen (and the aforementioned Ichiran franchise) and this food court was devoted entirely to this food item. We each chose a different restaurant, which allowed us to compare the many different ways of preparing this soup. So yummy!

The next morning, I forced the boys to wake up super early to enjoy a huge traditional breakfast prepared by the guesthouse:

Bryan decided to enjoy the traditional Japanese baths at the ryokan while Tommy and I went out to look at some nearby temples. This was a very different experience from the temple-hopping we had done in Kyoto, since there are hardly any tourists. The only tourists appeared to be "religious" tourists from around Japan. The first temple we stopped at had a number of very nice buildings, though they appear to be modern (still in a traditional style):

This temple includes a giant wooden buddha (no pictures allowed) which was quite a sight to behold. You can also go under the buddha to see some odd artwork and then walk through a completely dark path to get out. I'm sure there is some spiritual significance to it that we're unaware of, but it was still really cool. We walked over to a temple called Shofukuji, which has the distinction of being the oldest zen temple in Japan. The grounds were completely empty and very pretty:

 

 

It was time to get on our train to Hiroshima at this point, so we packed up and got back on the Shinkansen. We arrived in Hiroshima an hour later and headed straight to the Peace Park. The park was very beautiful but also incredibly eerie, as it contains some of  the only ruins left from the atomic bomb detonation. Most buildings at the time were wooden and thus instantly destroyed, but this structure still stands:

The park also holds the Children's Peace Monument, devoted to the thousands of children killed by the bomb and radiation. This is surrounded by cases filled with thousands and thousands of colorful paper cranes:

We visited the museum, which was an interesting and depressing experience. It definitely makes the US look very bad while skirting around the atrocities committed by Japan at the time, but history is always going to be biased. We soon had to head back to Tokyo and grabbed some Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki on the way (no pictures, because we were hungry and in a hurry!).

After a very long train ride, we arrived in Tokyo and checked in at our new hotel in Ikebukuro. This area is very lively, particularly at night. After a very confusing experience of trying to navigate a giant department store and riding the most crowded elevator I've ever been in, we got ourselves some delicious curry udon for dinner. I really wish I had taken more pictures of food! It's been a while at this point, so I honestly can't remember if we did anything else that night. If I remember I'll include it in the final post!