Part of the reason that I chose to come to Taiwan was an interesting sounding volunteer opportunity helping to rebuild a hostel in the city of Hualien. Hualien is known among Taiwanese as one of their most beautiful cities. It is right on the water and also has one of the highest percentages of indigenous peoples, meaning there are some interesting things here that you won’t find elsewhere in Taiwan.
The help exchange wasn’t quite what I expected, mostly due to the fact that the hostel is already almost complete. They were hoping I was …
Taiwan: Taipei
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Do you ever get so bored that you can’t seem to convince yourself to actually do anything productive? That has been me for the last few days. You’ll understand why towards the end of this post. I’m sorry I haven’t posted yet about Taiwan!!
My first reaction on arrival was that it will be a good transition between quiet, clean, orderly Japan and what I expect Thailand to be like. The best way I can describe it is more of everything: more people, more noise, more traffic, more lights, more shops open in the streets, …
Japan: Kurama & Kōya-san
My last week in Japan I visited two holy mountains, and because of the introspection they both gave me I wanted to post about them separate from the other cultural and historic things in the Kyoto/Osaka area.
The first was Mount Kurama, where Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines share space with ancient cedar trees believed to be the reincarnation of Mao-son, one-third of their Trinity, “…the Sonten Trinity, the ‘Glorious Light,’ the ‘Supreme Soul of the Universe,’ a composite of the three symbols of power, light, and love.” It is also the supposed birthplace of Reiki, …
Japan: Kyoto & Osaka
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I’m behind in my posting because I’ve been so busy!! I spent two FULL days in Kyoto (which was not enough) and am spending the day today in Osaka before I fly to Taiwan tomorrow. I also spent a day and a night in Kōya-san, but that will be its own post.
There are so many beautiful things to share, so I’m just going to throw some photos at you. My first day in Kyoto a man in my hostel overheard me asking about breakfast places and he offered to walk with me to his favorite …
Japan: Kanazawa & Kamikochi
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The first things I noticed in Steph’s apartment were two Vermont bumper stickers on her desk and a Settlers of Catan game on the bottom shelf. It sure brought me back to the golden years of college! And oddly enough there are a lot (comparatively) of Vermonters in Kanazawa due to a kind of exchange program between Kanazawa Institute of Technology, where Steph teaches in English, and St. Michael’s College in Vermont, where she and many of the other English teachers got their graduate degrees in ESL (English as a Second Language). It was wild …