Hokkaido Japan

We just finished our 5 days tour of Hokkaido. It's our second tour to Japan, and second tour with Signet Tour. As usual, food was wonderful, lodging was great, and hot springs hot

Hokkaido is known for its dairy products and seafood. After the milk scare in Taiwan, we went a little crazy. Had ice cream daily, fresh milk daily, and bought 10bags of soft milk candy (Hokkaido specialty) to bring back with us. Every meal was like a feast. We had all kinds of fish, scallops, crabs (grilled, steamed, stewed, fried, and raw), squid, sea urchin (there's a special type of sea urchin called, and I kid you not, "horse shit sea urchin", it actually looks like a black donut with tiny spikes).

This time, we stayed at hot spring hotels for 3 nights. And for 2 of those 3 nights, we slept on traditional tatami. In Japanese culture, hot spring equals to naked public bath. I had a hard time last year with my first Japanese hot spring experience. Basically, you stripe naked in the "locker room", and take with you a tiny hand towel to the public bath area, and shower yourself while seating down. Then you go into the hot spring "bath" all naked, with no towels to hide anything. Why do people do that? Well, in traditional Japanese homes, and in our hotel rooms, the actual shower/bath tub is tiny. One hotel we stayed at had the sink, toilet, and bath tub all in a tiny closet sized room. Not the most comfortable showering/cleansing setting. And then there's the special body scrub, hair shampoo and conditioner, lotions, etc, that's available for use at the public bath area. Wei and I both scrubbed ourselves from head to toe with the peeling gel, and have our skins feeling soft and silky. Then there are different types of hot springs. There is iron spring, salt spring, sulfur spring, dead sea spring, and some other that I couldn't understand. They all benefit different parts of our body, and supposedly promotes good health. So, we would bath once when we check into the hotel, once before bedtime, and once more before breakfast the next day. Result? I am no longer conscious of myself naked in front of strangers.

Taiwan High Lights

We finished our week long vacation in Taipei on Monday. High Lights are:

We were interviewed and broadcasted on Taiwan news! Saturday morning, we were walking around, and went into a grocery type of store by our hotel. TV crew were there interviewing people about the tainted milk products. The lady asked us if we eat "peanut milk". I took that to mean literally, peanut flavored milk. Wei was smarter than me, and understood correctly that she meant candies make of peanut milk. The whole 3 minutes, I was laughing at Wei's awkward Mandarin. I thought they'd just delete our section. Guess no one else was willing to talk to them, so they aired us. Need to find the clip and download it somehow.

Eva Air upgraded us to first class! Monday morning was our flight from Taipei to Hokkaido. Guess we were kind of early, when we checked in, the lady told us she made some arrangements to our seating. We didn't pay much attention to it, since we didn't have seat numbers before, we thought she just gave us seats together close to the front. So being assigned row 7, we boarded the plane towards the end. Wei was wondering how come our seats were H and K, they don't seem to be next to each other or even close. When we got on, we were shown to the first class section. Apparently, rows 6-9 are first class. Of course we didn't complain. Wei seems to think the lady at the checkin counter thinks he's cute, so upgraded us at no charge. In any case, it was so nice!! They fed us all the time, had "tray clothe" for meals, and food was served in real china. We had food menu and drink menu. The best part was the seat. It reclines all the way so I can sleep like in a bed! Too bad the flight was only 3 hours. I told Wei that's the only way to travel from now on.

Typhoon Jangmi

Greetings from Taipei! After 24 hours of travel, we are in Taipei. Just in time for the strongest typhoon to hit Taiwan this year. The bus ride from the airport to Taipei was a little bit like rides at amusement parks. Because it's 2 levels, we could feel the bus swaying on the road due to high winds. Once we got off the bus, we had to walk 5 mins to Wei's grandparents' place. Within seconds, we were both wet, and could not keep walking while holding our umbrellas and luggages. The wind is something out of this world, blowing like crazy. Wei's umbrella is the first casualty. We went out for lunch with his grandmother, i had a $3 odon! After showering, 4 hours nap, we put on dry clothes and came out of the hotel. Only to find most businesses are closed. That includes some convenient stores, restaurants, and shops. Thank goodness for Comic King!