Neil Basu
Neil Basu
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Jiufen

4/28/2015

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Ever see Spirited Away?  No?  Well stop reading this and then come back.  I'll wait.

In Spirited Away, and a number of Taiwanese dramas, there is often a historical setting either taking place in or inspired by Jiufen.  An old mining town, it's known for keeping an older ancient feel to it, with most of the village being navigated by stairs.  The Old Jiufen Street has a number of food and souvenir vendors in a tight space, and very cheap for a tourist destination.  Of all the tourist destinations I've ever been, this is the only one I stopped and thought "I'd actually like to live here for like a month or so."  Very beautiful and picturesque town.

And with that, my trip through Asia is over.  I head back to the US for a few weeks, and head to South America on May 19.  My first stop is Ecuador.  I'll try and update this blog every now and then with some more cultural posts on what I've seen here in Asia.
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Taipei and Hsinchu

4/27/2015

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I'm going to make this one brief.  I'm not feeling well.  Taipei pictures on top, Hsinchu on the bottom.

I feel Taiwan wasn't as cheap as expected, aside from street food.  Nothing blew me away like in Thailand in that regard.  A noticeable amount of Japanese food.  I even found Nagasaki Castella.

As for Taipei itself, its night markets were pretty good, definitely comparable to Busan, but not like Thai markets.  The food here consists of all the weird stuff, so I had food like dried blood cakes, pastries with worms mashed into them, and chicken head and heart.  I met up with a local (if you're reading this: hi!), who showed me around some parks, old bunkers from WWII, and a food tour.

Some things I saw included a cultural center in the middle of a park.  It was really hard to find a lot of it, and the exhibits were about design work I didn't have a big interest in.

Hsinchu feels much smaller than Taipei, but I like its culture a little more.  While this does occur in Taipei, there are free amateur outdoor concerts on the weekends.  They seem to draw a slightly bigger and much more dedicated set of fans.  There are hip-hop dance battles and fireshows right nearby said concerts.

Hsinchu is slightly more foreigner friendly due to an engineering firm around here.  Street food was still a challenge to order, despite being able to read a few characters.

I tried going to the fish market but I got there after it closed.  There were some nice parks in the area but I wasn't feeling up to walking the full trail, plus the buses back didn't run too frequently (I ended up walking).

My highlight was definitely the One Piece themed cafe.
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Effects Of Japanese Imperialism

4/23/2015

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I want to report on a little more than just what I'm doing and which sites I'm seeing while traveling.  Between Korea and Taiwan, the historical conflict with Japan is certainly influential to this day.

Japan is like the playground bulky who pretends he doesn't realize what he did is wrong. Japan is still failing to recognize its occupation over its former territories as being bad.  Unfortunately, these areas were ruled with an iron fist by the Japanese, including both Korea and Taiwan.

The older generations of these regions do supposedly speak Japanese, though they prefer not to speak it, baring a grudge with Japan to this day. This rarely comes up for me, but I have met Koreans who were more comfortable speaking Japanese than Korean.  Japanese restaurants are widely represented in both countries, moreso than cuisine from other spam countries.

The younger generation in Asia, while might distrustful, do love Japanese products. As I know personally, Japan is notorious for making things you really want to buy.  This is despite Korea having had an embargo on Japan as late as my lifetime.  Barring any further conflict, relationships with Japan should improve significantly within a few generations. 
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Busan

4/21/2015

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The second biggest city in Korea, Busan is still a very spacious city.  It's also notably beautiful, surrounded by mountains, really clean oceans, and foliage.  The beach here is the most popular within Korea (not that they have much choice), and the seafood is said to be the freshest.  I, for the first time, actually picked out the fish (squid actually) in the tank I'd eat.

The night market here in the Nampo area is nice, though can't compete with the energy of those in Thailand.  As with most of Asia, underground malls are commonly seen in Busan.

Tomorrow is going to be crazy.  I'm making a brief stop in Daejong to meet one friend from Kansai Gaidai, then up to Seoul to meet up with a Seoul native who I met in Nagasaki.
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Seoul and DMZ (alt: Seoul's got Souls)

4/19/2015

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This is my second time in Korea, but with much less sightseeing than the first time.  On the upside, two of my friends live in Seoul and a third came up from Daegu.  I have a fourth friend who I'm visiting in a few days.  It's interesting to note all four friends previously had a strong interest in Japan, with a few others who "moved on" from Japan to Korea.  It's as if this is trying to tell me something...

As far as what I did...

Well fun fact, not all tours to the DMZ include the JSA, which is where you enter North Korea.  Was never really outright told this.  The rest of the tour involved some history, buildings, a train station, and one of the tunnels the North tried building to invade the south.  Yes I am bitter over this.

I visited CDO Seoul here, finding out the CDO group in Tokyo is another capoeira group with some previous ties to CDO, using their name.  Mkay.  The teacher here, Zumbi, is especially friendly to guests, which I did really appreciate.  In true capoeirista fashion, his studio was not easy to find at all.

One friend from Kansai Gaidai, John, showed me around Gangnam.  Yes, they are loving their newfound popularity.

I met up with another KG friend, called Panda, and my freiend Rowell from TCNJ.  With them I saw a palace and went down to Yongsan (finding out I didn't actually see the marketplace last time).

Rowell also showed me around Hongdae, the best known party area in the city.  We mostly just got some lowkey food and drank though.

Panda brought me down to Itaewon, essentially the foreign district.  Of note, it is near a US military base.  It has all cuisine under the sun except Korean, and is known for being a trashier party scene.

I'm now in Busan.  So, time to do Busan stuff.
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Fukuoka - A Big City With Ramen

4/15/2015

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Fukuoka is the biggest city in Kyushu, and with that there isn't much to say about it that would be crazily different from Osaka or Tokyo.  It's one of those cities I'd live in but would feel bored visiting (contrary to the popular saying).  The signature foods here are tonkatsu ramen (which I had twice, not really noticeably different) and motsunabe (a mixture of animal guts and veggies being cooked in a stew in front of you).

At night time, there are small food stands called yatai, which serve ramen, oden, and/or yakitori.

The highlight of the day was a store near Fukuoka tower called Robosquare, which lets you sample, play with, and buy small robots.  There was a Hello Kitty robot with voice recognition - you can ask her questions or to sing.

It's been five years since I was last in Japan, and it's definitely been a nice refresher coming back.  Tomorrow morning, I'm off to Korea.
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Nagasaki, the Bridge to the West

4/13/2015

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While many people only know one thing about Nagasaki, there's much more to the city than just that.  Historically, Nagasaki was the only port where non-Chinese ships were allowed to trade with Japan, and even then it was largely the Dutch coming to port for most of history.  There was a small artificial island (though hard to distinguish from the mainland) called Dejima to house these sailors.

Chinese and Dutch influence are pretty clear as day in Nagasaki, even more than the Chinese influence in Kobe.  One area is called Shianbashi, which is located near the Chinatown, and is one of the more Chinese-sounding areas I've heard in Japan, and the signature dish - Nagasaki Chanpon - has routes in its name and creation from China.  There are cafes and streets with strong Dutch influence, with a cake called castella and other cuisines stemming from Europe.  The toruko rice dish, named after Turkey the country, represents how the nation of Turkey is a bridge between the east and west, as Nagasaki once was.  It's a chicken cutlet over rice on one side, and pasta on the other, covered in curry.

Unlike Hiroshima, most of downtown Nagasaki was spared by the atomic bomb, having been dropped a little offcenter and protected by the mountains.  Still, the northern part of the city has many monuments to strive for peace and shows the location where the bomb went off.  It almost feels like tragic irony, where the bridge between the east and west was mostly destroyed by the west.
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The Hells of Beppu

4/10/2015

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This is my first time in Kyushu, with my first full stop in the small city of Beppu.  Beppu is known for one thing alone: its natural hot springs/onsens.  In particular are what are called the "8 Hells", eight natural hot springs far too hot to be diluted into public bath houses, and each with its own theme behind it.  For example, the sea/umi hell is named for its bright blue coloring, while the blood hell is named for its red coloring.

There are of course many public baths in the town, though I didn't go to any that were too fancy.  That said, each one I did go to was 100 yen, and serves as exactly as advertised, a public bath.  One of the two I went to was 43 C, and left my legs a little red.

I like this area because people usually let me talk in Japanese and not have to use English.

Besides that, all else I have to comment on is the food.  While Osaka food can be described as "throw everything with batter onto a grill", Kyushu food can best be described as "throw everything into a noodle soup".  In particular, Beppu's local speciality is the Dangojiru - best described by wikipedia as "a miso or a soy sauce-based soup containing wheat noodles as well as vegetables, shimeji mushrooms and pork".  Toriten, a chicken tempura dish, is probably even moreso a local Oita prefecture dish, but I generally avoid fried foods.
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The Return to Kansai

4/7/2015

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I've been in Osaka Prefecture for about a week now.  From the night I got here I remembered why it, in my head, is so much more memorable than Tokyo.  The food culture here, including the DIY food, the loud genki atmosphere in many restaurants, is its own experience.  And the variety of food everywhere is beyond compare.  The people here just feel more outgoing too.

Kansai being already so familiar to me, I haven't done much sight-seeing.  I have been to the four major cities; Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, and Nara, but spent much more time in Osaka than the rest.  The JR pass has been a godsend.  I've been catching up with old friends from KG, and am crashing with one who still lives just outside of Osaka.  I went for some okonomiyaki with two friends and later that day did some sightseeing in Kobe and got (cheaper) Kobe beef with one friend.  I had a nice few days in Kyoto/Osaka with an old speaking partner, and had dinner at an izakaya with a friend of a friend I met in KG.  I still have plans with one last friend tomorrow.

The area is as beautiful as ever, but the rain and dreary weather is a bit unfortunate.  It's what you should expect from Japan though.

That said, I bought a super famicon years ago.  I'm spending way. way. too much money on games.  Then I discovered the Super Game Boy... and so am buying game boy games too.  Yikes,
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Japanese Trains

4/3/2015

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When I go traveling to a new city, one thing I want to do is to at least experience their public transit system.  Does it feel convenient?  Nice?  Janky?  It's one of the most defining things about being part of a city.

That said, Japanese trains are a huge relief after a few weeks in Thailand.  In Bangkok, there are three main modes of transportation: Skytrain, a subway, and a ferry.  Each is pretty nice but the three together aren't too expansive.  The ferry is obviously restricted by where the water is, but not much is really right near the ferry (though there is a connection to the Skytrain).  The ferries also stop by 10 PM every day, which is annoying.  The Skytrain has three lines, one going north/west, one going south/east, and another to the airport and is generally pretty quick.  It brings you to a lot of major destinations i.e. Siam, Weekend Market, Silom.  The underground metro, which only has one line to my knowledge, is much slower but likely passes through more residential areas, and does connect with the sky train as well.  The only issue is that the coverage by these three leave a lot to be desired, so many people still rely on taxis.  So, if you live near the Skytrain, you're generally in good business in Bangkok.

When trying to go to another city, forget about trains even if there are trains.  Most people I've talked to recommended taking buses, which are somehow faster than taking trains.  And there might be one or two trains to a certain place per day.

In contrast, Japan's railways are as convenient as always... as long as you understand it.  It's not hard getting lost in the Osaka or Tokyo metros, but once you understand them you can usually get from point A to B really painlessly.  Getting between cities via the Shinkansen or any other train is painless.  I'm staying in a small town called Minoh outside of Osaka city, and via train it's only 20 minutes getting in and out.  The most surprising part is the transfer.  You get off the train, you follow the crowd, and the train is there waiting to bring you to Minoh.  And this train only has four stops: the transfer point and three stops in Minoh.  They built an entire train line to service one town that is about 50 square kilometers.  And the trains do tend to service middle-of-nowhere locations in Japan in general.

Shortfalls include service times.  Last train is at 12/12:30 range.  If you miss it, you're SOL.  Taxis cost a fortune in Japan.  The same trip that would cost maybe 90 baht in Bangkok costed 1400 yen last night.  And this issue exists everywhere in Japan, from Tokyo to the Osaka to the Shinkansen.  Bars close extremely late in Japan and in the past I've resorted to riding the very first train of the morning (5 am) to get home.  If there was one train per hour per line from 1 am to 4 am, fine and perfect I'm down with that.

Some buses operate over night.  The night bus (夜行バス) takes maybe 6 hours between Osaka and Tokyo and depending on which you take may stop every hour and a half for a pit stop, which sucks if you're trying to sleep.
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    Neil Basu

    Travel, Tech, Politics, whatever I have on my mind

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