welcome back, Taipei

Photographs in this post by J, drawings by Y. This photo was taken at Spot Cinema, which screens foreign arthouse and Taiwanese films.

Since we are creatures of habit, discovering something new - a new cafe, restaurant, bookstore, day trip or tourist trap - was not top on our priority list when we visited Taipei again in October this year. In fact, it is always comforting when you re-visit a foreign city and still find that same ol' cafe at the same ol' street with the same ol' coffee served by the same ol' waitress. Perhaps in our own ever-changing island-city, this is a luxury we cannot enjoy.

Still, our October trip to Taipei yielded a few new finds that we would definitely revisit. And of course, we made sure to drop by several old haunts.

Friends, as a kind of "best-of" summary of our various Taiwan reports elsewhere on this blog, we present here a list (and images) of 3 New Finds, and 7 Old Haunts...


New Find #1 Le Park Cafe

For every chain cafe in Taipei, there is probably one that is owner-operated or independent, especially near the Roosevelt/Shida area. Not every one of them is as "pretty" as the one in the fairy tale-like Taipei Exchanges 第36個故事, but you may still be surprised by the stories you can cull when you step into one. This time, we stumbled across Le Park Cafe one rainy evening in a quiet street. The two-storey cafe used to be a children's clinic (J claims it still has the smell of an old clinic), which the owner of the cafe went to as a child. It has everything you want in a cafe - a good CD collection, free wifi, very tasty coffee, friendly and unpretentious owners and lots of vintage knick-knacks scattered about the place.

New Find #2 肥前屋


I'm not a fan of BBQ eel or queues, but this Japanese eatery specialising in eel warranted 2 visits during our trip. For me, what I liked was how hardworking and focused every member of staff was at that eatery. No one slacked off, every one of them did their part, no one got grouchy. The waitress packs the patrons in like this was a canteen (and it is priced almost like a canteen), so the queue - though long - moves fairly quickly. Warning: the eel runs out by 8pm. Amps' recommendation: egg roll with eel.

New Find #3 JiaoShi, Yilan

This doesn't quite count as a day trip, since we stayed a night at the Royal Jiao Shi Hotel. With the pre-Typhoon rains, we didn't get to see much of Jiaoshi's sights at all. But the town is worth revisiting for 2 things. One is the Royal Jiao Shi Hotel and its hotspring soaks (better than Beitou!). The other is the train ride there. Through the train windows on that 1.5-2 hour ride, you will see suburban Taiwan, agricultural Taiwan, mountainous Taiwan, desolate/abandoned Taiwan...and in the last 45mins as you near Jiaoshi, the train runs right along the beautiful coast where, for some stretches, it feels as if the tracks cut across the waters.

New Find/Old Haunt #4 Yong Kang Street

When we first visited Taipei in 2006, we stumbled upon and had our first meal at Yong Kang Street, in a restaurant called 吕桑 specialising in Yilan dishes. We didn't know then that it was called Yong Kang Street, and in 2008 we tried to trace our steps but failed to be as lucky. This time, we re-discovered the place via a write-up in a Taiwanese guidebook. The area features a cluster of mid-range eateries along the narrow streets all around Yong Kang Garden/Park, including the first Din Tai Fung at the furthest edge. This is a great place to go when you are sick of all that deep-fried or gooey Taiwanese street food. Besides, the small park in the evening is pleasant. In recent years, the area has also attracted some cafes and small boutiques, which helps to extend the dinner experience. To get there, amps recommend that you take the MRT to Guting, and from there, hop into a cab and ask for Yong Kang Garden/Park. The taxi ride should cost you no more than NT$70-80.

Old Haunt #5 Witch Cafe

Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening, the Witch cafe offers a stage for a band or a musician. The few times we've been there, we have heard a group of blind folk musicians, a university pop band and more recently, 2 guitarists singing hakka folk songs inspired by their trip to China. NT$100 gets you entry and a drink at the bar. The performance schedule is available online [this website provides a comprehensive list of all the music venues in Taipei].. Just 20m away at the main street round the corner from the cafe, there is an excellent shaved ice shop. Amps recommend the strawberry milk ice and the red bean milk ice.

Old Haunt #6 Human-scale streets
One of the best things about Taipei is that a large part of the city is still made up of narrow streets, lined with narrow shops/homes some 2 to 4-storey tall. These streets feel somewhat improvised, certainly old (and with age comes dirt and grime), and most definitely at a human-scale. For us islanders, wandering around these human-scale streets - even when there is nothing particularly interesting to look at - is one of the best things about our holidays in Taipei. The contrast is somewhat simplistic - but unlike Taiwan, our island was planned and built by a bureaucracy and big-time developers, a system that is greater than the sum of its individual human parts. This is not to say it is not a caring or effective body, just that it wil never reflect all the ingenuity or fallibility of individual creativity. It will be, to the best of all its ability (and good intentions), an efficient system of conduits, nodes, rooms and the occasional "destination". As a system, it can mitigate human error and aggregate human industry.

If you are not too adventurous and prefer your human-scale streets to still contain commerce and entertainment, amps recommend you explore the little streets around the Zhong Shan MRT station, the Taipei MRT station and the Zhong Xiao Hunhua MRT station.

Old Haunt #7 碗粿

Top on our Taiwan snack list is still this steamed rice flour dish which has a piece of tender pork and salted egg yolk hidden in the middle, and is best eaten with a liberal addition of chili sauce, black vinegar and garlic paste. The stall in the photo is at the LongShan Temple MRT stop, on the row of shops before you get to the Snake Alley/Hua Xi Street Market.

Old Haunt #8 Eslite
This bookstore (chain) really needs no introduction, but the list seems incomplete and inaccurate without it.

Old Haunt #9 Les Suites Chung Ching
We've stayed in several hotels in Taipei, but if you are giving yourself a treat, we wouldn't recommend any other hotel than Les Suites - and the one at Chung Ching if you don't mind transferring on the Muzha line. The entrance to the hotel is 20m away from the Nanjing East station, but it is understated enough for you to miss it completely on the first visit.

Old Haunt #10 Chiang Kai Shek's summer mansion at Yang Ming Shan
Hidden in Yang Ming Shan is the summer residence of Taiwan's former president Chiang Kai Shek, aka the Yang Ming Shan Shu Wu. This tourist destination makes it to our list only because we have tried to visit this place three times already, but we've not been successful. Entry to the building and its gardens is ONLY allowed via the guided tours, and the tours take place ONLY four times a day. So unless you are prepared to hang around and wait 2 hours for the tour to start, please don't be repeatedly silly like us and check the website here for more information about the tour schedule. Well, should you really miss the tour, you can take a pleasant 30-45min walk along the shady road back down to the Visitor Centre/Bus Station.

city of books

all images by J

Notwithstanding this, J and I do try to explore at least one district that we've never been to each time we visit Tokyo. This year, it was Jimbocho. It's a name I almost feel should be an exclamation. Like "Jimbocho!" or "J-I-M-B-O-C-H-O!"

Especially if you love books.

The first thing you'll notice is that there's nothing fancy about Jimbocho's bookstores. Its dedication is singular - books. And the folks who trawl Jimbocho's shelves do not need any encouragement from cute merchandise or interiors. They are - as I point out to J - true in their love for books.


posters on the wall of a bookstore

Next, you'll find that most of the stores have focused collections. Depending on the store's genre, every possible space is packed with books, magazines or manga. To add, the shelves are meticulously categorised and labelled, and if not, the organisation makes itself obvious, as if in the shopkeeper's own language of association. We had first walked up to a small bookstore on the second-floor focused on the Beat Generation, before stumbling upon a street of shops collecting all printed material related to the cinema and popular culture.

According to the entry by Yoshita Haba in Claska's Tokyo by Tokyo, "the stock on the shelves changes depending on the time of the year, so it's best to make regular visits - bookshelves are like living, constantly changing creatures."

After all this, you'd walk around wishing you understood some of the Japanese language so that you could access more of these creatures.

But with no Japanese, the book that accompanied J and I (we took turns reading/re-reading) throughout our stay instead was Narayan's novel Waiting for the Mahatma.

Probably one of the few Narayan stories that dealt with an overtly political context, Waiting for the Mahatma takes Siriam, a characteristically carefree Malguldi resident, and puts him through a coming-of-age experience that is not so much political awakening as an extended schoolboy crush. Guided only by love for Bharati, Siriam finds himself a participant in Gandhi's spiritual reconciliation of India and Chandra Bose's militant independence movement, while the rather benign colonial representatives look on and the Hindu-Muslim conflicts place questions on the nature of India's independence.

Waiting is a somewhat atypical of Narayan's Malgudi novels in the tragic undercurrents of its comedy. As if once outside Malgudi, Narayan's fictional paradise, the realities of India cannot but unsettle Narayan. With its last chapter set in New Delhi, Waiting as a love story cannot find its consummation. The title's anticipation therefore gestures at this always-tentative (political) romance.

It is a strange novel to read during a vacation in consumerist 21st century Tokyo. But returning to this wonderful novel and discovering a new district in Tokyo has been two of my best experiences in the last week.

villagers/creatures of habit

The Aosando art fair pairs up artists with shops in the backlanes of Aoyama. A great way to get traffic to the quieter shops, and to get people to notice new artists.

On each of our visits to Tokyo, J and I have always ended up going to the same restaurants, museums and retail stores. Today, for instance, we chatted with one of the chefs and walked down our favourite street to the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. But just as we note how Tokyo has changed (or not) each annual or biennial interval, I think we notice how we, too, have changed (or aged!!!) each time.

J: I now understand what you mean when you say you sometimes prefer Taipei to Tokyo.
Y: You do?
J: Yah. It's the language thing.
Y: Yes, and with it, the whole thing about accessibility... and alienation (ooh, big word) of cities.
J: Yah, for the first time, I can imagine what it is like to be alone and living in Tokyo - the loneliness and the possibilities.
Y: No kidding. It's a great place to run away or escape to. But in the same way, cities don't give a shit about you, so if you can't fit in or feel alone, it really hits you. Maybe that's why we always go to the same places in Tokyo, just to connect to this place.
J: In comparison, that's why Singapore is so attractive to expatriates, no?
Y: Uh-huh.
J: It has all the pretences of a big city, but in reality, in essence, it is a -
Y: - village.
J:Yah, like a village. Everyone more or less speaks some English. The aunties - if you stay in HDB - will talk to you and ask you questions. In no time, you will quickly find friends, know someone who is friends who someone who is also friends with someone...
Y: Yah. All the good stuff but also the trappings of a village. Which sometimes makes you want to run away to a real city...hah!

Well friends, if you ever feel like running away to Tokyo, there are two places we will not hesitate to recommend in Tokyo:

(1) Have a meal at Chopsticks Cafe or the Sora no niwa tofu restaurant. Both are at Shibuya, and for 4000 yen each, you can afford 5 courses of good food and at least 3 rounds of beer/sake/cocktails. Not to mention the great service and ambience.


Seasonal tofu starter at Sora No Niwa.

(2) Visit Issey Miyake's work
This includse 21-21 Design Sight, a design museum adjacent to the Midtown complex at Roppongi, and his Pleats Please store at Aoyama. The former always has intelligently curated shows while the latter never fails to have pretty (for J's sake) and friendly retail staff who are ever ready to talk about design, no matter how difficult it may be for them in English.


Night view of 21-21, architecture by Tadao Ando. J testing his new camera at 3000 ISO

tunnel-visioned tokyo

Tokyo - that's all we'll be seeing this coming week! And that is plenty because it is going to be the week of the Tokyo Designers Week, 100% Design Tokyo, Design Tide at Midtown, the Emerging Directors' Art Fair, the Aosando Art Fair... But of course, J and I are just looking forward to walking in another city.

We'll try and load up the photos here as we go along! Meanwhile design critic J is appalled and depressed by changi airport.

to see the world and the living room

This being the weekend when Singaporeans are busy booking their year-end packaged holidays at the travel fair, it is apt that J and I overheard bits of this conversation (well, it's more like a monologue) at the Kiliney Road Kopitiam -

Woman: Yah, when I was in Hokkaido last year, it was hard to find this ... [Sips her coffee, eats her mee rebus] I really enjoyed Paris. I mean, for me, that was the nicest city. The trip started at Denmark, stayed there for a few days, then the next few days we moved on to... [Sips her coffee, eats her mee rebus] Oh Canada! That was when I went for... [Finishes her mee rebus] But you know, Sengkang, Punggol, Jurong East*, I don't really know these places.

Hey, 700 square kilometers is pretty large an island to have to trek around for folks who prefer to lug around a suitcase.

Unfortunately, save for our rather obsessive bike rides to this, us amps cannot claim to have contributed much to domestic tourism this year as well. But Saturday evening, we overcame our inertia to find our way to a part of the island we seldom venture to - Bukit Timah. Or to be precise, Upper Bukit Timah.

If Katong was our genteel east, where old money built their seaside homes and breathed a little easier, then Bukit Timah is where they eventually landed their wealth. Unlike the east, whose refinement got reclaimed together with the shoreline, Bukit Timah continued to be where their grandchildren (or those aspirational families) continue to populate the bungalows and condominiums and patronise the fancy "specialist" grocers and butcheries. Well, it's therefore not surprising that ever since my junior college days and a brief stint volunteering at the old Salvation Army Store's sorting house, Bukit Timah is a part of the island J and I don't have much reason to frequent. But we found one to warrant a Saturday evening bus ride from Toa Payoh to Upper Bukit Timah Road.


random shot off from a cab across the island.

We got off bus #157 at the Bukit Timah market and hawker centre. That was not the reason for the bus ride (at least not this time), and neither was it the old skool Beauty World Shopping Centre and Bukit Timah Shopping Centre. So we headed past both shopping mall relics classics down Upper Bukit Timah Road until we saw the large neon signboard for Courts. The air-conditioning from Courts was tempting, but we resisted. We continued our walk, away from the bright lights to the soft, residential glow of the condominiums and bungalows nestled against the nature reserve of Bukit Timah Hill. Once we neared the trees, the air seemed to drop a degree - quite naturally this time. Ah, even the air the rich breathe in seem cooler, J envied, even though such air was not reason enough for our visit. Instead, just when the darkness of a nearing nature reserve got us a little worried, we spotted it.

The cluster of low-rise buildings that used to be the Bukit Timah Fire Station was turned last year into another one of those hip "lifestyle" places, a la Dempsey and Old School. This one houses several offices, schools that teach stuff like photography and digital arts, a spa, a bistro called *surprise* Fire Station... and our destination - Raw Kitchen.

Housed in a single-storey unit in the innermost corner of the whole compound, Raw Kitchen is nothing if not charming. That night, all the chairs in this small, owner-run restaurant were placed in its backyard where Substation's associate artists, collective Mux were giving a performance. For more than an hour, we sat, sans dinner, just relaxing and listening to this group of very young, talented folks:


We shot this on the iphone, but you can watch a recording of their performance specially by Common People made in a living room by clicking here. If you want to get out of your living room to Raw Kitchen, it's at 276 Upper Bukit Timah Road. Warning: It's not a live music place, in case you are mistaken.

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*Place names in Singapore

Hokkaido for Ladies with Unladylike Appetites

If there is one image that summed up my one-week experience in Hokkaido with Ma Y, it is this:







The meals you can have in Hokkaido are reason enough why anyone thinking of taking their mom on a holiday should put Hokkaido on the list of possible destinations. Especially if your mother enjoys her food and cooking as much as mine. Sure, Hokkaido is a tourist trap aimed at both domestic and foreign visitors. But hey, this means that the destinations are mostly accessible and visitor-oriented without losing too much of its authenticity.



So if you've scrunched up some savings and have set aside a week from work, here's a fairly typical itinerary for a reasonably-paced tour of the central parts of Hokkaido:



Day 1: Starters in Sapporo



Start the trip with a leisurely walk in one of Sapporo's many parks*. Without wandering too far from the city centre, there is the Hokudai Shokubutsuen (Botanical Gardens). The park is far from the carefully planned and neat Botanical gardens in Singapore, but it offers some quiet paths and over 40,000 plant varieties. The park also contains some old structures in Sapporo, including Sapporo's 1st museum.



When getting to the park entrance at North 3 West 8, stop first at the strikingly red building at N3 W4. The first Municipal Government Building in Hokkaido, its red facade makes for a great first photo! Plus it is also surrounded by a pretty park with two ponds that attracts the Salaryman-on-a-lunchbreak and the Japanese retiree alike. The Shokubutseun entrance is a short walk right behind the Municipal building. At the entrance is also Hokkaido Ainu Association, which has a small display of Ainu culture objects.







After the walk, stop for lunch at a cafe as you make your way southward towards the Tozai subway line or the Odori-koen. Odori park is a fairly narrow strip of green that marks the North and South ends of the city. It's another great place to wander around or even sit and people-watch while having a takeaway lunch (the 7-11 or Lawson's have good tasting sandwiches). This is because Odori Park has some fun sculptural pieces that double up as a kind of playground for kids. In summer, the Sapporo Jazz Festival and various beer/wine/cheese festivals also take place in tents set up around the park



Take the Tozai line subway from Odori Park (several stations are located alongside the Park) for your first Tourist Trap - the Ishiya Chocolate Factory! Get off at the Miyanosawa Station, which is the western terminus of the Tozai line. Check out the map in the station, which would show the location of the chocolate factory. The walk there should not take you more than 10minutes. Even if you don't spot the tour buses, you can smell the Ishiya chocolate biscuits once you are near the building.





Ishiya's oompa-loompas hard at work



The Factory, aka the Shiroi Kobito Chocolate Park, is really a glorified shop for the company's products. There, you can wander around the faux-English facades of the buildings, tour its faux-English rose garden and miniature houses (the kids love this), and make a 15-minute visit to its "museum". From the top floor, you can also look through glass windows down at the chocolate making facility - but that's about as close as you'll get. Still, the Park makes for a relaxing time for your mom taking photographs, watching the kids goofing around, and having a cup of coco. (The Ishiya chocolates are available everywhere in Hokkaido and even at the airports. Prices are the same, so you don't really have to make any purchases here)



After a short rest at the hotel, head on out to Susikino, Sapporo's party district for dinner! Other than Odori Park, Susikino is another venue for Sapporo's festivities. When we were there, the streets were closed to traffic and were filled instead with hawker stands selling beer, noodles and grilled food, and a traditional drumming competition! The Hokkaido folks sure love to party.







*If you have more time to wander further off the city centre, there are more impressive parks. For example, there's the Art Park or the beautiful Maruyama-koen (which has the Hokkaido Jungu temple).



Day 2: Start the gluttony already



The Nijo Fish Market at S2E2 is perhaps only one tenth the size of Tokyo's famous Tsujiki Fish Market, but Hokkaido's reputation for fresh seafood makes up for its small scale. Start the day with a walk to the Market. If you are walking from the North side of the city, take the chance to stop by the Sapporo Clock Tower at N1W3 for a photograph. It is supposedly the oldest working clock tower in Japan, but a clock tower's just a clock tower. At the Nijo Fish Market, try the Hokkaido hairy crab or snow crab, grilled scallops, and a bowl of rice topped with roe, sea urchin or the fish of your choice. If your mom is, like mine, a glutton lady of appetite, ask for the "Yakoburi-don", aka Glutton's don, topped with a variety of seafood. You can eat at the seafood stalls themselves; most have a table or two. That should settle brunch for the day.



Walk off the meal at the Tanuki-Koji arcade, the longest shopping arcade in Sapporo. It starts round the corner from the fish market at S2E1 and ends at S2W8. The shops are mostly souvenir stalls, eateries or rather dowdy boutiques. But it's a pleasant walk away from the sun. If not, exit and walk along W3 or W4 and you will find the Parco departmental store. Your mom will appreciate a toilet or coffee break there.







From there, it's a short walk to the Odori station along the Toho line, past the Odori Park. Take the Toho line to the Higashi Kuyakusho-mae stop to get to... the Tourist Trap of the day - the Sapporo Beer Museum and Bier Garten! Since the actual brewery has moved to a modern factory, the visit is not really going to shed much light on the brewing process etc. The museum's collection, however, does include an interesting display of Sapporo poster advertisements through the years while you fill up on the various brews at the museum bar. The grounds of this old brewery also makes for an enjoyable early evening walk. And as you wander around, decide on the setting for your dinner - you can have Hokkaido's famous grilled lamb in the old beer hall (men in suits), open air restaurant (families and couples) or a more modern annex building (groups of college/high school kids). There's an eat-all-you-can option (with a drink-all-you-can add on)... definitely for Ladies with Appetite.







Day 3: A Venetian Cuppa



Venture out of Sapporo for the day. Otaru is a port town about 30-40 minutes away by train, and touts itself as the "Venice of Japan" (read Major Tourist Trap). It is a scenic train ride. During the 15mins approaching Otaru, the tracks run right beside the coastline, so it feels just like that scene in Spirited Away - a train floating on water.







Once at Otaru, take your time to wander through the streets towards the warehouses closer to the coastline. The town is a mix of preserved old warehouse structures (wooden skeletons completely clad in heavy stone), Victorian buildings and modern concrete shophouses. Once you reach a stretch of canal lined with warehouses that have converted into eateries, take a couple of photographs (yes, it is picturesque) before filling up on an early lunch.



For the rest of the day, visit the many glass studios and shops. You can even try to make your own glass at the K Glass Studio. There's also the Music Box Museum (aka a very large shop) where even if you're not keen to make a purchase, your mom can spend a good hour or so just fiddling around with the various designs. In between, remember to take a break at several dessert and cake shops in Otaru where both of you can have a coffee before your mom fills up the shopping basket. There's the famous Rokkatei, Nii Kuraya and Kitakaro. I won't describe the confectionaries you can find at these places...but they will definitely make you wish later you had left some space for dinner.



Sushi is a relatively inexpensive option at the dedicated Sushi Street. If not, wander into the Sun Shopping Arcade on your way back to the train station. Midway through the arcade, there's a little street that has some 5-6 small bars/eateries that are more like the owners' extended kitchen. Either way, your mom is not likely to be disappointed with her meal.



Day 4: It's Japan Hour!



Hokkaido has many onsen towns. Some are nestled deeper in the nature parks, while others, such as Noboribetsu, are located more accessibly for less adventurous folks. An overnight stay in one of the onsen hotels provides a good break in the middle of your trip for mom to recharge.



Noboribetsu is a 1hr train ride away, south of Sapporo. Leave your luggage at the Sapporo Hotel and pack enough for the next 3 days before heading out. We checked into a "Japanese style" room at the popular Daiichi Takimotokan at Noboribetsu, but I'm sure if you make your bookings early enough, there are a lot more options. Try to see if the hotel offers a dine-in option where they will serve the 8 to 10 dishes in your room. Very Japan Hour, no?



To work up an appetite for dinner, take a walk around Noboribetsu's "Hell Valley" - the source of its sulphuric heat. If your mom has the stamina, extend the walk by trekking to see the crater lakes or the foot bath. The pre-dinner programme can therefore take anything from 20minutes to 2hours or more. There are, of course, other programme options, if your mom is into visiting the cheesy re-created Edo village or the cruel (and smelly) Beer Park nearby. If not, unwind after your walk with an ice cream at the street of shops leading to the hotels. While at the shops, you can also load up on beer, sake or any other drinks for your dinner (warning: prices in the hotel are at least double).



Back in the hotel, spend the next few hours before dinner soaking any tiredness away and warming up your stomach muscles for the stretching it'll get with the dinner!



This is just for starters!



Day 5: Not for Teetotalers



Sufficiently refreshed after the onsen experience, travel by train to central Hokkaido to visit some of Hokkaido's farmlands. We made Asahikawa, Hokkaido's second largest city, our base. Why? Because it is the location of several sake breweries!



The train journey from Noboribetsu to Asahikawa will take you right through lunch. Once you've checked into your Asahikawa hotel, you may have 2 hours or so to see at least one of the sake breweries.



We went to the popular Otokoyama Sake Brewery via the public bus. It's a 20minute ride on Bus #67, 68, 70, 71 667 from Bus Stop 18 by the Seibu departmental store 5 minutes away from the train station. At the Brewery, there's the usual explanation in Japanese of the brewing process, observation windows into the factory spaces, an outdoor display of the traditional tools, a fountain where you can fill up your bottle with the spring water used in Sake making, and... the tasting room! The ladies in the shop will let you taste most types of Sake, except the priciest ones, and are able to give you some simple explanation in English.



Take the same bus back to the city centre. The central pedestrian avenue from the train station is a pleasant pre-dinner walk, sometimes with lively college buskers. There are lots of Izakayas (little bars that serve a wide variety of seafood and grilled meats) in Asahikawa, so as you wander down the Avenue, look out to the streets on your left or right for Izakayas. We had a delicious meal of grilled meats and gyoza with our ice cold beers!



*Most visitors to Asahikawa go to the Asahiyama Zoo, supposedly the most popular zoo in Japan. If your mom is interested, you may have to put up for one more night in Asahikawa.



Day 6: Fruits of the Land



Furano and Biel are 20-60 minute train rides from Asahikawa where you can recreate those postcard shots of Hokkaido - a field of endless lavender, a patchwork of greens, that lone tree against a bright blue sky... You can start the day at Furano, and stop by Biel on your way back to Asahikawa. If you want an even more leisurely look at this side of Hokkaido, it is worth spending an extra day here. Hey, take things slow - it's a holiday! There's even the Norokko Train (literally 慢吞吞) to both places that travel at a pace deserving of the label "slow coach".







Furano has several food-themed Tourist Traps destinations. There're hourly buses from the Furano station to most of these: the Cheese Factory, Chateau Furano Winery and Grape Juice Factory. They are fairly disappointing, being no more than retail shops where you catch just a glimpse of the actual process. But your mom will likely be rev-ed up by the food shopping. If you haven't tasted Hokkaido milk, the Cheese Factory retails milk in single serving bottles. The same bus will also take you to Farm Tomita, the most visited Lavender farm. Needless to say, photo opportunities abound.



Ma Y was too tired at the end of all this to stop by Biel. But if you make good time at Furano and the weather is pleasant, a 1hour stop at Biel is recommended. If not, head back to Asahikawa for another satisfying Izakaya or Ramen meal. The Asahikawa style of Ramen is supposed to be different from the Sapporo style. I'm not a gourmand enough to tell the difference... but you may be!



Day 7: Last Dips



We were taking the plane back to Singapore on Day 8, so we made our way back to Sapporo on Day 7. At this stage, you may want to spend the day at any destinations at Furano/Biel/Asahikawa that you had missed in the last couple of days. Ma Y opted to spend the day shopping at Sapporo. This meant that we had the chance to track down any other Hokkaido dishes we had yet to try - Soup Curry (it's not just diluted Japanese Curry) and more Izakaya fare! For food-related souvenirs, the basement food halls of Tokyu and Daimaru around the Sapporo Train Station are one-stop shops. They also present another way to end this trip for Ladies with Appetite - a dinner of little snacks, salads, pickles and other dishes from the Japanese supermarket.



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More tips for travelling in Hokkaido with Moms



1. Air TravelThere didn't seem to be any direct Singapore-Sapporo flights. Be prepared to transit in Osaka or Tokyo. For arriving via Osaka, international and domestic arrivals are in the same airport/terminal, so transits are easy to make. However, you will need to clear the immigration gates and pick up your bags before checking them in with your domestic flight. For your return journey, however, you can check in your bags straight through to Singapore from Sapporo. All you need is to clear the immigration gates at Osaka or Tokyo Narita. Confirm with your airline/ticket agent on the transit arrangements.



2.Planning the trip Hokkaido is a large island, so train journeys from a city at one end to one at the other could take some 4 to 5 hours. Unless you are spending more than a week there, it'll be tough to see some of the sights at the northern parts. You don't really want to subject your mom to too many long train rides...however comfortable Japan Railway is!



3. Weather Hokkaido's dramatic seasonal shifts will mean that some sights or destinations may be shut to visitors or not what they are advertised to be during certain periods of the year. July/August is great for seeing the lavender fields or even sunflowers in Furano/Biel, but it can get hot, sticky or even wet. Warn your mom to bring her sunblock and a very wide-brimmed hat!



4. Directions/Maps Hokkaido is one of the most "planned" parts of Japan. The cities/towns are essentially grids. You can basically navigate most addresses/maps by checking out the North/South and East/West location. For example, the location of a hotel could be along the North 3 road (N3), by East 3 street (E3). It is not difficult to navigate. And if you can read Chinese characters, you can even figure out the addresses in Japanese.



5. Stamina! Some of the "walking trails" in the nature parks may appear mild/short on the map, but what seems an easy trek to you may be - literally - an uphill struggle for your mom. So be prepared to shorten the walks treks or better still, have your mom take along a hiking or walking aid.



6. Accommodation As with Tokyo, a hotel not more than a 5-6 minute walk from the train station is best. Your mom will probably not have the energy for a long walk back to the hotel after a day out. Note that check-in times for hotels in Japan are usually 2 or 3pm, and are strictly followed. So if you are arriving at a hotel early, be prepared that you won't get a chance to rest in the room first.



7. Shopping Your mom is likely to want to buy lots of the locally produced food/beverages home. So pack less on this trip and bring along a sturdy additional bag (or two) for that return flight!

murakami country

Hokkaido is Haruki-Murakami country.

I'm thinking A Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance. Jazz, grilled lamb (you know, dead sheep), Mild Seven scenes of green fields and clear skies (not lungs), that Sapporo beer star, and a silence that urbanites will normally know little of. There's even a Dolphin hotel, although this is not likely to have elevators that get stuck in-between floors...or any elevators at all.

You can't tell all this from the images above, because I am spending the day/night with Ma Y at a touristy onsen town. After all, Hokkaido is also Incentive-Travel-for-Mothers/Housewives country.

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p/s If you are thinking of taking your mom for a holiday, check back here for a leisurely itinerary a couple of weeks from now!

weirdo x eccentric

The first "comprehension" assignment/test I had to mark as a full-time teacher in a Junior College more than 10 years ago now (!) was based on a piece of writing on the differences between weirdos and eccentrics. Not unlike comparing nerds and geeks.

My memory fails me somewhat (Tym?), but I think the writer was saying that the key difference was that the latter (i.e. eccentrics), despite displaying behaviour that was not comprehensible to most of society, nonetheless posed no threat to society. In fact, they were tolerated, even appreciated, for their inscrutible interests and quirks. Odd but even charming or intriguing - from a distance. Weirdos, on the other hand, deviate from the norm in ways that society do not necessarily value.Odd and somewhat unfriendly, even frightening or just smelly.

The short piece made sense then, but now that I think about it, I wonder if the differences are not as simple as this: eccentrics are wealthier.

This is my 6th trip to Hong Kong in the last 10 years. Three for leisure, two for work, and this one for "study". But I am indifferent to Hong Kong, and hence the lack of photographs in this post. Still, I can see where Hong Kong is charming and Singapore is not. At the risk of cheap over-simplification, I imagine a visitor wants to like Hong Kong, while Singapore perhaps tries hard in wanting to be liked (but oh, tropical isle, you have a fan in me regardless).

The two big auction houses locate their auctions in Hong Kong. Years ago, they held them in Singapore. There are many reasons for them leaving - GST, proximity to vast Chinese wealth and East Asia's cultural/economic ascendancy over the poorer, fragmented Southeast Asian region. But I wonder if it is also because Hong Kong has the kind of private wealth that Singapore only has in its corporations,and usually partially state-owned or foreign corporations for that matter. While individuals can afford to be eccentric, such corporations with their public or multiple stake/shareholders can't.

So in the five days I spent in Hong Kong, I did meet some eccentrics, however "mild" their condition. They were magazine editors, collectors and gallery owners who confidently flaunt what distinguished them from us plebians - their wealth. But not through diamond-studded Frank Muller watches. Instead, they showed me their vampiric skin, told their dramatic personal histories (with the accompanying wardrobes), and pursued, ultimately, a knowledgeable collecting.

how big's your neighbourhood?

watching the sunrise at Burobudor

The islands that make up the Indonesian republic are only an hour or so away from ours by air. But other than a trip to Bali some 10 years ago, I've not been to this part of our ASEAN neighbourhood until the trip last week.

The 5 days to Yogyakarta and Jakarta were taken up mostly by visits to artist studios, galleries and (very wealthy!) art collectors' homes. It was a cloistered view into this vast nation. But even so, the very narrow glimpse afforded by the art and the very few folks I met already suggested the complexity and wealth of the social and cultural resource and challenges of the world's 4th largest population. The trip and various conversations were short, but difficult to summarise. So instead of trying to make something coherent of it, here's a photo-diary (and some links):

Jogja Community DIY:

wall art on the IVAA courtesy of Jogjakarta's resident street artist "LoveHateLove"

The Indonesian Visual Art Archive is a 2-year old organisation. It is housed in an old, modest 1 storey house comprising a library of art books, a small canteen, a 3x5m gallery space and, its main business, a treasure trove of interviews, event videos and articles about Indonesian art. The staff are in the process of digitising the material. Other than some "guilt money" funding from Netherlands and "goodwill" money from the Asia-Europe Foundation, the centre runs on a small revenue from library subscriptions. No Indonesian state funding. The walls, shelves and chairs show their age. But the folks who run it are far from run down!


Independent Curator Enin introducing Jumaldi Alfi at the Kelompok Jendela

The latest artist-run residency space by Kelompol Jendela similarly receives no state funding. A beautifully designed 2 storey building in concrete, timber, exposed concrete and stone, it was supposedly started following a conversation between independent curator Enin and 30-something artist Alfi when the former asked the latter what he could do to "give back" to the Jogja art community now that he was financially stable. Admirable!


different ways of masking - (L)plaster model at Agus Suwage's studio, (R) the dgtmb shop set up by a group of comic/street artists

Collectors nationale:

Prominent collector Dr Oei Hong Djien's contemporary art collection

Maybe it's just the pragmatic reason that the economic value of Indonesian art makes for a better investment, but almost every collector - young, old, educated, informed, passionate or just plain rich - has a singular interest in Indonesian art. When asked why, their reply would usually amount to "because I'm Indonesian". Their more altruistic elaborations include supporting young Indonesian artists ("so many of them don't even have money for food!"), collecting a part of the nation's history, or just being able to appreciate and understand the context and culture from which the art arose. One impassioned collector organises regular art education seminars and discussions for young collectors and issues 1000 sms-es each week on art events.

But the strong influence of the market is starting to show its negative impact. For sure, many of the collectors are also hard-nosed investors (a couple have moved on to be art dealers). Except for 1st president Sukarno's art collection, the best of Indonesia's art is now in private hands. While collectors like Dr Oei Hong Djien (a member of the Singapore Art Museum board!) have opened up his comprehensive collection to the public by erecting 2 gallery buildings in his private compound in Magelang, most remain hidden from public view. In a way, the situation reflects the glaring chasm between the wealthy and the poor in Indonesia.

Another Biennale?:

installation Zacht by Iswanto Hartono

The divide is obvious in the city's high-end shopping malls, which are quiet save for the visits by the chaffeured class. It is therefore telling that two of the latest shopping malls, Seneyan City and Grand Indonesia, are hosting a segment of the Jarkarta Biennale.

Organised by the Jakarta Arts Council, this is the first time the Jakarta Biennale includes international artists. The opening was mostly attended by the art student crowd, and the work at the National Art Gallery was patchy. Still, there were some gems. Indonesian artist Jompet's installation of phantom soldiers harking back to the period of Dutch colonialisation was especially powerful, their programmed drum beats reverberate menacingly in the basement of the Gallery. Many of the works explore Indonesia and, indeed, the region's colonial past, and the possibility of cultural dialogue against the contemporary narrative of economic and cultural globalisation.


On opening night, video projections on the Gallery's facade. One is a footage of modern Indonesian streets, one B/W footage of the past. One of Mozart's piano concerto (I think) plays in the background.

A writer expressed to me her optimism about the Jakarta Biennale's development towards greater regional representation and exchange, in particular the ASEAN region since the world at large were sufficiently engaged with East and South Asia culture. A collector expressed his skepticism that such regional optimism had existed in the 60s and was not new (i.e. would not take off). For me, the trip and conversations made real of art's dynamic and tension-filled relationship with society, state and the individual; its use for change and to celebrate/cement the status quo. It probably wouldn't be too harsh to say that the art I saw in those few days was immaterial to the average Indonesian's quality of life, yet it seemed absolutely integral to the identity and vitality of the collective body. It also made me even more conscious of how much there is to learn about the countries - their history, culture and society - around our little island.

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p/s Keen to see Indonesian art in Singapore?

(1) Work by artists from the Jendela Group would be exhibited at the NUS Museum from 27 Feb till Apr09. For more information, see here

(2) Indonesian artist Agus Suwage just completed a residency stint at the Singapore Tyler Print Institue (see here), so his works should be on show at the STPI sometime this year.

(3) Dr Oei Hong Djien's collection is documented in a book Exploring Modern Indonesian Art, available at Select Book store. 35 works from his collection are also on long-term loan to SMU and can be viewed at the campus, see here.

what a stop - for a start

Yogya from the Melia Hotel

The Garuda GA877 hits the tarmac still at high speed. The green through the window is a blur. The ground is dark, with rain. The brakes work hard. There can't possibly be more runway left. Then it stops. Ah, safe in Yogyakarta.

on a Hou Hsiao Hsien movie set

By the tracks of the Jiji Station, the oldest train station in Taiwan

OK, not quite. We did not even manage to go all the way south to Hou Hsiao Hsien's KaoShiung or even Tainan, but we did venture out from Taipei for 3 days to Taichung. But the real takeaway was actually this supposed feature of Hou Hsiao Hsien's films - trains!

Trains are about the best thing about traveling. Unlike cars and taxis, trains are a social mode of transport. Train stations allow for reunions and departures, points to assess and affirm relationships. I admit that all this fades away when you are tired or in a great hurry (or both). But seriously, cars (oh, 4-wheelers!) have only brought about pollution and wasteful consumption, traffic jams, asphalt, mindless obsession with speed and countless quarrels in the stressful, enclosed interiors of cars. Friends, take it slow. Take the train. Read a book. Hold your partner's hand. Be there with the people around you.



With Taiwan's highspeed rail system (aka bullet train, 高鉄) up and running, the journey from Taipei to Taichung costs no more than S$20 and takes slightly less than an hour. From Taichung, we managed to take 2 day-trips that provided an opportunity to take the train through some movie set-like old stations and little towns. Taiwan's railways are a legacy from its Japanese colonial period, and the Jiji line is one of the oldest tracks/routes that has been preserved. Here are two ways to experience Taiwan's ol skool rails and towns:

(1) Lu Gang & Changhua:

Lu Gang ("Deer Harbour") is one of the oldest ports in Taiwan, but it had silted up some time ago. It is now largely promoted as a town with one of the best-preserved old streets in Taiwan and some mean street food.


Glutinous Meat Balls Stall at Chang Hua. Good stuff.

On the way to Lu Gang, you will transit at Chang Hua. At Chang Hua, cross the street from the train station, take the street diagonally on the right into some narrow streets where you will find Chang Hua's famous "Meat Balls", a chunk of deliciously marinated minced pork in a thick glutinous skin. This palm-sized snack is steamed, then quickly dipped in a pot of hot oil. It is served in a bowl, covered generously with a flavoursome brown/garlic/chili sauce. When you've finished, bring your bowl to the woman who will dilute the leftover sauce with some meat broth for your post-meal soup!


posing in front of someone's house

The bus terminal is nearby and buses to Lugang depart every 15mins. The journey takes about 20mins. Let the bus driver or a fellow passenger know that you want to get to the "Old Street" (老街), and someone will alert you to drop off (it is the penultimate stop before the Lugang terminus). In fact, the proud local Lugang resident who tipped us to get off the bus spent the next 5mins giving us a guide on the town and the places to visit. If you're not lucky enough to meet a kind local, there's a map right outside the 7-11 where the bus stops. From there, it's a 1min walk to the start of the Old street. Some folks may find the street cheesy, but it is in fact very nicely preserved and worth your just stopping and examining the Qing era architecture of each house. Depending on how often you stop to take photographs (like J), you would get through this street in 5 or 30mins.



At the end of the old street is a whole street of hawkers. Try Lugang's sorethroat-causing tempura tiny prawns, babycrabs and some crayfish-like crustacean called "prawn monkey" ("蝦猴仔") covered with basil leaves, pepper and chilli powder.

10mins away on the other side of town is another backlane called "Nine Turns Lane". But if you have the time, Lugang's small enough for you to just wander around or to pop into its Folk Art museum.


9 turns lane

(2) The JiJi Railway Line:

You don't need to be a Hou Hsiao Hsien fan to enjoy a lazy day riding on an old train routes through sleepy towns, stopping by the pretty train stations built during Taiwan's Japanese colonial era. One of these routes run from the town of Er Shuei (二水) to Che Tou (車投), with Jiji (集集) in between. Most guidebooks will have more information on these towns and what you can do there. But the best thing is that there are often not many spectacular sights at all! Just rent a bike or take a walk down whichever little lane or trail you feel like, take in the country air and enjoy the aimlessness of being on vacation.



J and I stopped only at Er Shuei and JiJi Stations. At Jiji, we didn't have much time so we rented one of these motorised bicycles (~NT150 per hour. You can also rent mopeds and bicycles). It ended up being pretty good fun. Plus if you don't have that much time, it does help you to get to the one sight we recommend you visit - a Taoist temple whose ornate roof had collapsed whole and directly on its base during the 2005 earthquake. It's fairly surreal and eerie.


posing in the train

At the end of it all, catch the train back to Taichung and join other retuning day-trippers, students and working commuters. If you are tired, close your eyes and let the rhythmic train tracking lull you to sleep.

You need all the rest you can get because the night is still young in Taichung! Once back, head out to the Feng Jia Night Market for your supper! (check out this blogger's food adventure at Feng Jia) Unfortunately, Taichung is only about to start building its MRT system, and since Feng Jia is a little out of the way, you'll need to take once of those nasty four-wheeled things there (the cab fare is about NT300).

[Read about other day trips from Taipei here.]

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Notes on Getting to these places from Taichung:
(1) Lugang - Take the train to Changhua from Taichung train station. Catch the bus to Lugang from the small bus terminal diagonally on the left once you exit the train station. The bus ticket is about NT44. The train ticket to Chang Hua costs no more.
(2) Jiji - Take the train to Er Shuei from Taichung train station. From Er Shuei, change to the Jiji line. Check the train schedule ahead for the return journey.