Tamsui, New Taipei City
Hi, Mom!
Yes! It’s me again! I tried to call you on Saturday afternoon, but no one was able to pick up the phone, so I thought I’d pick up a keyboard instead! I will send the letter in exactly the same way as last time, though this time I might include a few photographs from sunny Taiwan.
We just had our summer vacation. 8 days at home; 6 days on the road. I just felt I needed a few days to relax and put down the burden of running a business, even as one as small as ours. So we had a lazy couple of days; a few days doing fun things; a day or two for planning our trip; our trip; and then a couple of days to get over it.
The weather in the whole of East Asia has been unusually warm: Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and even parts of China, temperatures and the amount of sun have both been incredible this year. It’s hardly been below 32C for weeks in the daytime. At night, it’s a little better but high humidity persists almost all year round in Taiwan.
Christine and I took our wee trip to Hokkaido in northern Japan, expecting it to be cooler than Taipei. It was … but only after sundown. During the day, it was 30+C and very bright. You’d think that was a plus… but there is a danger of heat exhaustion as I found out. Fortunately, I recognized the early symptoms and took action. Christine really enjoyed escaping from the city, though. She loves the country, though she claims she’s a country girl at heart… I think she has a soft spot for some of the convenience of the city.
Hokkaido is an island as large as Scotland off the coast of the main islands of Japan. With a rather short history, it’s made its name known for many fine agricultural products: milk, beer, butter, ice cream, … and even curry soup! I took hundreds of photos, but haven’t even begun figuring out which ones are worth keeping. I’ll try and include a few here… For us, though, visiting Hokkaido was a relatively short trip on the airplane, just a few hours… but we had to get up so early to catch the flight. I’m still amazed I didn’t miss it.
We stayed in the city of Sapporo, a spacious planned city of 150 years vintage; and quite a contrast to the crowded nature of Osaka. But even with its 2 million people, it could get pretty hectic during rush hour on the subway; something we only experienced once.
Of all the places we’ve visited in Japan, Hokkaido ranks as the best. It’s quieter than the others, fewer tourists and much bigger area; the food is great as I mentioned, they have a few local variations that are worth trying, too. The real key with all Japanese food though is fresh, fresh, fresh! In Hokkaido, you can be sure that much of it is! The seafood and beef are truly excellent!
After our short trip, I found myself back in Taipei… and with a photo exhibition to put on. At very short deadlines. A local cultural organization called RED ROOM advertised that they had ‘free’ space available for a show. So I called in all my cards and found myself putting on a small exhibition of 12 photographers in September. I’ve now got the task of strong-arming them all to deliver… which, if you know artists, is like asking a flower to bloom on a specific date.
It’s going to be a whirl, and we won’t be the only exhibitor. So if things go pear-shaped, I guess there’ll be something to show anyway. I’m putting in a couple of my own shots from over the past 2 years. They’ll be printed in 24″ on the longest side, so it’ll be interesting to see my photos on the wall. Nobody really prints much these days, so much photographic work is done on computer or ipads. But a real photo is something special. I’ve only printed about half a dozen images previously.
It was nice to speak to Ruth again. She seems to have made a good recovery and I was urging her to be more assiduous with her rehab therapy to get the best results. The other news is that my Taipei Heat article finally came out. I did the writing but supplied no photos this time. The article was something I conceived of a while ago, way before I thought I’d be taking photos for something like that. I finally rescued it from my hard drive, and submitted it.
The Tamsui History piece is still needing some photos … and I keep promising myself to finish it. But it’s already been two trips to get photos, and I still didn’t finish. Perhaps when the weather cools a little, I’ll be able to get some photos. Standing around in the broad sun sounds like fun, but not when your skin burns in 20 minutes, and it’s 35C with high humidity and no breeze!
So I’m going to get this in the mail. Hope you have a good weekend, and keep yourself busy.
Lots of love,
Kenneth