Christmas in Japan. I mean Taiwan.

Ho ho ho.  Merry Christmas.

After picking at my blog for a while in the morning and feeling lame that all of my roommates had gone out and I hadn't, I got a couple of donuts at Dunkin' Donuts and headed out for Beitou.  Beitou is an area known for it's hot springs and I thought a resort town sounded nice.  Here in Taiwan, they don't do the naked-thing that Japanese do when it comes to hot springs.  Alas, I don't have a bathing suit with me and (this actually surprised me) there didn't seem to be anyplace to purchase one.

When I got to the end of the train line (Beitou), I hopped off and went to exit the station.  Just before I did, there was an information booth with maps.  It turned out, to get closer to everything, I should take another one-stop train.  I must have just missed one because the platform was basically empty, but filled up quite quickly.

Advertising how cool Beitou is.  Nope.

Trains from Beitou station to Xinbeitou station are specially decorated and the inside shows videos if you sit in the right area.  I didn't.

The guide map suggested a few different routes for sight-seeing.  I made mine a mixture.  Basically, they all go along the same road anyway.  In the middle of the town, there's a stream, which is pretty.  The town seems to center around it.

Stream and bridge.  You can choose the walking path that takes you through the park and over the bridges, but I was on the lookout for someplace to have lunch, so I stayed by the road.

Pretty little waterfall.

Waterfall zoomed-out!  In the middle of town~

This is the 'all green' Beitou library which the town touts.  They recycle rainwater and stuff.  I didn't go inside because I feel weird touristing around a local library.  <_<

Library from the side.

The library was next to an old bathhouse which is now the Beitou Hot Springs Museum.  Okay, here's where it gets a bit complicated.  This bathhouse was built by the Japanese (during their rule) to resemble a particularly popular bathhouse in Ise, Shizuoka (my prefecture), but it's styled after Roman bathhouses.  So.  It's a Roman-styled Japanese bathhouse in Taiwan.  <____________<  After the Japanese left, it became a public bathhouse, then a museum.

The outside of the bathhouse.  It was difficult to get a picture because Taiwanese MUST have a picture of themselves EVERYWHERE, apparently.  

The tatami room on the ground floor was for relaxing and cooling down after a hot bath.  It's currently used as a museum event hall.

The bath downstairs.  There's a bit of rusty-looking water in it.

 Most of the signs around the museum are only in Chinese.  A few are translated into English.  Overall, since I couldn't understand anything and also because, well, I get Japanese stuff in Japan, I was pretty bored.  However, there was a video playing dubbed in Japanese.  I watched that together with a little old man for a few minutes.
Him: "Japanese." gesturing at the video
Me: "Yes."
Him: "I understand."
Me: "Me too."
Him: "Oh! How long you in Japan?"
Me: "Seven months"
Him: "I learned six years!  Six years!  I was in junior middle school when Japanese in Taiwan."
Me: "Wow~" big smile.  Awkward parting.
That was the best part for me.

No shoes in the bathhouse, so I had to wear slippers.

Back onto the road to see what I was really after - the steaming-hot hot springs of Thermal Valley aka Hell Valley.

People soaking their feet in the stream.

 Did I mention it was actually quite warm today?  I dressed based on yesterday, so I wore a long-sleeved shirt, sweatshirt, and jacket.  Oops.  Warm.  I was so hot!  D:  I walked past several local public hot springs.  They had a steady stream of people going in and out.

The sign for Thermal Valley.  They use the Japanese hot spring symbol.  I like that.  It's straight-forward.

This was next to a bridge.  <____<  I crossed it.

Don't soaks its nasty feets, Hobbits!

This charmer was posing for a picture for his dad.

The hot springs here range from 80-100 degrees Celcius.  They kinda stink due to the various minerals and sulfur.  The springs in this area are almost unique - only one other location in the world has the same sulfur (or something like that)

The springs here do produce a unique mineral, which is the only mineral to be named after a place.

Steamy~  The steam might have been more impressive if there wasn't a breeze.

Next stop on my list was the folk art museum.  It sounded interesting.  It looked like a bit of a hike, but the scale on the map made things seem further than they really were.

Wrong.  It was a hike.  A very steep one.  Without sidewalks, for the most part. And I was sweating by the time I finally reached it.  What a disappointment!  What I thought would be a place filled with local crafts and things like that was nothing like that.  It was an old Japanese building and it was all about tea in Taiwan.  SERIOUSLY?!  

Oops.  I Japan'd.

No speaking aloud.  No betal nuts?!

I even paid to get in since I'd walked that far and was determined to go in.  (Everything else I did in Beitou was free).  I was completely disinterested in this Japanese-style building and the teahouse wasn't even open.  There was a little tea restaurant, but I wanted actual food, so I skipped that.  Undoubtedly, it was expensive.  Back down the mountain.

Tree outside a hotel.

 I stopped at Puji Temple on the way back into town.  It was small, not much to see.  I guess the special part is that it's home to a rare sect of Buddhism which is a blend of Japanese and Taiwanese beliefs and the building is made in Japanese style and out of juniper.  Okay, then.

I wanted a picture of the temple with these pretty flowers, but these people were determined to ruin my picture.  So after five minutes of waiting, I left.

Back down into town.

More people enjoying the water.

Next stop - culture museum.

Oh my goodness, I found something Taiwanese and it was actually INTERESTING!  Best thing I did in Beitou was go to this museum.  First and foremost I liked that it was about the native peoples of Taiwan, but it was nice to find something NOT JAPANESE.  T___T#

The mosaic blocks outside were all done in patterns like the weaving and needlework of the native peoples.

Inside, pictures were only allowed on the basement and first floors.  The basement was full of what looked like local kid art, so I left almost as soon as I stuck my nose down there.  The ground floor had examples of indigenous clothing and where it may have been influenced from.  RAD.

"Young women even wrap red band on their puttees..."  what on earth is a puttee?  Do I want to know?!

The second floor featured replicas of traditional wear separated by tribe.  It was really interesting.  The most disappointing part of it was that they were replicated in polyester.  <___________<  There were artifacts on the second and third floors, too.  Pretty nifty!  I walked slower and read more (almost everything was translated) than any of the other people visiting.

Outside the museum, the quest for lunch continued.  I saw a KFC, McDonald's and Starbucks.  ... I went back to the station.

Xinbeitou station.  Home of a train line which only connects to one stop and is uber slow.

It didn't occur to me that little kids wouldn't have to pay.  Makes sense, though.

Santa, your candy cane is deflated.  D:

I decided I'd try to go to the Culture Center, which seemed close to Beitou Station.  But first, I spied something interesting.

Individually wrapped sushi!!

Lookit this stuff!

 I was greeted by a very bad 'irrashaimase' which is what Japanese people say to welcome you into their shop.  Points for attempting an atmosphere, I guess.  I also found a can of Chinese Aquarius!!  BOUGHT.

4:15pm.  Lunch.  //orz  It wasn't good.  Even the Aquarius wasn't good.

I tried walking around to find the Cultural Center which was supposed to be "next to" the station.  People in Taiwan need to learn the difference between "next to" and "near."  I taught that to my second years a few months ago.  Dear Taiwan, come to my class.  I gave up, but I did see this:

I went back to my hostel all foreveralone because I wanted to see if Angela would be able to get dinner or something after work.  As luck would have it, she was able to leave work at 7 (early, for her), and she and her sister met me and took me to an all vegetarian Chinese buffet (I guess it deeply bothered Nana when I said before that Americans have a very icky view of actual Chinese view: things like chicken feet).  IT WAS AWESOME.

First plate.  I really liked the beet juice to the left there.  The mac and cheese sort of thing at the top of the plate was pretty good.  See that blob next to the block with the sauce?  Yeah.  That's stinky tofu, my friends.  It was nasty.  I gave the rest to Angela.

Second plate.  We found larger plates.  I took only a little bit of each thing because I wanted to try ALL THE THINGS.  My favorite here was the stuff with seeds on it at the bottom of the plate.  It was a sort of sweet-and-sour mushroom thing.

Third plate.  I cheated and got more of the sweet-and-sour stuff I liked.  And fake sushi.  It was interesting...  True to what it was supposed to be, I couldn't even bite the squid.  I gave up.  You can also see some of the yummy made-to-order dishes that Angela and Nana ordered.  ALL GOOD.

Plate 4.  Dessert.  Less Chinese, no less awesome.  I ATE SO MUCH.

Back to my hostel to finish the Christmas Eve blog and chat with my family.

So that was my Christmas.  The highlight was definitely dinner with Angela and Nana.  Thanks for spending some time with me and teaching me that Chinese food isn't all gross.  <3 <3 <3 <3