Rally 'n' Retreat

Last Saturday Studio Classroom celebrated our 45th anniversary. We held a big rally at Taipei's World Trade Center Auditorium, and invited a few thousand people. It was a fun show. Jamaican/American piano genius Huntley Brown hammers out a calypso tuneHazel and Larry perform a magic trick Angus and Zorina deliver another song Song "Oh Happy Day" -- some of the Studio Classroom teachers came out to do the backup vocals, and also a little rap. That's me, second from the right

...and the crowd goes wild ;-)
The following week we had our annual ORTV retreat, out at Green Bay on the northeast coast of Taiwan. A nice time of rest and reflection. Here Heavenly Melody serenade

Doris and the rest of the audience listen to another speaker It was fun being in the band and make music for the introduction of each session. My treat to play alongside Angus and Solomon and Steve. Thanks also to Bob for lending me his red Stratocaster while mine was getting a tune-up! Hanging out with Dale Wine. Dale has family living in Calgary, of all places. Maybe our next meeting place will be there

Taipei, naturally

As a great urban metropolis, Taipei isn't exactly the most attractive city to look at. Sure, there are pockets of pleasantness to be found, but for the most part the city is a vast collection of concrete boxes. It can be dense and oppressive at times.
Yet there are some special things to be seen here, if one slows down for a closer look. Things like flowers and birds.

Buckets of magnolias and lilies ready for sale. The magnolias have a strong natural fragrance that lasts for days. Most of the contents of these buckets will end up as car air fresheners.
This fellow has set up his magnolia stall near a busy intersection. Whenever the light turns red, he walks between the waiting cars and looks for customers. If we were driving, I would have hung the bouquet on our rear view mirror. For this day I hung it on Fiona's backpack instead.
During the springtime, swallows descend on the city to roost and raise a family. These birds have adapted well to urban living, opting to build their nests in the places people frequent. Here's one above a popular tea shop in our neighborhood. Mama swallow gets ready to take wing in search of more food for her chicks. As the chicks get bigger you can see their open beaks poking out of the nest, waiting for mama to return.
This swallow has found a home above a dentist's office. And this one outside a restaurant. Some shopkeepers will install a wire for the swallows to sit on. A bona fide birdhouse here! These two have nested on a little platform, also installed by the nearby shopkeeper.
Here we can see the mother swallow returning to feed her family -- four little beaks are waiting for a meal
A fallen cotton tree flower lands on the back of a scooter. Near my office there are rows and rows of cotton trees that shed dozens of these blossoms every year. A nice contrast to the concrete and vehicles and congestion of Taipei.

Our 5-day jaunt in Japan

We just got back from our trip to Japan last week. Highly recommended -- on this trip we enjoyed lots of Japan's natural beauty, interesting culture, tasty food, ancient towns, colorful history, snowy mountains, vibrant spring blossoms and much more. Here's where we went in The Land of the Rising Sun.

We flew directly in to Nagoya, Japan's 4th largest city, roughly situated between Tokyo and Osaka/Kyoto. From Nagoya we hopped on our tour bus and headed north towards the mountains, then to the Sea of Japan before turning around and heading back via another mountainous route.
Vivian enjoys a stroll down a back alley in Takayama, a mountain town with lots of traditional wooden buildings.
In Ogimachi town, an enclave tucked into a remote valley that gets dumped with large amounts of snow every winter. Some of these thatched-roof dwellings are more than 400 years old. They protect well against the elements, and the town itself is considered a world heritage site.
Relaxing in our first hotel room: Thick and cosy blankets, tatami mats to sleep on, yukata to wear.
Enjoying the salty breezes at Tojinbo, a port town on the Sea of Japan. In the middle is Blackie, our longtime friend. Blackie runs a travel agency and happened to be our tour leader for this trip!
Checking out the Eiheiji Temple, one of Japan's largest retreats for Zen Buddhists.
The monks go filing in for their daily chanting session.
On the promenade outside the famous Kenroku-en Gardens in Kanazawa City. Note the explosion of cherry blossoms on every tree. April is a good time of year to come to Japan and enjoy all the spring colors.
More blossoms on an ancient tree inside the Kenroku-en Gardens. Fiona was able to enjoy all the sights too, while being carried around on Daddy's back.
An idyllic pond scene. Kenroku-en Gardens were first established in the 1700s and have been refined meticulously over the decades.
Embarking on the epic Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route. This dramatic day-long journey takes mountain-loving travelers over and through some of the highest peaks in Japan. The first leg of the trip involved riding a cable car up the first mountain, then taking a highland bus through the snow to reach the mountain town of Murodo.
Not too cold, but blizzarding weather conditions at the top. The highland bus route is carved through immensely thick snow, as you can see here. This year's high-level mark was 14m of snow: certainly tall, but not near the all-time record of 23m!
From Murodo we took a tunnel trolly bus through the highest peak, then a cable car down to a huge hydro dam that had to be crossed on foot. From there we took another underground trolley bus to the exit here. What a trek. It was nice to see the snow and ride all the different conveyances, but I'd like to return again on a clearer day to enjoy the views and maybe even hike a little.
Enjoying another meal in our yukata (cotton kimonos). The Japanese seem to enjoy going out for these set-meal affairs where there are a dozen or more little plates and cups, each holding a morsel or two of something tasty. It's elegant and sopisticated, but I wouldn't want to be the one doing the washing up.
Posing with our Japanese togs before heading off to the hotel's outdoor onsen (hot spring pools).
Strolling the cobbled streets in ye olde town of 妻籠, which is pronounced qilong in Mandarin but I don't remember how the name was spelled in romanized Japanese. It reminded me a bit of Taiwan's Jiufen, but of course much cleaner and well-preserved. Beautiful wooden façades and verandas on all the buildings, carefully pruned trees and bushes everywhere. It was wonderfully idyllic and I wish we could have lazed away the whole afternoon there.
Another Japanese set luncheon, meticulously prepared with all kinds of plates, bowls and containers. I think I count 17 here.
More olde town sighteeing, this time in nearby 馬籠 (in Mandarin as malong). Though I could read some of the signage in Japan, Vivian had a much easier time of it. The Japanese use kanji characters, which are derived from Chinese writing. I'm told Kanji characters carry the same meaning as the Chinese as much as 70% of the time.
Malong was similar to Qilong, but even more dedicated to historical preservation. The town bylaws prohibit any kind of modern-era materials to be kept in view of pedestrians: no air conditioner boxes hanging from the walls, no electric porchlights even. When the Japanese decide to do something, they take the task very earnestly. The result is their highly-refined and civilized society, quite a change from the environments Vivian and I are used to.
No time for Fiona to retire to the crib for morning and afternoon naps on this trip. Here she conks out in the backpack and enjoys a mobile snooze while Vivian and I continue to explore the town.
On the last day of our trip, the sun came out again! Amen. We returned to Nagoya and visited the famous castle there.

This may be the best picture I have taken in a long time. Nagoya castle and the cherry blossoms make a nice frame for Fiona and Vivian.
Sayonara, Japan! O-sewa ni narimashita :-)

Night market and aquarium with our friends the Frys

Vance and Marci and their daughter Mikayla are friends of ours. Often Marci and Vivian will get together so Mikayla and Fiona can play. They also have a blog: frypics.blogspot.com, which happens to have some photos of Fiona and Vivian on it!
Recently all of us went out to the RaoHe Night Market for some snacks and entertainment. Gareth and Vance rode their bikes to get thereStopping for some Pakistani meat wraps... mmmm
Shan zhu rou -- wild boar! One of these days I will stop here and order a plate I don't know what this is called, but it's a very old Chinese beauty treatment. The ladies have their faces powdered with flour, then a thread is used to extract hairs and make the skin look prettier The symbol of the RaoHe Night Market: A night owl. This makes me think of Studio Classroom's own owl logo :-) About a week later we all took a trip to the Fins Taipei aquarium in ShiLin. Since Fiona is such a big fan of fish, we thought she would enjoy the outing Lots of colorful tropical fish on display, plus anemones and other creatures Cool jellyfish
Don't know what this thing is -- some kind of crustacean
A placid-looking octopus regards us from his home
Cowfish snacking on algae on top of another sea plant

A clownfish... we found Nemo!