More Neat Stuff/よかアイディア、第二編

この間台北に行って来たけど、地下鉄を使った時、これと出会えた。「これ」は地下鉄の切符だ、いや、トーケンだ。台北に住んでいる人は殆どスイカみたいな（福岡の皆さん：SUGOCAみたいな）カードを持っているので、それを使って地下鉄に乗る。しかし、私みたいな観光客はそういうカードを買わない。でも台北に訪れるみんなは、もし磁石式の紙の切符を使えば、物凄く紙のもったいないだろう。だって、紙切符は結局使い捨ての物だ。どうしよう！？

台北では紙の切符の代わりに、このプラスチックトーケンを使っている。入る時はカードと同じくタッチするだけで改札が通れる。（ピー！）出る時はトーケンを、改札に有る穴に入れる。その後駅員が回収する筈だから、リサイクルされる。

また、トーケンはプラスチックだから、結構丈夫だ。データを消したり書き換えたりする事も出来るから、このトーケンは何回も何回も沢山の人が使える。

しかも、カードをタッチするだけだから、改札には動くパーツが少なく成って、改札が壊れる事も少なく成るだろう。紙の切符が改札に嵌まる事は時々有るだろう？基本的に動くパーツの少ない機会の方が壊れにくい。これもトーケンのいいところの一つだ。

他の都市にもこういうの使っているかな？本当にいいアイディアだと思う。


I was in Taipei this past weekend, and I came across this token when I rode the subway there.  It's plastic, but it has some sort of data holding capabilities.  If you actually live in Taipei, you probably have a card that you use for the subways, but for a tourist like me who buys one ride at a time, you instead use these tokens.

When you enter the gates, you touch the token to the same spot on the gate that the cards use.  The gate beeps and lets you through.  On the way out, you insert the token into a slot and forget about it.

Because these are hard plastic, they can be used over and over again.  This reduces the waste you would have with paper tickets.  Additionally, since you just touch the tokens on the way in, there are no moving parts like you have with ticket machines that have to grab a ticket, pass it through and spit it out again on the other side.  This probably reduces the amount of repair needed for the machines.

I wonder if any other cities are using these?  It's a pretty good idea.

老人と鷹／Of Old Men and Hawks

金曜日の朝、三線を練習している時、知らないおじいちゃんが寄って来た。おじいちゃんはウクレレを習っている、音楽が好きだから俺の演奏を聞きに来たと説明した。（奥さんがキャンパスでウォーキングをしているとも言った。奥さんを待っているからちょっと暇だという印象もした。）

ずっと一緒に話したけど、途中で「ほら、鷹居るぞ」と。本当に鷹が居た！キャンパスにこんな鳥を見る筈あまり無いのに。最初は地面で何かを食べていたけど、後でその物を枝の上に持って行った。鷹が木の中に居たから、ちょっと写真撮りにくかったけど、「まあまあ」写真が３枚、「よかね」写真が一枚出来た。

While I was practicing sanshin last Friday morning before class, an old man came up to me and started talking with me.  He told me he liked music and he was learning ukulele, so he was interested to see what I was doing.  He was also waiting for his wife who was walking on campus.

While we were talking, he suddenly pointed and said, "Look, there's a hawk!"  The hawk was on the ground at first, but he then took the thing he was eating and flew up into a tree.  This made him harder to photograph unfortunately, but I got some ok photos anyway.

 The one above is probably the best of the bunch.

鷹が飛んで、どこかに行った後もおじいちゃんと話し続けた。そして、若い女性が二人前を通ったところ、おじいちゃんは彼女達に声を掛けて、「これは君達の同級生よ。こんな楽器見た事無いだろう？一曲聞けば？」と勝手に誘った。
二人の女性はちょっと恥ずかしながら寄って来て、一曲を聞いて呉れた。一曲が終わったら、おじいちゃんは急に「じゃ、家内を探しに行かんば」と言って出かけた。わざと女性を呼んでから俺と三人きりにしたという感じがした。マッチメーカーおじいちゃん、面白いなぁ。
After the hawk flew away, I talked a bit more with the old man.  When two young women walked by, he suddenly called out to them "Hey, have you ever seen an instrument like this?  This guy is one of your schoolmates.  You should come over and listen to him play a song."  The two women obliged, and then after I played a song the old man announced that he had to go find his wife, leaving me alone with the two women.  Very clever!

Fancy Bike

I saw this fancy bike in the parking lot the other day.  Pretty snazzy!

By the way, since it's a Giant bike, I'll ask this question:  Do you know what country Giant is based in?  No?  I've found a lot of people don't for some reason.  It's a Taiwanese company.  It's also the largest bike manufacturer in the world.

以上の自転車を学校の駐輪場で見掛けた。面白いアイディアね！

で、豆知識タイムだ。以上の自転車は世界中で売られているジャイアントって会社の自転車だけど、元々ジャイアントはどの国の会社か知っている？そう、台湾だ。しかも、ジャイアントは世界最大の自転車会社だ。凄い！台湾の自転車なめんなよ！

烏山頭／Wusantou

先週華語センターの他の学生と先生と一緒に烏山頭に行って来た。烏山頭は台南のまあまあ近くに有る貯水池だ。また、周辺が公園に成っている。

烏山頭は日本時代に作られた。1920年から1930年まで工事が続いて、出来た時は世界最大のダムだったらしい。（その後アメリカのフーバーダムに負けたけど。）日本人の八田（はった）さんという人が計画を建てた。（以上の事は全てウィキペディアで見た。当日はこういう勉強しとらん。）

当日は焼き肉や中国語のゲームなどで忙しかったから、正直言えば、あまり烏山頭の見所見ていない。八田さんの博物館とかが有るけど、全然見ていない。ご免、あまり烏山頭についてのネタはないので、ちょっと写真を載せるだけでポストを終える事にさせて貰う。

The Mandarin Center sponsored a trip to Wusantou last week for all students and teachers at the center. Wusantou is a man-made lake not too far from Tainan.  It's about 500 meters above sea level in the mountains.  The surrounding area is also a park.

The dam that made the lake was started in 1920 and finished in 1930.  According to the omniscient and wonderful Wikipedia, Wusantou was the largest dam in the world from the time when it was finished until the Hoover Dam was built.  (Approximately one year.  Taipei 101, former tallest building in the world suffered a similar fate, though it at least got a good 6 years as number one.)  The architect was a Japanese man, Hatta.  (This was, after all, during the time when Taiwan was still a colony of Japan.)

Because I was on this group trip, I was kept pretty busy with the Chinese-language games we played and the BBQing and stuff, so I actually don't have a whole to say about Wusantou.  I'll have to go back some time to see more of the history-related stuff there.

 Here is our very international group just after arriving.  I believe on this day I talked to people from at least 10 different countries.  Excluding the obvious one, Taiwan, I talked to people from Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, South Africa, Swaziland, Switzerland, and many others.  This is one of the things that makes studying here interesting.  It's really a pretty diverse group.
成功大学の華語センターは日本人、ベトナム人、スイス人、南アフリカ人、インドネシア人、スワジランド人、本当に色んな国から来た人が居る。

 貯水池。なかなか広い。島とかを見てみると、水深がちょっと浅いと分かると思う。流石、晴れ男の俺様が９月に台南に着いてから、一回も雨降っとらん。台風も寄って来ていない。全ては俺のお陰だから、台南の皆さん、いつでもお礼を言いに来ていいよ。
（でもこんなに雨降らんば、晴れ男と呼ぶより、「旱魃鬼」と呼んだ方がいいかも。ご免なさい、農家の皆さん。週末はちょっと台北に行って来るつまりなので、その時雨を降らせよう。）

 This is the lake itself.  The water level is pretty low.  Apparently there was a lot of rain in the summer, but since I arrived in September, there's been no rain.  I guess this is normal.  According to Wikipedia, knower of all things, Tainan gets most of its rain in the summer.  That actually fits the Monsoon pattern of rainfall they have in Japan too, where dry, cold air comes down from the continent in the winter, and as a result, there's very little precipitation.  (One exception is the side of Japan facing the Sea of Japan, where, due to precipitation caused by air rising up when it hits the mountains, there's actually a lot of winter precipitation and very little summer precipitation.)

 Synchronized Sand Drawing, soon to be an Olympic sport.

 中国語のゲームが終わったら、やっとバーベキューが始まった。無料の焼き肉を目標にして参加した人が多かったと思う。みんなうきうきしていた。

 

 なぜかよく分からないけど、蔣介石の銅像が有った。かれは別にここと何も関係無いと思うけど、まあ、台湾を３０年間も独占した人だから、勝手にどこでも自分の銅像を建てさせることが出来たんだろう。

 This statue is of Chiang Kai-Shek.  I'm pretty sure he has nothing to do with Wusantou, but because he ruled over Taiwan as a dictator for about 30 years, his statues are all over the place.

 蒋介石の別名は「中正」だった。

 ヘリで公園に来れるみたい！お金持ちの使うかな？（いや、多分消防署が使うだろう。）
Yes, that is a helipad in the park.  I guess it's probably for official use, like maybe firefighters or something?

 I'm really sorry, but I have no idea what this temple is.  I walked around and took pictures, but I didn't have time to read the signs about it.

 写真を撮る時間は有ったけど、中国語のみの看板を読む時間は無かったので、これは何のお寺か全く分からない。勉強不足で写真載せるなんて、申し訳ない。

「 南無阿弥陀仏」の韓国語発音はめっちゃ日本語のと似ている。韓国語、中国語、日本語は昔から沢山の語彙をシェアーしているから、微妙に似ている言葉が多い。

 The path around the lake is long and shadeless.  I think it would be more fun with a bike.  Still, it was pretty fun with friends!

Clever Ideas

If you've ever traveled, perhaps you've encountered something clever that you don't see in your own country.  It's clever enough that you see it and say, "Well that's a good idea.  We should have that too!" but it's a minor enough thing that you can also kind of imagine why it hasn't spread to other places.  It's not that it's not a good enough idea, it's just that it's the kind of thing that flies under the radar is all.

The cup tops like the one pictured above are a good example of one of those things.  When you get a drink at most tea places here in Taiwan, they use a machine to affix a plastic seal over the cup.  When you want to drink, you stab your straw through the top with as much or as little caveman rage as you desire.

What makes this clever is two things.

1)  The cup is spill proof until you stab through it, so if you're getting something to go, you can just toss it in a bag and not worry about it.
2)  The thin plastic cover, while still wasteful of plastic, is probably less wasteful than the usual drink tops made of hard plastic that we have in the US.  (They have the hard tops here too, usually at fast food places, but tea places tend to use the above type of top.)

So yeah, not earth-shatteringly amazing, but still a pretty good idea.

日本でもアメリカでも見た事が無いけど、台湾ではお茶屋さんでお茶を買う時に、店員は上記の写真の様なプラスチックシールをカップに付ける。これはなかなかいいアイディアだと思う。なぜならば、シールをストローで開封するまでは内容をこぼす事は無い。何も考えずに、構わずに、カバンに飲み物を投げといていいのは、俺みたいな適当人間にとって結構便利だ。また、使われているプラスチックの量がマクドなどの飲み物の蓋より大分少ないと思う。（もちろん、一番エコなのはこういう使い捨てな物を使わない事だけど、、、）

なんでこういうのは日本にもアメリカにも無いかな。（有るの？私は見た事が無い。）アメリカのダンキンドーナツ（ミスタードーナツに似ているチェーン店）がアイスコーヒーで使えそうだ。日本の場合はコンビニにでも置いて、生の冷たいウーロン茶で使えそうだ。ペットボットルが有るから要求が無いって事かな？でも台湾にも勿論ペットボットルが有る、、、

この世に私には分からない事が沢山有る！

Cijin Island/旗津島

成功大学に国際学生のグループが有るけど、この間みんなで旗津島に行って来た。

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/旗津区

旗津島は台南市のすぐ南の高雄市に有る。昔から高雄の国際港と関連する会社などが多かったけど、現在はそれだけでなく、観光も盛んに行われている。

I went to Cijin Island (pronounced Chee-Jin because it's Tongyong Pinyin) with Cheng Da's International student group.  I posted some of these photos on Facebook already, but I thought maybe I'd write about the trip a bit too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cijin_District,_Kaohsiung

 We started by taking the train from Tainan to the outskirts of Kaohsiung.  It takes about an hour.  From there, we got on the subway.  This is a photo of the platform of the subway platform.  The subway is above ground and goes through some surprisingly un-urban areas at its northern end.  Kaohsiung currently has only two lines, but I believe they're working on making more.
最初は電車で高雄まで行って、そして地下鉄に乗り換えた。地下鉄だけど、北部の地下鉄はこう言う感じだ。全然「地下」じゃないし、案外郊外っぽい地域を通っている。（まあ、でも出身地のニューヨークもそうだけど。クィーンズなどの地下鉄の終点辺りが全然都市らしくないところが多い。畑はないけど、、、）

 車と車の間はドアが無い。
There are no doors between the cars.

 And here's the boat to Cijin!

 地下鉄を降りて船乗り場に行ってフェリーに乗った。旗津島は昔、南部が本土と繋がったらしいけど、船が通れる様に台湾政府はその陸続きを切り除いて、旗津島が本当の島に成った。鹿児島の桜島を思い出す。真反対の状況だけどね。

 高雄の一番高い建物。以前、台北１０１が出来る前に、これは台湾の一番高かった。

 This is the tallest building in Kaohsiung.  It used to be the tallest in Taiwan until they built Taipei 101, which some of you might remember was the tallest building in the world for a couple of years.

 After pulling into Cijin's ferry terminal, we all got rental bicycles to tour the island on.  The people running the show got normal bikes, but the rest of us were on tandem bikes.  Let me tell you, tandem bikes are a lot harder to ride than you might think.  I see couples on them a lot, but if your relationship is ever on the rocks, do not rent a tandem together.  It won't be romantic; it will only end in tears and horrible accusations.

 フェリー港の前で自転車レンタル屋でレンタサイクルした。担当者達は普通な自転車だったけど、私達参加者はタンデムサイクルに乗った。案外乗りにくい。普通な自転車より大分重いし、後ろと前の人はちゃんとコミュニケション取らんばだめだ。

 道教のお寺。

 We didn't actually stop at the museum, but I liked the sign.

 ISA!  That's us.

 この子供達知らない。自転車で通った時、私は「ハロー」と叫んで、写真をいきなり撮った。私はそういう意地悪が好きだから。
These are some random area kids that we rode past.  I made sure to shout out "Hello!" to them as we went by and I aimed my camera back in their general direction.  lol

 "Female People Make Children"  A reminder from the shipping industry of the important biological role that women play in continuing our society into the future.  Or maybe some company's name.  I don't know.
There are a lot of ships like this constantly in Kaohsiung's port.  It's the largest port in Taiwan, and one of the largest in Asia.

高雄は台湾での一番大きな港だから、こういう大型の船が沢山有った。

、、、船が大きいのに、なんで燈台があんなに小さいのかな？

At the end of the pier we rode out to there was a museum about boats.  Outside were parts of a battleship like this.

And inside were small models of old boats.

これは蘭嶼島の先住民の舟だ。

Time to head back.

But first, we stopped at this park overlooking the East China Sea.  There were people flying kites there.

この公園が東シナ海に面しているため、風が強い日が多くて凧揚げをする場所として知られている。

可愛い魚さん

The fish statues are cute, but that shell had some funky-looking water collected in it.

We got back to the ferry port, and then kept going to the hill you can see up ahead.  There's a lighthouse on top of the hill, so that was our next goal.

The view up here was pretty good.

...but the lighthouse was closed.  The group leaders who set this all up had been told that the gate wouldn't be closed in the evening, but it turned out that they had been misinformed by the lighthouse staff.
この日の担当者達は燈台をみんなに見せたかったから、燈台の管理者と確認したけど、実際に着いたら、門がもう閉まっていた。むかつくね。

でもここからの高雄の景色は綺麗だから、登る価値は有った。

以上の事が全て終わったら、次は港に戻って、夜市に行ってお八つ買って帰った。朝から夜までの忙しい一日だったけど、色んな人と出会ったから、面白かった。

That's it for Cijin pictures.  We went to a night market after not being able to see the lighthouse, and then we went home after that.