Tie Non: September 2014

The next day after going to Cihu, we went and visited the Taipei Botanical Gardens. The gardens were established during the Japanese period. The Japanese government was very interested in finding out what plants could be grown in Taiwan since it has a rather different climate than the Japanese mainland, and they wanted to make their new colony as profitable as possible.

We took the subway there, and I noticed that the signs telling you when the next train will come display seconds as well as minutes.

To My Dear Hometown of New York and to the Rest of America While I'm at It: Get your act together. We still don't even have these signs in all of the stations in the NYC subway system yet, let alone ones accurate enough to display the seconds in addition to the minutes. This is how backwards our country is.

慈湖に訪れた翌日、台北植物園に行ってみた。この植物園は日本統治時代に設立された。当時日本は植民地営業に力を入れて、気候が日本よりだいぶ暑くなっている台湾には何が育てられるのかを真剣に調べていたのだ。

拜放慈湖隔天，我們去臺北植物園。這個植物園是日時代設立的。當時日政府為了研習在台灣什麼植物種得好設立這個植物園。

There were a bunch of cats wandering around the grounds.

猫が多かった。

貓很多。

Taro plants. This is one of the bigger varieties, called "elephant ear taros".
這樣大型的芋頭非常多。

タロイモも多かった。

A Hoop Pine (or Queensland Pine)

A Cajeput Tree

I think this is a (very young) cinnamon tree.

Alpinia Shimadai

Celtis Sinensis

Phoenix Hanceana

Taro roots

These things were all over the place.

A Bald Cypress

A Sago Palm

Felis Catus. Unlike most plants, they occasionally move around.

Ixora Duffii

I went to take a photo of these berry things, and I realized that there was a cool bug in the mix.

実の写真を撮ろうとしたら、虫が実に乗っていることに気がついた。

我靠近了想把這些果拍到，就注意到了站在果上的蟲。