Tie Non: Onwards to Dasi!/大渓へ行こう！/前往大溪！

Ok, so I lied last time. We aren't going to Cihu. At least not yet. First, let's take some time to appreciate the stunning views from the windows of my friend's apartment. It's the tallest building in the area, so you can see quite a lot.

前回、慈湖の写真を今回ポストすると書いたけど、全ては嘘だった。今日は慈湖にはまだ着いていなくて、「大渓」（ダーシー）という村に留まるのだ。でもその前に友達のアパートからの景色を楽しもう。めっちゃいいだろう？

我上片的po寫了謊。這片還不是慈湖。今天我們要看大溪的照片。不過看大溪之前我先想介紹我在朋友家裡看到的風景。很棒吧！

Meanwhile, down on the streets...

鳥が見える台北

看路上就感覺起來自己變成一隻鳥了。

An old, Fujian-style house

福建式の家もある

也有福建樣式的房子。

Let's head out. Our first stop is to say hello to this bird.

じゃ、出かけよう！一階にいる鳥に挨拶してから、もちろん。

在一樓跟鸚鵡說ㄅㄞㄅㄞ才離開。

Banana trees

バナナの木

對我來說在路上看到香蕉樹還是很刺激的。紐約的氣候冷得什麼香蕉樹並沒有。

More banana trees

これもバナナの木

We had to wait for a bus in the area of the Xiaonanmen Station. There's a history museum nearby whose name I've forgotten, and which I can't seem to find looking at maps online. We didn't have time to really check it out, but I thought some of the illustrations out front were cute.

バス停に向かって歩いている途中で歴史博物館の前を通って、この可愛い絵があった。

我通過歷史博物館前面覺得這些畫很可愛。

There was a Japanese Buddhist temple here back when Taiwan was a colony. It's been rebuilt and is part of the museum now.

日本統治時代に西本願寺の支社みたいなお寺が建てられた。

這裡以前是從日本來的叫做西本願寺的佛教寺廟。

Trees on the roof!

More recreated historical buildings

これも博物館の一部

We also passed by an impressive court house. I think it's the Taiwan High Court.

台湾最高裁判所の前も通った。

如果我沒記錯，這就是台灣最高法院。

The Chinese reads "Dongwu University". The English says "Soochow University". What's the deal? I looked it up later, and it appears that there was a Soochow (or Suzhou in Hanyu Pinyin romanization) University in Soochow in China. After the Chinese civil war, some of the graduates of that university who fled to Taiwan decided to reestablish the university in Taiwan. It still doesn't explain to me why the Chinese name is a totally different name, but whatever. I've given up on trying to understand names of things in Taiwan. They've often been filtered through multiple languages and cultures and have multiple variations. (Not to mention multiple romanizations!)

中国語の字は「東呉」（ドング・ウー）と書いているが、英語は「Soochow」だ。後で調べてみたら、「Soochow」は蘇州のことだと分かった。国民党が中国内戦を負けて台湾に逃亡した以降、蘇州大学の卒業生が新しい蘇州大学を建てたらしい。でも私はなんで東呉という別名もあるかがまだ分からない、、、

我看網路發現這個「東吳大學」另外一個名字，「Soochow」就是「蘇州」。逃到台灣的蘇州大學畢業生決定在台灣再建立一個東吳大學。但是我還不知道為甚麼它也有這個「東吳」的名字。

And here we are in Dasi! (Dah-shee) Dasi is a town near Taipei with a lot of well-preserved old buildings. We had to stop here to transfer busses on our way to Cihu, so we had a look around. I will never get tired of looking at old Taiwanese buildings with crazy stone facades, so I quite enjoyed it.

大渓に到着！古い町並みがよく保存されている！私は台湾のこういういわゆる「老街」を見るのはなかなか飽きない。

到了大溪！老街很漂亮的一個城市。我非常喜歡台灣的老家，看不膩。

It's not all monochrome!

The romanization below the Chinese characters ("Kensei Shoco" Why did they use a C instead of the more common K?) is the Japanese reading of these characters, so this business was probably active in the Japanese era.

下のローマ字を見たら、明らかに日本語になっている。「KENSEI SHOCO」と書いている。でもなんでKじゃなくてCを使ったのかが分からない。

寫「KENSEI SHOCO」證明這裡是日代建的。那個羅馬字是日文的念法。