Sesame Hill / 芝山 / 芝山

宝蔵巖に行った日、その後芝山というところにも行った。駅名でもあるが、近くにある小さな山にある公園でもある。

On the same day I went to Treasure Hill (previous post) I also went to a place I will call "Sesame Hill".  It's Chinese name is "Zhishan", but the character for "zhi" is one of the characters that is in the word "sesame", so I'm going to call it Sesame Hill from here on.  I didn't notice it at the time, but when I looked it up later I found out that the nearby subway station looks pretty cool.

我去寶藏巖那天我也去芝山。因為聽說蠻有趣所以去看看，但因為時間不夠所以只參觀一點點而已。

交通安全のポスター

 A wizard-themed traffic safety poster.

好笑的交通安全廣告。

残念なことに、着いた時はもう結構遅かった。暗くなっていたので、もやっとした写真しか撮れなかったし、台南に帰るバスに間に合う様に急いでちょっとしか見れなかった。ここは面白そうだから、またいつか来てみたい。

 It was unfortunately already quite late by the time I got here, and I had a bus back to Tainan to catch, so I just whizzed through and took a bunch of grainy, blurry photos and then was out of there.  I want to go again at some point in the future, because it seems like a pretty cool place.

到了時候已經很晚，開始變黑暗了。即然照片不太好看。

羅漢の石像が集まった。１８人のセットが中華美術によく出てくるそうだ。中には、この「迦諾迦伐蹉尊者」という喜んで腕を上げている一人が好き。印象めっちゃ強いんだ。

 There was a collection of Arhat statues, which one can see in various places all over Taiwan.  I've posted photos of them before.  This guy doing a "raise the roof" pose usually makes an appearance.  I just looked it up, but I think his name is Kanakavatsa.  There is a set of 18 individuals who regularly appear in Chinese Buddhist art it seems.

在坡上有羅漢的石像。我以前也有好幾次看過，但這次才知道是規定的十八個人。我喜歡這個迦諾迦伐蹉尊者。他開心地不得不舉兩手。

 It was getting pretty dark already...  It made this old gate really pretty though.  Apparently the neighboring towns of Chinese immigrants way back in the day were made up of people from different areas of China.  (That is, one village was all people from one place, and the other was all people from another place.)  They didn't get along and regularly had big brawls, verging on wars.  This gate was actually constructed to help defend against the young toughs from the neighboring village.  Funny enough, this was not uncommon in Taiwan back during the Ming and Qing periods.  It was kind of a "wild west" environment, except that in the American wild west, the image is of the lone gunman.  In Taiwan, it was mobs of guys.  Think of the Capulets and Montagues and you'll get what it was all about.  Or better yet, imagine West Side Story.  It's much funnier to think of young guys beating each others brains out if you imagine them snapping their fingers and going through choreographed dance sequences beforehand.

 暗いから写真があまり良くないが、ここに門があった。明、清朝台湾は政府が弱くて、その辺の人は自分で物事を処理したことは多かった。この辺に村が二つあって、それぞれ中国の違うところから移民してきたから、村と村の間は仲が悪かったらしい。そのため、しょっちゅう喧嘩した。喧嘩と言っても、人数を集めれば戦争みたいな感じになる。この門は隣の村が侵入することを防止する為に作られた！この時代の台湾ではこれが頻繁にあったそうだ。

 聽說這扇門因為以前有兩個村落來自中國不一樣的地方所以互相地討厭。有時候一個村落會進去另外一個打架，所以為了防禦對方的攻擊建牆壁。明，清朝的台灣政府統治的範圍好像很狹窄。

蛙がたくさんおった。

 There were a million frogs in this pond.

池塘裡青蛙很多。

台湾の廟はネオンをすごく活躍させている。

 At the top of the hill I was greeted by this neon gate.  Taiwanese temples love neon signs.

山上的廟到了。台灣的廟真的喜歡螢光燈。

コントラストと彩度を上げてみた。暗い山を登ってこの門に到着した時は門の光がこう言う感じだった。

Here's the same sign with the contrast and saturation jacked up.  This is more like what it felt like to me when I came upon it after tramping up the very dark hill.

我把對比和色度提高了。我經過黑黑的山路到了廟門時，這樣子感覺起來。

時間本当になかったので、ちょっとだけ見た。

 I only got to look at this temple for like 30 seconds before I had to head back down and go to the subway.  Some other time!

時間不夠只有看一點而已。有機會我想再來。

 tilework

終わり！

And that's it for Taipei for now!

終了！