With two weeks in-between trips, I was back in Taiwan for the end of March and beginning of April. We celebrated Qingming Jie, Tomb Sweeping Day, on the fifth, a holiday I’d never participated in. My maternal grandfather passed away late last year, and apparently you can’t actually pay your respects in the traditional way until a year past. We did visit Shandao Temple to say hello to his ashes, bow to my grandma, and shuffle in and out with the procession of people doing the exact same thing. It was all very quotidian, with no pomp or circumstance. Which I guess, is both more or less what I expected.
In another cultural event, I went to go watch a local professional basketball game. There are seven teams in Taiwan’s Super Basketball League and I’d been waiting to attend a game after finding out that one of the teams was called Taiwan Beer, with a logo that features a fierce Formosan black bear. My friend got us tickets, allowing use to sit as close as we wanted -- also the stadium was 90% empty. Each team featured one import (possibly two), and it was very exciting as the players ran up and down much faster than I anticipated, and the whole thing was riveting.
There were also a handful of friends who happened to drop in during this time too. A friendacquaintance from San Francisco, my cousin (with her new fiancé) for a night market run, one of my best friends from England, and then another friend from New York, here post-Bali trip, so we could compare notes and dig into izakaya over a great night of conversation. On top of that, I had a lunch with one of my dad’s old business partners — also in the instrument import/export business — and will have to follow up with his son, to compare notes on what being a flute prince / saxophone duke is like. Although in his case, he’s actually doing it, and his family’s company is much much bigger than ours. It’ll be an interesting glimpse into a road I never took.
I was also introduced to an upcoming Asian American podcast project, and enjoyed talking to the friend of a friend. It’s always refreshing to talk to people who have similar tastes, attitudes, and interests, and I hope to be involved in some capacity.
Other than that, it was pretty quiet post-Vietnam. The usual run of cafes, late night eats, flipping around online and off. I also got two tattoos I’d been waiting for, the results of an appointment I’d made with this Taiwanese artist two months ago. She’s got a real special modern style and I just gave her my left thigh and right side/rib area to do what she wanted. I’d never gotten a color tattoo before but since her preferred work was in color, I let her do one that wasn’t in black and white. And what beautiful results!
I didn’t know what Hill would want to carve onto my body until I got there, and she had to make some changes to one design — due to how skinny I am — but they were absolutely more beautiful than I could have imagined. Four or five hours of work on each, on two separate days, and I was all done. Changed forever! The thigh one wasn’t particularly painful but there’s no minimizing that the side one stung, because how could it not? With everything peeling and on the mend, I prepared to head off to Japan...
In another cultural event, I went to go watch a local professional basketball game. There are seven teams in Taiwan’s Super Basketball League and I’d been waiting to attend a game after finding out that one of the teams was called Taiwan Beer, with a logo that features a fierce Formosan black bear. My friend got us tickets, allowing use to sit as close as we wanted -- also the stadium was 90% empty. Each team featured one import (possibly two), and it was very exciting as the players ran up and down much faster than I anticipated, and the whole thing was riveting.There were also a handful of friends who happened to drop in during this time too. A friendacquaintance from San Francisco, my cousin (with her new fiancé) for a night market run, one of my best friends from England, and then another friend from New York, here post-Bali trip, so we could compare notes and dig into izakaya over a great night of conversation. On top of that, I had a lunch with one of my dad’s old business partners — also in the instrument import/export business — and will have to follow up with his son, to compare notes on what being a flute prince / saxophone duke is like. Although in his case, he’s actually doing it, and his family’s company is much much bigger than ours. It’ll be an interesting glimpse into a road I never took.
I was also introduced to an upcoming Asian American podcast project, and enjoyed talking to the friend of a friend. It’s always refreshing to talk to people who have similar tastes, attitudes, and interests, and I hope to be involved in some capacity.
I didn’t know what Hill would want to carve onto my body until I got there, and she had to make some changes to one design — due to how skinny I am — but they were absolutely more beautiful than I could have imagined. Four or five hours of work on each, on two separate days, and I was all done. Changed forever! The thigh one wasn’t particularly painful but there’s no minimizing that the side one stung, because how could it not? With everything peeling and on the mend, I prepared to head off to Japan...
