Personal Dork Assistant

Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, near the International Date Line, so it could be the 15th or the 16th, and God knows what time it really is

Impressions

• Back hair on Sumo wrestlers is really unattractive.
• No matter how bland and boring the music is, at least Asian MTV still plays music videos.
• My eyes and throat definitely notices the air quality after a stroll down the busy streets.
• Other than the air, I like high density urban living Asian style, where you have American boutiques, Japanese department stores, and Taiwanese street food side-by-side.
• Hanami (hanami:hamachi :: toro:maguro) is amazing.
• Business Class (plus iPod and Etys) meets the minimum requirements for a civilized trans-Pacific flight. Thanks mom.
• You know you live in a fashionable neighborhood when the Starbucks density exceeds the McDonalds density.
• To stop future terrorists, only plastic butter knifes will be used on the flight. Yet one more reason to avoid the beef course.
• Asian rap is weak.
• I almost got a hernia carrying the HK Cosmo in my bag. It's HUGE.
• One of these days I'll figure out why I opened three bank accounts in Hong Kong with my expired Taiwan passport, which you're not suppose to be able to do but the bank manager assured us is okay as long as I renew my Taiwan passport ASAP.
• The next trick: get a new Taiwan passport without getting drafted into the army in the process.

Every time I saw a lao-wai, I wanted to go up to him/her and ask, "What are you doing here, you poor bastard?" I would've hated Taipei if I didn't have family here and didn't speak/read the language. Without a guide and with a language barrier, Taipei becomes a dirty, crowded warren of impenetrable streets and alleys. You start sweating as soon as you step outside, but being blasted by indoor AC isn't much better. The street food is scary and the restaurant menus are vast and incomprehensible (heck, they seem that way to me regardless of language). And it's hard to meet the "nice" girls if someone doesn't introduce you, although a nice girl wouldn't date foreigners by definition.

The Taipei MRT totally rocks. It's clean, fast, and efficient. Heck, it's almost anti-Taiwan. Helps that there's a line running directly along our road and that there's a station 1.5 blocks away (plus another right outside my old elementary school). The HK Metro is pretty nice, too, and it's very much like the (newer lines of the) London Underground, complete with "Mind the Gap" signs. I suppose Hong Kong is what Taipei can aspire to be, except skyscrapers and earthquakes don't mix. Taipei is stuck amongst that second-tier of Asian cities, not as strict as Singapore (but not as clean), not as corrupt as Kuala Lumpur (but not as tourist-worthy), not as hip as Shanghai (but no totalitarian government either), etc.

Visited Aunt Dai's old house in the countryside near HsinChu. First did some shopping at the nearby market and meekly trailed behind mom and auntie as they blew through the myriad stalls in the outdoor market, picking out the specialty of each vendor from the half-dozen stalls all selling the same thing. The produce was picked this morning and the chickens still have their heads on. It made for a great home-cooked meal at the house with more of auntie's relatives. Stopped by at a roadside stand of somebody someone knows and visited his tomato greenhouse, the baby strawberry plants ready to be planted, and had some green tea fresh from the roaster.

It was actually quite a busy day. Went out later that night and met up with the Lit girl from UCSD near National Taiwan University. I thought it went well. It was interesting to see all the parents taking their little kids to visit the best university in Taiwan. It was nice to spend time with a woman who's actually less than twice my age.

All in all, Taiwan felt like home. Unforunately, being at home means that I spent too much time watching TV and surfing the net. Good thing I brought the Airport Base Station with me since I had to tear up the fancy phone system to get a real analog line for the modem and it was a little out of the way.

Anime on I saw on TV

• Fushigi Yugi
• His and Her Circumstances
• Pokemon, Digimon, Yu Gi Oh! (I consider them to be the same thing)
• You're Under Arrest 2
• Rouroni Kenshin
• Slam Dunk
• Initial D
• Cardcaptor Sakura
• Tenchi Muyo
• Some cutesy show on Cartoon Network that would never ever see the light of day in America so it doesn't have an English name (玩偶遊戲 is the Chinese name, FWIW)

Not the latest and greatest, but a pretty respectable list. Liked some of the wacky Japanese soaps and game shows, too.