Offeratory Gifts!

On another evening walk outside the hotel, there was a man and woman making an offering outside of their business in their "burn barrel" for lack of a different name. I'm not sure is this is Buddhist, Taoist, or Confucious, but they are making offerings to the spirit world.



this is fairly typical of the "offerings" made to the spirits/ancestors! the gifts can represent wishes, money, material things! The offerings in the august time frame include pictures of money, clothes, furniture that their "family" members can use in the afterlife! The gifts are meant to be consumed by the fire and carried to the spirit world.



The "offering" packs are opened and tossed into the fire a few at a time! there doesn't seem to be any formal ritual/prayer associated with this, but i guess it is the thought that is what's important! (click on the 2nd picture and check out the name on the lighter! 24-hours/7-days a week!)

From the Air!

When you check into the airport for a leg of the trip home on a "standby" ticket, this is not what you want to see posted on the board! For whatever reason, NWA messed up this section of my itinerary and i had to make other arrangements to get to Tokyo to catch my flight home. but, alas, i did get on the plane for this mystery leg of travel! While i was checking my bags, they only wanted to check them through to Tokyo! Noooooooo! i begged, please check them all the way through to ERI! Not easy when she speaks chinese and i don't!!! a lot of finger pointing and the rest of my return paper ticket did the trick! My bags made it! WHEW!



When i fly TPE to Osaka, I never get to see this! for one, i'm never near a window seat and always on the wrong side of the plane! but today, you could see Mount Fuji rising gloriously above the clouds! this picture may not do it justice, but it really was quite inspiring!

That's DOLLARS not cents!

Oh sweet nectar!
It really is a good beer!
This was in the airport where prices can be inflated in general! and yes the price is right $120 (That's NT dollars!) about $4.00 US!

Sing Along With Buddha!

It's very late at night local time and i'm trying to work on my progress reports to try and stay current! i'm flicking throught the local channels on the TV to have something as background noise. if i put a movie on it's to distracting...if i put on CNN, it to can be distracting, so i found the 24 hr Buddha Channel! it's kind of like watching Mother Angelica on EWTN! Nice background level of chanting.... turns out it was distracting too! for those of us old enough to remember the show "Sing Along With Mitch Miller", he had a bouncing ball leading you through the words of the song. Old school karaoke! Well, i'm watching the show and one monk is tapping a small brass bell and another later on is tapping a large carved hollow wooden figure. What caught my eye was that the text of the chant/prayer was changing as it progressed.



hummmmmmmmm.........

I DON'T CARE, I DON'T WORRY AS LONG AS I GOT MY....

Plastic Buddha riding on the dashboard of my car!
On an evening walk this week, this song got stuck in my head after i saw this car parked along the side of the road!

Back Home!

Whew! This has been an extraordinary tough week of travel, work, and not feeling well. Not a good combination for extended travel. But...... on a lighter side!
this is the first trip that i haven't taken "bathroom" pictures! I guess i've seen it enough already not to be so novel! besides, taking pictures in public restrooms with a wide or narrow stance can be embarrassing and tough to explain!
the other first of this trip is no pictures of the blisters on my feet from all of the evening walking! Not feeling well this trip, i didn't do a whole lot of walking!
I did pick up a rather nasty flesh eating bacteria, but we'll go see the doctor first before publishing pictures of that!!!!

(Don't) Park and Ride.....

If you can't do the time......
......Don't do the crime!

The train station has been under major reconstruction. I've taken pictures before with the scooters everywhere!! Well, now there seems to be a parking problem with all of the construction. I walked by the parking lot this afternoon and they're hauling illegally parked scooters away by the "truckload"!

The first truckload was already full and here they are loading up the second batch! they really were quite efficient with it! hook em, lift em, stack them on a truck!

Unload them in the bed of the "tow truck", if that's what you could call it!


Just like CSI taping around the outline of the body! at least they have the decency of marking the spot where you last parked your bike! see the note on the ground!

You can see that they put the scooter's license plate numger on the ground and info about where to pick it up! I guess my thought was "What if it rains before you get back????"

Galaxy Quest!!!

As Captain Quincy Taggert said:"Never Give Up, Never Surrender!"
Pitchers and catchers are at the Graceful Count Hotel again! the rest of the team shows up a later. Spring Training!!!! Ahhhhhhh. When i asked at the desk, the team will be here for 2 months total. Funny to see the coaching staff in the lobby with rosters and charts! these kids look so young when you see them in the elevator... wearing Yankee T-shirts! that's just wrong!




Here it is, January 16, 2008! and already the spring flower flats are out! it seems so funny to see the impatiens out and flowering! so i guess that baseball can't be far away!

Twas the night before.......

Christmas and all through the house....
the stockings were hung with the hope that St.Nick would soon be there!!!!!

BUT WAIT A MINUTE.....

Christmas Doritos?



Whatever happened to coal or fruit?




I just don't understand the marketing target.....
but then again, i'm sure that i'm not their targeted demographic....


BUT, a dorito is a dorito no matter how you cut it!