Taiwan - Day 4 (PingXi)

I LOVE THIS HIKE! Pingxi crags is definitely my favorite hikes in Taiwan and also one of my favorite hikes in the world.

We got up in the morning and had a really solid group: Me, Lei, Ru, Anna, Mom, Dad, Jenny, and Jenny’s friend Linda.

I’m so happy that my cousin Jenny finally came to hang out with me! I had been trying to get her to come and do stuff with me since last summer.

Anyway, we went over to the crags and it was amazing. Believe it or not, the hike is actually even more legit than the photos make it look. We straight up climbed a huge rock sticking straight out of the jungle!! So cool.

After the hike we went over to Pingxi. Last time I came I didn’t send off a lantern because I was so poor (making around $4 an hour at my internship - which is actually decent for college students in Taiwan). This time my parents were with us so they bought a lantern we could all share (okay, so it’s not like they’re actually that expensive anyway, maybe $6 for one). We each wrote our wishes on the sides and let it fly!

For a second it looked like it was going to hit a house, but it barely cleared it. We were just happy our lantern didn’t burst into flames.

After Pingxi we took the train home. It’s supposed to be one of the most scenic train rides in Taiwan, but we were too distracted by the wasp in our little area of the train car. My mom has no fear and attacked the wasp with her shoe. She smacked it down and we thought we were fine,,,then the wasp showed up again! So she smacked it again *Whack!* but somehow it came back AGAIN. Finally the third time she made sure she killed it completely - thank goodness.

As soon as we got back to Taipei we went for shave ice in Xi men ding and wrote our names on the wall. 

Then Jojo took us out to dinner at an expensive Japanese restaurant. The food was all pretty good, until they brought out the steak. Then it was AMAZING. Ru actually said that it’s the best restaurant he’s been to in his life. Hahaha. Ru is the best guy to bring with you when you eat because he’s like a vacuum - he’ll eat everything you don’t want to! The crazy part though is that he won’t just eat it - he’ll love it! It seems like whenever he’s eating he also says: Hao chi, Hao chi (Tastes good, tastes good).

Taiwan - Day 3 (Elephant Mountain)

Taiwan is full of great hikes, and the best one in the city of Taipei is definitely Elephant Mountain. It’s a short hike that gives a great view of the city, and especially of the 101.

We didn’t take as many photos as we should have, but here’s a few:

Waiting for Melissa guys at the post office because there's A/C there. 

Playing at the park. 

Lei running up the mountain.

Lei climbing up the mountain. 

The funniest part of the hike was that Ru hiked up with me and Lei. Then we were texting Melissa and her friends and she had said that they went to a different park than us. The only other park that leads up the mountain is on the trail on the other side (we went up by the high school, the other is by Xiangshan MRT). They had a kid with them so Melissa said to send Ru to go help.

We sent Ru to go help and after about 15 minutes, Melissa and her friends showed up from the same side we had taken! Uh-oh. We had no way to contact Ru because he left his phone, so he ended up going all the way down the other side, and then came most of the way back up again before we climbed down to him. hahaha. Poor Ru.

He’s always a great sport about everything and was happy to get the leg exercise.

Lei and I went home to shower and eat some American food, we had been eating too much authetic Taiwanese food. We went to 1885 and got hamburgers. I got the Peanut Butter Bacon Cheeseburger - my favorite. It was delicious.

We stayed in for awhile because I had an interview that night with SDA Bocconi (business school in Milan). It seemed to go really well, and then we went to play soccer!

I miss living in Taipei so much. We used to play every week. Even though there were just a few of us there to play, it was a blast. We just threw down some dish towels for goals and started to play around. Everyone was just there for a good time so it didn’t get too competitive and we all enjoyed ourselves. We got really really sweaty and a little tired so we decided to head to the night market.

Ann fell down when we went for a photo

My favorite night market: Raohe Night Market! Delicious food, minimal crowds (compared to the touristy Shilin Night Market).

This was amazing. Recently I've gotten into these because I played once with Clark and Melissa and Melissa got it on her first try and Clark did on his second!! So Lei and I decided we would each try just one time to see how we'd do. It was so perfect! Lei grabbed it and dropped it right by the edge and then I grabbed it and dropped it in!! We were totally stoked about it. : D

We tried as much delicious food as we could handle before we decided to call it a night. 

Taiwan - Day 2 (Church and bike ride)

Sunday. We always love Sundays. This Sunday was especially good for me because we went to my old ward! Taipei Songshan Ward is full of really solid families and fun members.

Half the YM/YW class is people who are too old for it because it’s so fun that no one wants to leave! So of course that’s the one we went to. We had a really great experience there and we all had the opportunity to introduce ourselves and bare our testimonies.

I’m grateful for the church and for the Holy Spirit that can be felt wherever you go to church.
After church we had to hurry to YangMei. We had lunch at my grandma’s house and then we went out for a little bike ride.

Okay, so the bike ride wasn’t that little, and neither were the bikes! We cruised around “green tunnel” in 6-person monster bikes.

We stopped for snacks along the way which were totally delicious and super cheap! I love Taiwan.
After the bike ride we went home and showered before going to bed. 

Taiwan - Day 1 (Hot Springs)

95 degrees out on a hot and humid day in Taiwan? Let’s go visit the hot springs! :D

It was really fun, but there was no way we were getting in. It quickly sunk in that Taiwan really is a lot hotter than Japan and we were sweating more than any of us were used to. I was pretty surprised because I had lived in Taiwan all last summer, yet I had somehow forgotten how hot it gets. Ru was surprised because he grew up in Taiwan but had forgotten how hot it gets. Lei was surprised because she never sweats. Anna was surprised because her face was dripping and all of her pores opened up.

Before the hot springs we actually went to an awesome Aborigine museum. It was fun because they let you play with all the instruments and the A/C was strong! woohoo!

After the hot springs we went to lunch and had very authentic Taiwanese food. hahaha. It was alright. Then we had shave ice. That’s always great.

This photo is actually getting shave ice after lunch. We were so happy. 

After that we went over to the Chiang-Kai Shek memorial hall. That place is awesome!! I had forgotten how impressive it was and was really happy at how amazing Taipei is! What a great city. I love it.

Then we met up with Sophie and went over to the Taipei temple. She’s an old friend from BYU-Hawaii and she really wanted to see Ru.

We enjoyed cooling off in the stake center by the temple and then had some delicious shave ice.

Anna got hit pretty hard by the heat coming out of the stake center. 

Best shave ice!!

We just kept on going hard all day and went to KTV! It was super fun.

Japan - Day 9 (Leaving Osaka and going to Taipei!)

Today we decided to take a kind of chill day and had our main goal as being: get to the airport on time. 

We had a fun game going with our new friends in Japan to have a photo contest every day. 

..

It got pretty crazy. Somehow the challenge was to have one person doing a handstand while the others hugged a Japanese person. We had a hard time doing it, but our result wasn't too bad: 

I think we really freaked out that poor Japanese guy as he was on his lunch break from work. Hahaha. He kept laughing though, and was surprising down for taking the photo with us. He accidentally left his coffee as he hurried to work. 

This was at the airport. I think that plane gives some real solid advice. 

When we got to Taiwan we went to dinner with Jojo. As always, it was delicious! It feels good to be back home in Taiwan. 

After dinner, Ru came over!! We all love Ru and were super stoked to see him so we could hang out this week! Woohoo!

Japan - Day 8 (Kyoto)

Today we went to Kyoto! That's up there as possibly my favorite city in Japan. 

Last time I was there I didn't make it to Fushimi Inari, the over 10,000 gates dedicated to the Inari, the Japanese kami (spirit) of foxes. 

I'm pretty sure that these shrines inspired the hit song: what did the fox say? 

After the Fushimi Inari we spent some time checking out shops as we slowly made our way home. Somehow we scored some delicious free samples too. 

Then we pretty much went back to Osaka, ate, explored the area around Charle's house and went home to rest. 

Japan - Day 7 (Himi Jimi)

Okay, it's actually Himeji, but Anna calls it Himi Jimi. haha.

We went out there, and it was pretty hot. We weren't sure if we actually wanted to go in the castle at first, so we went for a stroll around it.

We saw a lot of crazy looking fish, and then met some new friends! One was a trumpet player, and the other was a saxophone player (we think). The sax player actually only had a mouthpiece, so we're not sure if he actually plays or not. He was hitchhiking his way up north.

He decided to play an American song for us.

In the end we decided to go up into the castle. It was pretty sweet, but I totally think the enemy could just burn it down if they were to shoot up some fire arrows. 

Himeji. Check. The largest and most impressive castle in Japan.