Thursday, January 31, 2008

hackers with guns

Today I had lunch with several engineers visiting from the Taipei office.

In Taiwan, every male citizen is required to complete mandatory military service. One of the engineers had just finished his stint in the army. So, halfway through the meal, I found myself listening to a glib discussion about the merits of the various types of guns used by the Taiwanese military. Apparently there are several important things to consider, such as the length of the barrel (shorter is less accurate but easier to carry for short Asian soldiers), the age of the model (some guns from the late 1970's were still being used as recently as a few years ago), and various gun performance benchmarks.

I'm not sure exactly why I was amused, but I was. I guess I'm not used to computer science geeks who know their guns.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Hawaiians from Taiwan?

I vaguely remember hearing something awhile ago about how recent research had suggested that Polynesians may have originally come from Taiwan. I was telling a friend about it today, and in trying to find support for my claim, I came across this Economist article. I hadn't seen it before, but it looks like it may have been the primary source for whatever I had seen/heard:

Maori legend has it that Polynesians originated from a place called "Hawaiki". Where Hawaiki was located is a mystery. But the toings and froings of the Polynesians—arguably the greatest seafarers in history—have long intrigued researchers of an anthropological turn of mind, and two of them, Jean Trejaut and Marie Lin of Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei, think they know the answer to the riddle of Hawaiki: Taiwan.

This is not a total surprise. Linguistic evidence pointed that way already. But, in a study just published in Public Library of Science Biology, Dr Trejaut and Dr Lin nail the question down with that talisman of modern research, genetics.

Present day Taiwan has a population of 23m, but only 400,000 are descended from the island's original inhabitants (the majority of the population is descended from mainland Chinese who have settled there over the past 400 years). Those 400,000 speak—or, at least historically spoke—languages belonging to a group known as Austronesian, which is unrelated to Chinese, but includes the Polynesian tongues. Indeed, small though the aboriginal Taiwanese population is, it accounts for nine of the ten linguistic sub-families of Austronesian. Hence the supposition that Hawaiki might be Taiwan.

To check this out, Dr Trejaut and Dr Lin decided to look at variations in mitochondrial DNA. This is passed from mother to offspring without genetic admixture from the father, because it is found in the bodies of cells—including, crucially, egg cells—rather than in the cell nuclei where the rest of the genes reside. (Sperm jettison their mitochondrial DNA at fertilisation.) That makes tracing mutations through the generations easier than looking at those genes that get mixed up by sex.

In a study involving 640 people from nine Taiwanese tribes, Dr Trejaut and Dr Lin found three mutations shared by Taiwanese, Polynesians and Melanesians (who also speak Austronesian) which are not found in other Asians. So the mystery seems to have been solved at last. Where the Taiwanese came from, though, is a different question again.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

fully vaccinated

This morning I went to see a travel nurse. I figured that since I'm going to both Southeast Asia and South America in the next few months, I should see about getting some vaccines. As it turns out, there's actually quite a list of diseases to worry about when traveling. Luckily, I'm up to date on HepA, HepB, TDaP, and MMR, so today I only had to get shots for Typhoid and Yellow Fever, as well as a script for some Malaria pills. After he finished with my vaccines, the nurse pointed out that now I'm pretty much good to go even for Africa, although for that he recommended a polio booster as well. Hmm, Africa...

Friday, January 18, 2008

Japan (Tokyo & Yokohama)

I meant to get up early on our first day in Tokyo so I could see the Tsukiji Fish Market auction, but after getting in at midnight, I was too exhausted to drag myself out of bed at 5am, so instead I slept in. After finally getting up around 9am, we decided to head to Shibuya first:


After walking around a bit, we grabbed a quick lunch in the 109 tower (Korean food), had authentic Japanese Beard Papa's for dessert (tasted about the same, actually), and then caught a train to Yokohama.

It only took us about half an hour to get to there, but everything felt totally different compared to the bustle of Tokyo. There were some interesting buildings, some pretty waterfront views, and an interesting set of "Red Brick Warehouses" which housed some cute boutiques and restaurants, kind of like Faneuil Hall in Boston:


Following instructions from our tour book, we hopped on a bus to check out the nearby Sankeien Garden:



The garden was peaceful and pretty but surprisingly uncrowded. In fact, I got the impression that generally there were not that many people around in Yokohama; maybe they had all gone elsewhere on vacation.

After taking the bus back to town, we walked around the Motomachi shopping area for a bit, and then briefly stopped by the Yokohama Chinatown (every Japanese city has one!) before heading back to Tokyo.

At this point I was actually very tired, and I nearly chose to head straight back to the hotel; maybe grabbing fast food for dinner. But, after a good 20 minute nap on the train ride back, I felt somewhat refreshed and we decided to go with the original plan, which was to have a nice Japanese dinner. We chose Shunju, located at the top of the Sanno Park Tower in Akasaka.

In retrospect, I'm really glad we decided to go. The view was amazing, the food was creative and delicious, and our waitress spoke excellent English. Here are a few photos from one of the set course meals:




My favorite dishes were the steamed clams (very simple dish, executed flawlessly) and the Japanese prime beef (melt-in-your-mouth tender, cooked to a perfect medium rare).

Feeling much better after dinner, we headed to Roppongi to get an obligatory glance at the Tokyo Tower:


We were there for all of fifteen minutes, but even so, I could tell I didn't like Roppongi. There were too many drunk, loud Americans, the restaurants were overpriced, and I felt like I had to watch my camera bag (the only time I ever worried about pickpockets in Japan). We left pretty quickly, so we ended up getting to bed fairly early, for once.

On our last day in Japan, we got up bright and early, and were checked out of our hotel by 8am. First, we walked around the Imperial Palace gardens, and then visited the infamous Yasukuni shrine. I took a photo there that I actually like quite a lot:


Next we went to Shinjuku, where we saw lots of big department stores, other smaller stores (Taito Game Station! Mister Donut!), and another small shrine. We also ran across a vending machine that looked like it sold food. Upon closer inspection, we discovered that the vending machine was used to buy real meals; after putting in money, we chose an udon dish and the machine dispensed a ticket, which we then took inside and exchanged for real food. We were very amused but the Japanese people around us just thought we were strange.

Right before heading back to the hotel to pick up our luggage, we stopped by Asakusa, where the Senso-ji temple is. It was crazy busy there, but in a fun way; lots of women were dressed in kimonos (as they had been in Kyoto earlier in the week), there was lots of street food (I ate some fresh Senbei), and it was generally a very festive atmosphere:


Finally, we grabbed our luggage, caught the Narita Express to the airport, and were on our way home! Next time I'm scheduling a trip to Japan, I hope I'll remember that four days is not enough.

board games & coffee

Yesterday, we had some people over for games. With eight people, we were able to split into two games with four people each. I played Thebes for the second time ever, and the other table played Puerto Rico. It was a fun time as always, and even though I played an extremely straightforward strategy, I managed to win this time.

Anyway, I was commenting to one of the other players that I hadn't played games in forever, but I realized that wasn't true. While in Taipei, a friend took us to a small coffeehouse near 台大, which boasted an impressive two-wall collection of board games, both for play and for sale. We spent two or three hours there, drinking tea and coffee and playing a new game, Notre Dame. I wish we had one of those around here!

Incidentally, the cafe was running an interesting promotion at the time; any female customer could get 10% off her order by doing 10 push-ups, or 20% off by doing 20. Unfortunately, the discount only applied to her drink(s), not to the rest of the table, otherwise I would have done it. (It didn't seem worth it to do push-ups in a restaurant in order to save 50 cents.)

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Japan (Kyoto)

On our second full day in Japan, a friend took us to Kyoto to see some of the many beautiful shrines and temples. The ride from Osaka to Kyoto was a short fifteen minutes by Shinkansen, but when we got to Kyoto and started to look for a lunch spot, we were stymied by long lines everywhere. Apparently, many companies give their employees up to a week of vacation for the New Year, so everyone was out and about, enjoying their holiday.

We finally decided to grab a quick bite when we got to our first destination, which turned out to be the Fushimi Inari shrine, which is famous for its many red "torii" (Shinto holy gates):


Because it was New Year's, there were tons of small stands outside the shrine, selling various types of Japanese street food. I had more takoyaki, some oden, a skewer of yakitori, and yakisoba. I passed on the grilled squid, but had some egg puffs for dessert.

After eating too much again, we spent some time exploring the shrine, but decided not to undertake the two-hour hike up the mountain behind it. Instead, we headed over to the equally famous Kiyomizu temple:


There is a balcony at the top of the temple which has a really nice view of Kyoto:


We hung out there for awhile to take photos, and were told about a folk tale involving jumping off the balcony to get a wish granted. To me, it looked like an awfully long way to fall, but apparently many people survived, way back when. Nowadays it's prohibited for anyone to attempt a jump.

The temple's name means "pure water"; it is named after the waterfall that flows through the complex. Many of the visitors drink the water from the fall, believing it will bring them health, longevity, and academic success:


On our way out, we stopped by a small cafe for some mochi and tea. I had warabimochi for the first time, and I liked it so much that I tried to buy some to take home, but was told it only stays good for two, maybe three days. Too bad.

Afterwards, we made our way to a restaurant called Ushi no Hone, in a trendy area near the river. The menu consisted mostly of small dishes, of which we ordered many. My favorites were the beautifully arranged Japanese appetizer platter, the fried lotus root, the grilled meat, and the salmon and ikura rice (and I'm not usually fond of cooked fish).

Finally, we hopped on yet another Shinkansen train so we could get to Tokyo before midnight. I'm usually a fan of taking public transportation when travelling, but I was pretty exhausted even after sleeping through half of the nearly three hour ride, so we ended up cabbing it to our hotel, the Monterey Hanzomon, before crashing for the night.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Japan (Osaka, Himeji, & Kobe)

After leaving Taiwan, we went to Japan for four days, which was definitely not long enough.

On the first day, we arrived at Narita around 3pm, exchanged our vouchers for Japan Rail Passes (expensive at $230 apiece, but a good investment nevertheless), and took the Narita Express to Tokyo Station (1 hour) where we transferred to the Shinkansen, which we took to Osaka (3 hours). A friend who lives in Osaka met us at the train station, and took us to our hotel, the Namba Oriental, in the southern downtown area.

After leaving our luggage, we went out for a late dinner. Our hotel was very well located so there were tons of restaurants within walking distance. Our friend chose Chibo, which, despite being a chain restaurant, is well known for their okonomiyaki. I had never had any before, and after sampling three different kinds which were all yummy, I decided I liked it very much:


After dinner, we bought some fresh Takoyaki from a street vendor and walked around for a bit, but soon headed back to our hotel to sleep.

The next morning we got up bright and early to check out the Umeda Sky Building, which actually consists of two buildings which are connected at the top by some escalators and an observation deck. It's a pretty cool looking structure, with a great view from the top:



We ate a simple lunch in the basement (I had a katsu-don) and then hopped on a train bound for Himeji, to see the famous Himeji Castle. Himeji is about an hour away from Osaka by train, but the castle is very much worth the trip. It's amazing to think that it was built in the 1600's; the intricately detailed roofs, the exterior white walls, and the interior rooms are all in surprisingly good shape. Also, the castle is deceptively large; we were able to walk through one of the buildings as well as the main tower (after removing our shoes, naturally) which took much longer than I expected.

Taken from the garden outside the castle:


Taken from inside the main tower:


After leaving the castle we grabbed some snacks in the train station. This is where I discovered Manneken Belgian waffles. I tried the green tea flavor as well as the original, and both were very good (I had a slight preference for the green tea):


I wonder if the name is some kind of weird Japanese tribute to the Manneken Pis in Brussels?

Finally, after everything in Himeji started closing (which was around 6pm!) we took the train to Kobe, where we checked out the local Chinatown, ate some gyoza, played some pachinko, and shopped a bit, before returning to Osaka for a late shabu shabu dinner. Unfortunately, since we were only in Kobe for a few hours, we didn't have time to find a good place to eat Kobe beef. I guess that's a good reason to go back!

Monday, January 14, 2008

10 days in Taiwan

I finally got all the photos from my Taiwan and Japan trips culled, cleaned up, and uploaded. Here are some of the Taiwan highlights...

On the first night after we arrived, after hanging out at Barcode, we had rice porridge (shi fan) for midnight snack (siao yeh):



A few days later, we spent the evening at the Shi Lin night market, eating snacks like fried pork buns, grilled sugar cane, and egg puffs. Some people had the famous stinky tofu, but not me; I'm not a fan:


I hadn't been to the Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial Hall for at least ten years. This year it was renamed as the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall:



Kanpai is a Japanese-style yakiniku restaurant that my cousin introduced me to a few years ago. There are two gimmicks that apply only at 8pm; if you empty your drink glass, you get a free refill (hence, the name, "kanpai"), and if you kiss someone for ten seconds, you get a free plate of meat. I took some friends there one night and we took advantage of both promotions:


On New Year's Eve, a friend took us to an area on the outskirts of Taipei city. From there we had a nice view of the Taipei 101 fireworks, as well as other, smaller displays:


My brother was in Taipei in late summer, before the Autumn Moon Festival, and he was sweet enough to save two Haagen Daze ice cream "mooncakes" for me. I was skeptical of the sesame flavored one at first but it turned out to be the yummier of the two:


This was my first introduction to Hakka-style "lei cha". First, you grind sesame and other seeds into paste, and then they add crispy rice and hot water. It sounds kind of nasty but actually tastes pretty good:




Nearby the tea house, we saw some cool old buildings. Here's a shot of one of the roofs:


On the day we flew to Tokyo, just before our flight, a friend who works in the air traffic control tower at the Taipei airport showed us around, which was really cool:




Other than that, we mostly ate a lot:
- the requisite Din Tai Fong dumplings
- lunch in a department store basement, including beef noodle soup, oyster pancake (oah tsen), beef wrapped in soft pancakes (jin bing), and tofu soup dessert (dao whei)
- Peking duck at Long Du
- super cheap Chinese breakfasts, with rice rolls (fan tuan), Chinese donut (you tiao) wrapped in a flaky crust (sao bing), soy milk, dumplings, potstickers, Chinese bread (man tou), the list goes on...
- Taiwanese hamburger (gua bao), with fatty pork, fresh peanut powder, and cilantro
- authentic pearl milk tea!
- hot grass jelly (so good I always burn my tongue)
- 8-10 stir-fried dishes (meats, vegetables, seafood, egg, etc.) mixed together and wrapped in a pancake (lun bianh), my favorite

I'll save Japan highlights for future posts.

Friday, January 11, 2008

oops

I accidentally posted some information here instead of on my work blog a few minutes ago. I guess that'll teach me to look more carefully at which browser instance I'm using. On the bright side, any non-coworker probably found those posts totally unreadable anyway. Anyway, I've erased those posts now.

Monday, January 07, 2008

researching airfares

The quest to find the best airfares never ends, but new web tools keep popping up:
- FareCompare shows fares over an extended time period, so it's easy to find the cheapest time to travel on a particular route.
- FareCast tries to predict if a particular fare will go up or down over the next 30 days, and makes a recommendation (e.g. "Buy Now" vs "Wait").
- Kayak and SideStep have been my most reliable sources for finding cheap flights over the past year or two, and now they've merged. I hope nothing much changes.
- I also recently found a good deal on a flight to Argentina using ATIflights.

Sunday, January 06, 2008

back home

I just got back home after spending two weeks in Taiwan and Japan. Lots of details to come, but for now, two quick travel notes:

Although we did no itinerary coordination whatsoever, I somehow ended up on the same flight from Tokyo to San Francisco as a friend who was returning from Seoul (connecting through Tokyo). Similarly, when I first arrived in Taipei from San Francisco, I ran into two friends at the baggage claim area, who had just gotten off a flight from Tokyo. It seems that I can't walk into an airport in Asia without bumping into someone I know, at least during the holiday season.

After arriving, I knew I was home after walking out of the airport terminal, when I looked for a garbage can, and found it two feet away. Looking down the street, I saw that there was a garbage can at every exit! Furthermore, throwing away my water bottle did not require deciphering the labels on a dizzying array of containers, to determine which was for "PET bottles", as opposed to "other bottles", "paper containers", "newspaper", "burnable trash", "other trash", etc. I felt a bit guilty that I was relieved to be back where it's considered virtuous just to sort recycling from trash.

 

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