The November Post: Time for Taiwan

"The Heart of Asia...Time for Taiwan"

As I feared it might, time has gotten away from me and I am only now getting around to *last month's* post. Ugh. Apologies and all that.

My 'ride' back to Okinawa.

The month started for me in Thailand and ended in Taiwan. What fun! Readers may recall I'd already had the pleasure of traveling to Taiwan earlier this fall for work, not long after returning to the region for my new assignment. It was really only a matter of time until our whole bunch (i.e., the Sampsons in Japan) made the short trip over.

I'm on a plane...

We took advantage of the 4-day Thanksgiving day weekend to make it happen. Yes, while you gorged on turkey and football and napped it off laying comatose on the couch, we re-acquainted ourselves with the many pleasures of Formosa.

The view from inside the gorge

Our objective lay in the east - Taroko. We tried to visit the gorge a couple times while we lived in Taiwan a few years back, but it never worked out for one reason or another. The length of this weekend lent itself well toward spending a couple days there this time. It happened.

We weren't in Taiwan that long, but it was a planes, trains, and automobiles-type of affair, moving about the country.

Riding the bus

We did not find turkey and trimmings, but instead beef noodle soup.

These boys were excited to have their photo taken with the Eternal Spring Temple.

Still excited!

If you want to take a walk in the gorge, you need a helmet!

There was also a big election in Taiwan while we were there. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had a hard time. Methinks it was probably not the outcome many observers in both Beijing and Washington were looking for.

Spending some time at the airport

Taiwan liked us so much it tried to keep us (flight delay). Alas, we eventually had to return to Japan. Never fear -- we'll be back!

I've enjoyed sampling the various unique KitKat flavors here in Japan. An article in MCCS Iwakuni's "Preview" magazine, which I saw during our layover on Patriot Express from Seattle to Okinawa, alerted me to the unique KitKat offerings available. I still haven't seen the ones pictured in the article (above).

This flavor, Beni-Imo (Purple Sweet Potato), is apparently Okinawa's contribution to the KitKat Japan repertoire. It was quite good.

What else happened in November? We made a trip to the aquarium.

I'm still not sure what that green soda is - melon something.

We went on a date.

The Marine Corps Ball.

A party with 500 of our closest friends.

I had a new publication released.

Read the whole thing here. 

Science/space night at J's school.

We decided to move L. to a new school. Kids need to play outside every day.

Most of our boxes are finally unpacked.

Luckily, we remembered to unpack this little cutie. Sometimes boxes are more fun to play with than the stuff originally packed in them!

We're preparing for visitors in December.