Matsuyama to Taipei

I lived in Taipei for a full year as an exchange student back in 1993-94.  I've only been back once, for a just a few days in 2005.  So I've been eager to see how the city would feel to me now.

Interestingly, the first time I ever went to Japan was in December 1993, while I was living in Taipei.  I remember feeling a tremendous sense of relief after getting back to Taiwan from Japan.  In Japan I had felt constrained, anxious, constantly worried that I was doing something rude or improper.  In Taipei things felt relaxed and free.  I was curious to see if my impressions would be the same now, more than 16 years later.

Because I didn't have time to eat at the guesthouse before leaving for the airport, the manager made me a bento breakfast.

The darker food up at the top left is liver.

By the way, I haven't seen a single obese Japanese person since I've been here.  Come to think of it, I haven't even seen anybody you could charitably describe as fat.  Maybe one or two chubby folks.

The flight from Matsuyama to Itami Airport in Osaka is a mere 50 minutes.  From there, though it took over an hour by limousine shuttle bus to get from Itami to Kansai, Osaka's international airport.  Kansai Airport is way way out.  Looks like it was built on an artificial island.  Crossing the bridge to reach it, the views are just lovely.

It was a bit hazy today, unfortunately, but if you click through on the picture you can probably see the bridge on the lift, and the hills beyond the water.

And here's the control tower:

Kansai is huge, modern, and seemed surprisingly under-utilized.  In the area where I was waiting there were dozens of gates, but the electronic boards showed no departures at all from 11:30 to 1:00.

Much of the place felt like a ghost town.

The architecture is pretty neat.  I like the elevator towers:

There's some pretty wild artwork on display, too.

Apparently this was made in Jingdezhen China, famous for its porcelain wares, as a gift to Osaka for the 2005 International Food Festival.  On it are scenes of foods and famous meals.

That middle one looks like the Last supper.  Bizarre.

The televisions were showing the Yankees-Mets game live, because a Japanese national, Takahashi, was pitching for the Mets.

He was doing quite well, too.

Through 6 innings: 103 pitches, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts, 4 hits, no runs.

Before getting on my plane -- this Chinese Airlines jet

 --

I decided to get a snack.

Yes, that's right, Pretz, the under-appreciated sibling of Pocky.  These are "salad flavor", whatever that means.  And hey, what's that inset image?  Seems to be the Pretz package -- labeled パッケージ pakkeji -- saying tsuretette, whatever that means.

All becomes clear when we look at the back of the package:

Yep, you can fold out the little frog-package's arms and hang the box from the inside of your handbag.  This is, in typical Japanese fashion, obviously more for aesthetic appeal than practical convenience.

Like so:

They were pretty tasty, by the way.

The bottom of the package has three heart-shaped cutouts, but I can't imagine they serve any purpose whatsoever.