Today was full of star studded highlights for me — we visited one of Tse Xin’s organic farms and adventures in the iconic Jioufen from Spirited Away!
This Buddhist organic farm was so special because it felt like I was being welcomed not just into a sustainable farm but into a sustainable home. The work ethos of the volunteers carrying the farm was so heartwarming. They ranged from younger to older; one of the guides described how kids would visit the farm and tag their parents along, but then the aging parents get attached! They set precedents for the next generations; many elders picked vegetables from the farm and cooked food to share. Especially among older volunteers, they may have lost partners and not have a big family to be with, so they come to the farm to build a greater community.
Before this visit I thought I knew how to appreciate food– not at all! The food here was all grown the way it had been for generations and sustained its organic practices. Being by a national park also meant this farm was surrounded by similarly organically sustained land and embodied a connection with nature. We ate herbs picked straight from the tree and tasted honey straight from the honeycomb. The agriculture came to life and this farm turned it into a lifestyle.
The farm’s volunteers prepared us such a lovely and delicious lunch; in my heart it was competition grade. (Attach picture of the lunch they made)
In the evening we made it up the mountains to Jioufen just in time to catch the sunset over an oceanside view. It was surreal to witness the magic of nature that I had only seen in paintings; we were definitely distracted and forgot what we were there for – the iconic night market! The red lanterns along the strenuous flights and the luring wafts of street food filled the air with excitement. Victoria and I had so much fun visiting the food vendors to try different Taiwanese food – though we decided to keep the stinky tofu on the backseat for another day! Jioufen was a lovely treat to end a lovely day!
One word – TOAF, well it’s more of an acronym. It stands for Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation, which we got to visit!
This company promotes organic farming and supports farmers dedicated to environmental sustainability. It was really cool to learn about their Green Conservation Label, which represents their vision of harmony between humans’ footprint and that of ecology. Tse-Xin described their efforts to help recognize producers who use eco-friendly or organic practices. Only 2% of Taiwan’s land is cultivated this way, so Tse-Xin works with farms to tell their story and get them certified for their organic products.
I found it interesting that these initiatives for organic certification came not from the government initially but from companies, like Tse-Xin, pushing to protect wildlife conservation and organic farmers’ lower product yields. In the spirit of harmony, Tse-Xin emphasized the importance of biotechnology working alongside sustainability.
Later in the day we visited one of the most famous tea farms in Taiwan, BY-TeaMaster – not organic, sadly, but competition grade in its teas! The young tea farmer gave us a tour of his factories and the land, which was shared by many different tea farmers. Since tea production is very labor intensive, younger people are less inclined to do it. It’s super cool that there is a Young Farmers Association that helps these young farmers come together, collaborate, and exchange technical knowledge.
This young generation of farmers also rebranded themselves using social media. The tea business is one that stretches across generations and is passed down, so each generation’s tea is made slightly differently and has its own distinctness. BY-TeaMaster’s method was meticulously adapted from the son’s father and now is renowned for its award-winning teas! I had so much fun learning about this and getting to try the competition grade teas through a tea ceremony!
We ended the day with our first nightmarket adventure! Our tour guide, Jesse, made sure to tell us essential tips. Don’t have all your money out. Stay away from fried goods. Know when to bargain. What fun!
Final full day with everyone 🙁 Jay and Deon are leaving tomorrow (6/4) so we had to make the most of today. Spent another long day on the bus just chatting and enjoying the view of Taiwan’s east coast landscape. We visited the “Far Far Away” village where we got to create our own essential oils that were unique to us. Supposedly, our personality could be determined based on the essential oils we chose for our final product. But by that logic, it means that Fubing has a nasty personality, Jay is tiny and weak, and Noni will make it through customs successfully. I also got to see a monkey cross the road which made my day. Jesse told us not to feed them anything but I was almost tempted so that I could see one. Eventually, we arrived at our current hotel and visited the night market. The place was great until it started pouring buckets on us. Luckily, Jay and I won a couple more plushies and booked it back to the hotel with Noni, Ellie, and Sophie.
I’m honestly surprised we made it through the whole trip without any issues, though I did almost get locked out of one of the hotels (the gate was closing while I was still outside at 11:45 pm). But overall, the trip was a huge success and it was such a pleasure to get to know everyone. To commemorate the closing of our trip, Jay and I released a song that I hope you will all listen to. Go to his blog post to check out the song.
Since I have been working so tirelessly on these blogs, I decided to write a summer banger culminating our entire experience with my guy Cael. Here it is. I hope you enjoyed our journey, cause we certainly did
To think that language is enough of a barrier that when engaged in meaningful research, one may feel that we are cutting off the very people, the indigeneous community, helping us learn about their ways. To me, this is perhaps a message that faithful translation is just that much more of an important tool for the establishment of meaningful connections. A complicated question. We are here to gain inspiration for our long term knowledge journey that may not have anything to do with this island the moment we leave it, yet my classmate are so genuine as to gruel over the desire to understand over night time hang-out sessions.
At times it seems no matter the amount of education, we can never shake the shell of our circumstances, our experience, the inabling and abling aspects, to embody the subjects that we engage with. Perhaps in moments where we smashed the millet with rough wooden hammers, when we chopped the wood with light axes, peeled the vegetables they eat, pealed the peanuts that they harvested… Perhaps the mindlessness of doing what they do is a way to break out of our shell. Harsh truth, not everyone do those traditional methods any more. While an attempt for us to learn about traditional cooking/farming of the bunun people, also a stereotyping, limited to a few hours in a single day amongst the countless day of our lives… there’s a limit to what they could show, and a need to filter for an essence, which is innately incomplete.
It’s true that we got permission to go, and they chose to spend time to teach us. We can use frameworks of racial capitalism to say that even though the whole experience, from driving through the beautiful mountain view, cooking delicious food, competing in wood chopping skill, soaking in the fresh creek, is still detrimental to the people of the bunun tribe. All I can do as a Taiwanese person is to acknowledge the culture, to learn more about it, to experience their philosophies. Powerless before the invisible hand, all we can do is to move our own.
No matter where he went, this title always followed him around.
Jay’s overall strength was almost the same as a regular human being. With the exception of being a bit stronger and his wounds healing slightly faster, he was about the same as regular people in every other aspect.
It was par for the course then, that he’d always end up getting injured. He nearly died several times, too.
Of course, it wasn’t as if Jay liked being a Hunter.
The work was dangerous and to confound the matters even further, the pay was pretty pathetic, as well.
If it weren’t for the medical aid paid out by the Hunter Association to the Hunters in their “payroll”, he’d have turned in his hunter licence and quit by now, and live his life like a regular person.
Unfortunately, someone like him, in his mid-twenties and lacking in any tangible job skills, there was no other way but to remain as a Hunter if he wanted to pay for his mother’s hospital fee of millions of NT every month.
Should one say that he had no choice in the matter?
That was why, even though he didn’t want to, he simply had to participate in the monster gate raid supervised by the Association.
Other Hunters also displayed joy at discovering that he had arrived.
“Ah, hello.”
Jay performed a simple nod of the head at the joyous Mister Ian and walked by.
Why would other Hunters greet this hunter if he was really that weak? After all, didn’t they need someone to trust their backs if things went south?
Fubing couldn’t really understand the reactions of other Hunters.
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When one entered through the Gate, one would arrive at a place called ‘dungeon’. The rank of this particular dungeon should be around D.
A dozen-plus Hunters could easily take care of the monsters inside this dungeon without so much as breaking a sweat. Today, the location was at the Nan-an tribe.
Unfortunately, for a rank F such as Jay, such a feat was nearly impossible alone.
Jay’s fingers grasped tight the rank E magic crystal in his hand as he took a glance next to him.
Noni and Ana were shaking their heads at him. It looked like they were deeply worried.
Actually, Jay was worried inwardly as well. Now normally, he would never try to take on any unnecessary risk. Not only did he lack the abilities to do so, but he was also not brave enough too. This time was different. He grasped the crystal in his hand tightly, and ventured into the Nan’an Gate.
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Immediately after entering the gate and being whisked away to a hut in what seemed like a field of rice. Jay injured his hand. As he looked into his inventory, he grabbed the healing item to restore his health before proceeding
[Item: Band-Aid]
*A regular band-aid. Useful in patching up small wounds. Can be stored inside your Inventory*.
The next few hours consisted of heavy battles with plant, nut, and rice type monsters. The large group of hunters worked together to take down the mobs and was rewarded with a little bit of peace.
Jay massaged his forehead and stood up from the floor to loosen his body with a bout of light stretching. He moved his body this way and that for a while. He bent his body 90 degrees and that’s when he discovered a box lying forgotten on the floor.
“….Ah.”
The ‘random boxes’.
Boxes wrapped in the monotone gift wrappers and topped off with a virtual ribbon – exactly like the ones in video games.
‘They must’ve dropped from the monsters we slayed earlier.’
He had completely forgotten about them after receiving those as his rewards. Jay picked up the closest box and opened its lid.
[Item: Naturally made Lunchbox]
*A lunchbox made with the freshest ingredients in Nan’an. Can be stored inside your Inventory.*
It seemed it would be necessary for the long day ahead.
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The crew climbed up the mountains and into the river area. Here, it seemed like a deep river needed to be crossed before reaching the end.
Jay summoned his Stat Window:
Name: Jay Chung
Level: 1
Class: None
Title: None
HP: 100
MP: 1000
Tiredness: 55
[Stat]
Strength: 31
Stamina: 10
Agility: 20
Intelligence: 50
Perception: 5
(Available points to distribute: 0)
[Skills]
Passive skills:
– (Unknown) Lv. Max
– Tenacity Lv. 1
-Swimming Lv. 3
Active skills:
– Dash Lv. 1
It seemed like his passive skills were perfect for this requirement. Jay jumped into the creek in Nan’an alongside Cael and Noni.
And nearly drowned.
————————————————————-
At the end of the raid. The crew jumped out of the gates with the spoils collected from the battle. Jay clutched his 6 rank D crystals tightly to his body. Each would potentially sell for 10,000,000,000 NT. While the hunters ventured on over to the Nan’an rest area to relax for some afternoon tea, Jay heard a chime ring in the background.
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
It looked like inside of the dungeons of the Gates, Jay had gained enough experience to level up a few time. He braced. Anticipating the remaining experience to be converted into levels.
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
Now at level 5, he could be considered a D rank hunter. Perhaps next time, a solo raid could be accomplished.
———————————————————-
However, after heading back to his new hotel room, it seemed like the battle would never end.
“Here we go again” he thought as he drew his sword, steeling himself for an unexpected but bloody battle with the insect lord.
Anyone who is sane loves a good beach vacay. There is something in it for everyone- water, sun, tourist shops, seafood, claw machines, or even just an air conditioned room where you can read a good book. From yesterday evening until late this morning we have gotten a mini vacation in Kenting on our research trip. At 9am we went on a short walk to a beach near the hotel. IT WAS GORGEOUS but I took only a few pictures because I was very eager to jump in the ocean. Sadly, the red flag was up and we were forced to retreat back to the sandy beach instead of enjoying the bath-like water. The baby sea turtles must have been thinking the same thing as us because we saw several of them walking to the ocean (SO cute).
After the beach, we ate lunch at a Tex-Mex restaurant called Smokey Joes. This was definitely an interesting experience filled with average “American food” and inappropriate caricatures (so basically could have been any restaurant in the US). I guess it was nice to eat some spaghetti.
The 4 hour bus ride ate up the majority of the day but was made the most of! Our newly formed traveling acapella group got some much needed practice in the back of the bus while our loyal followers listened up front. (shout out to Ellie for being the only one of us that can harmonize)
We landed in Chishang at about 4 and stopped in a little museum store that sold rice products. Chishang is home to many beautiful rice fields and has become known for their rice. They have a festival every year where they invite the dance group that we saw on 5/28 to do a rice dance. After the store, we got to explore the rice fields and met many snails along the way (some of us got closer than others).
To finish the day, we ate a delicious dinner with super special desserts disguised as mushrooms. In order to show our appreciation for the chef, our acapella group gave our first ever performance to an outside audience. In my biased opinion, it was a spectacular debut.
Today we had a relaxed start (except for the professors who got up early to visit a park). After a crab sandwich, we headed to the beach! The wind was strong and the sun was shining. A few of us ventured into the warm blue water despite the red flag but were told to come out within a few minutes because of possible hidden rocks. We wandered along the edge of the water picking up pretty shells, corals, and rocks. We saw scuttling hermit crabs and little baby sea turtles trying to make it past the tumbling waves. We tried to help them and I hope they are well on their journey by now. After lunch, we climbed on the bus and passed the four-hour drive by sleeping (at least I did) and singing. We also spent time brainstorming our research projects with our professors. I am hoping to do a storybook accompanied by illustrations discussing spirituality and agriculture in Taiwan. The views at the end of the drive were stunning as we entered Chishang. Surrounded by misty mountains, a low golden sun illuminated yellow-green rice fields, carefully maintained and terraced. Before we reached our hotel we stopped by a rice and art museum where we were able to see the old farming tools and equipment used to till and process rice grains. The mill was two stories high! To wrap up the day we had a delightful local dinner and sang the chefs a song we had been learning in thanks.
Today was a much-needed day of rest and relaxation! We started by hitting the beach, where we played around until a lifeguard said we had to get out of the water or we would drown or survive to be fined. I don’t actually know what he said because it was in Chinese, but it was probably along those lines. Then we quickly packed and got on the road to drive from Kenting to Chishang. Our lunch restaurant served Tex Mex, or so they claimed. But no hate—it was yummy in its own right. The bus was filled with the classics: would you rather, riddles, and, most importantly, a cappella (yes, we take requests!) The drive was gorgeous, and we quickly ended up at a rice museum. We read up (shoutout to Ian for translating everything for me) and Cael and Jay performed a “changing of the guard” rendition with many creative choices. Once we got to the hotel, some of us went for a walk around the surrounding rice fields and used all our willpower to avoid petting the dogs. But a brave soul, Anna, did pick up a snail. Dinner had adorable dessert buns in the shape of mushrooms and garnishing leaves that were bigger than our heads. Naturally, we serenaded the chefs with a song that Ellie and Noni had taught us five minutes previously. The most important part of today, though, was on the way back to the hotel, when Jay and I faced off in a rap battle. The winner? To be determined. Check back tomorrow to find out.
