Mazda and Itsukushima

After getting up in the morning, making sure I was all packed up since we would be leaving for a different hotel that night, and eating breakfast, it was time to head to Mazda for our next business visit. When we first arrived at Mazda, we were able to look around their lobby and at some of their new cars. We also found out we would be taking the tour (since it was a public tour) with students from another university and also with a a man and his wife and son. Once the bus had arrived to take us to the museum and factory, we all boarded and left. While driving, the tour guide informed us that we would be allowed to take pictures in the museum, but not on the bus or in the factory itself.

Mazda's museum was not overly impressive for me personally. It basically just kind of showed the different cars Mazda had made over the years and the innovations that have tried to make with each new release of their cars. However, I really enjoyed the factory. We walked on a catwalk overlooking the end-process of the factory line. I will admit to not have an overly large amount of knowledge when it comes to this process, but I walked with Ryan who works in the factories for GM, so he was able to give me a lot of insight as to what was going on at each station. What I really enjoyed though was when we would hit sections of the factory would Ryan would know what the workers were doing, but he was surprised by the process because of how different it was from what he was used to. Following the factory we were led back into the museum. At least in this part we got to see some of their concept cars, which were actually pretty cool and rather interesting. The final part of the Mazda tour had us watch a short video presentation and then ride bus back to the main office where we started.

Mazda's concept car

After arriving back at the train station and eating lunch, we set off for our next destination of the Itsukushima Shrine. The shrine itself is actually quite interesting. The main attraction to the shrine is the floating gate in the water outside the shrine. The gate is extremely old and it was definitely a very impressive structure. We were all given free time to explore the shine and the surrounding area. Most of us walked out to the shrine in order to get closer pictures and to just inspect it closer. We were able to do this thanks to the low tide. Walking around the shrine itself was actually pretty quick. It reminded me a lot of the other Shinto shrines we saw when we visited the Shinto Shrines and Buddhist Temples in Kamakura. I still really liked the architecture of the entire place, but the gate was by far one of the most interesting pieces there. However, we were on a time crunch to make our next bullet train for Osaka (where we would be spending the night), so we had to make sure we made the ferry back to the mainland in order to catch all our trains. While today did include a lot of walking, it was nice to have the rest of the time be a bit more relaxed. Especially since we all knew that  the next day was going to be a very busy day.

The gate at Itsukushima Shrine

Hiroshima

Today began a bit more hectic then previous days. We had to get up in the morning and catch the Shinkansen (the high speed train) to Hiroshima. Even after riding on the high speed trains a few different times, I'm still amazed just how fast they go. Seeing the landscape fly by is so entertaining and the you do not feel it at all when you're in the actual train. Anyways, so after reaching Hiroshima, we stopped by our hotel so that we could drop off our luggage before heading out to our major stop for the day; the Atomic Bomb Museum and Peace Park.

A-bomb Dome

This turned out to one of the most amazing, information, and almost depressing trip so far. First we walked around the Peace Park. There were some groups singing by the lake (quite talented singers at that), a few areas that looked like you could write wishes for peace, and a few different personal accounts about the A-bomb. One of the most interesting things to look at out there was the A-bomb dome. This was one of the few buildings that survived the A-bomb and also one that Hiroshima decided to preserve in order to remember the devastation from the day the bomb was dropped. It was amazing to see such a solid looking building so destroyed, but still standing. It was hard to stop from looking at it, especially the closer you got. Right outside the dome was one of the more descriptive personal accounts from a man who lost both his parents when the A-bomb was dropped. The story of how his family managed to survive the blast but died later from the horrible effects of the radiation was heart-wrenching.

A-bomb Dome

After everyone had time to explore the park a bit, we all met back up and headed to the Atomic Bomb Museum. The building you enter in starts off by telling the history of Hiroshima and Japan as a whole, all the way back to their founding. I really enjoyed learning about the entire history of Hiroshima. However, there were also some parts that explained just the basics of the A-bomb and about nuclear weapons in general. What I found extremely interesting in here was that they said that, since 1968, the mayors of Hiroshima have been sending letters of protest to any country that does nuclear testing. They even had a copy of all the letters, including the last eight or so, all from the year 2012-2013, that have been sent to President Obama. Some of the letters to countries that have repeatedly ignored the mayors cries for nuclear disarment have been getting harsher and harsher.

After looking through three floors of all this information, I thought the museum had finally reached the end. Then I found out that this was just the warm up. After reaching the end of the third floor, you had to walk across a sky-walk to the second part of the museum. While this part was all just one floor, it was by far the most intense part. This was the part of the museum that actually had demonstrations about just what damage the A-bomb did. Both to the buildings and to people. The damage done to buildings was astounding. They had displays that let you feel the difference from a section of tile from Hiroshima that was not damaged by the blast to a section of the same tile that was damaged by the blast (mostly by the intense heat created). The displays about the people though were the most gruesome. They had some displays that depicted people with their skin literally melting off of their bodies and they even had pictures of some of the victims that had all sorts of boils and injuries from the blast. Some of the worst parts though were the stories. One story told of a boy whose injuries from the blast were so bad that, when he got too thirsty and could not go on anymore, he tried to drink the pus from his boils in order to slake his thirst. There was just so much there that I cannot even begin to really describe just how horrifying the effects of the A-bomb were for some of the civilians. One thing for sure was that when I was finished with the museum, I was glad the exit went directly outdoors, because I really wanted to be in fresh air.

This was pretty much the end of the day. We all met up after the museum, had a group discussion, and then were given the option to head back to the hotel and find dinner there, or to find dinner in here. I ended up finding a pizza place with Laura, Dani, Charles, Ryan, and Andy nearby. From there, we explored more of this section of Hiroshima and then went back to our hotel to sleep.

Hiroshima before the A-bomb

Hiroshima after the A-bomb

A day at the Temples

Giant Buddha Statue

Today was going to be a day full of cultural visits at Kamakura. Kamakura is home to many Buddhist Temples and shrines. Our first train couldn't take us all the way to Kamakura, so we had to transfer to a smaller train that would take us the rest of the way there. Our first stop would be the Great Buddha Statue, which lived up to its name. The statue was about 121 tonnes and 13.35 meters tall (which is about 270,000 pounds and 43.8 feet). The statue is hollow and you could even go inside of it. Getting inside was kind of cramped at first and the staircase was barely big enough for two people to walk up, but it opened up once you got inside. It was really interesting to see the inside of the statue and there was even an informational tablet that explained that, because of the size of the statue, it was built in
different layers and then was put together at the end. While the statue itself was amazing, the outside was also quite beautiful. The landscape was really well taken care of and everything was very peaceful.

Once everyone had time to look around, we all met back up and left the statue. The plan from here was to walk from Kamakura to Kita-Kamakura, while stopping at a shrine and three different temples along the way. The first temple was close by the statue and was absolutely beautiful. The temples themselves had impressive statues inside and were getting a lot of visitors, many of who would pray and then donate some money. Like the landscape at the statue, the outside of the temple was well taken care of. The paths were made by flat stones, the flowers were blooming nicely, and everything was just so calming and peaceful. The next temple was similar to the first, but had many steps that led up to a bigger temple. This temple also had a gift shop where you could purchase trinkets that would give luck in business or even ones that were supposed to make giving birth easier. The view here was spectacular and you were able to get a good look at a nearby bay. The shrine would be our next visit. The shrine itself had many visitors and was impressive, but I think the most interesting part was there was actually a wedding happening while we were there. We noticed the bride and groom getting their pictures taken when we first arrived, but did not realize that the wedding ceremony would actually be taking place soon. The ceremony started as we were all meeting up to leave the shrine, so we stayed and watched it for a while. Unfortunately, since it was all in Japanese, we could not understand what was being said, but it was very interesting to be able to witness something like this, especially since I doubt any of us would have the chance to see a wedding like this back in the United States. Following the shrine was our last temple visit. This temple had a lot less visitors, but this was partially because of how late in the day it was by this point. Also, this temple had a house you could walk through that had a garden in the back. This was not the kind of garden I was expecting though. There was not a bunch of flowers or anything like that, just grass, some trees, and water. However, it all fit together perfectly and sitting at some of the benches and just looking out at this garden was really enjoyable. Sadly, time grew late and it we had to be off to the station to head back to the hotel.

Once we arrived back at the hotel, it was time for our first group discussion in Japan. Most of the discussion was about our initial impressions of Japan and how it compared to Taiwan. Everyone noticed there was some differences, but everyone had really enjoyed themselves since our arrival in Japan. After such a long day though, everyone was really tired and the discussion ended after about thirty minutes. At this point, we had the option to either find dinner by our hotel or go with Dr. Laurence to Shibuya. Shibuya is home to the world's busiest intersection and most of the group decided to go see it. While the day had a lot of walking, being able to see so many famous cultural sites was an experience that none of us regret.

Group Picture

Hitting the ground running in Japan

Edo-Tokyo Museum

Today's activities started off quick. After having breakfast and getting our rail passes from Dr. Laurence, it was off to the train station and to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. The museum itself was amazing. There was just so much information and artifacts throughout the entire thing. I really enjoyed how some of the things were hands on. Like, there was an old-styled classroom you could sit in, an old fashioned house you could walk in (but you had to remove your shoes), and even a rickshaw you could sit in. Seeing so much of this history and just the design of the museum itself was truly an experience I was happy I could have.

Arriving sumo wrestlers

After the museum, it was time for everyone to go off and find lunch. I ended up eating with Dr. Laurence, Dani, Chris, Ray, and Laura. We found a small little restaurant nearby and decided to try it out. We all ended up getting the fried chicken which came with rice, a soup, a salad, and a drink. The lunch was refreshing and ended with enough time for us to go to a store close by called Family Mart in order to grab some drinks before going to the sumo tournament. The sumo tournament was something everyone had been waiting for and it truly did not disappoint. We arrived just as the lower class sumo wrestlers were finishing, which means we got to watch the entrance of the higher class. They came in two groups and the ceremony was quite fun to watch. The matches were short, but the energy in the entire arena from the preparation, through the fight, and all the way to the end of each match made everything extremely enjoyable. Unfortunately, we did not get to see the top two wrestlers (both which had 11-0 records for the tournament) wrestler, but we did see each of them win their own match. The size and power of a lot of the wrestlers was intimidating, one of them even had legs that looked like little tree trunks. After going to this day in the tournament, I could really see why people get into this.

Start of the higher ranked sumo wrestlers

After the tournament, it was off to Akihabara. Akihabara is known as pretty much the best electronic district in Japan. There was an entire stretch that was just lit up by all of the buildings and there was literally everything here. There were arcades, themed cafe's, huge department stores, restaurants, pretty much anything you could ask for. Dani, Ray, Chris, and I explored pretty much all of the main stretch  and a few of the stores, but ended up spending quite a bit of time in an arcade called Club Sega. The arcade was six stories high, with the first three floors being just a bunch of the claw games. From the fourth floor up though, that's when it truly became an arcade. Ray and I played a few games and they were a lot of fun, but I was really enjoying just exploring and checking out the building. Some of the really surprising things were the people at the arcade. I was expecting to see students and younger people, but there was actually a lot of older businessmen, most who were still wearing their suits! They were getting really into the games too. You could tell they were concentrating just as hard, if not harder, then some of the younger kids at their games. I probably could have spent an entire day just exploring this area, so I was a bit bummed when it was time to head back to the hotel. I definitely would like to come back here though, especially if I knew how to read Japanese so that I could understand what some of the places were a little more.

Akihabara

Arriving in Japan

Interviews

The day started early. We had to leave the hotel at 5am in order to make sure we arrived at the airport on time to leave for Japan. The flight itself was uneventful. Thankfully it was only about 3 hours and I spent most of that time watching Wreck-It Ralph and listening to music. Once everyone arrived, it was time to head to the hotel. On the way, I noticed we were being followed by three people. A man, a women, and a guy with a camera. I asked about it and it turns out that, when the last group arrived, there was this camera crew there and they interviewed some of the students and the professors. Apparently, they were doing some sort of documentary and they felt like they hit some sort of jackpot finding us. So, while we were waiting to check into our hotel, they interviewed us outside. They even followed us to dinner after we got settled in at the hotel. They left after that, but I found out later they are going to be coming with us when we go to the sweet-shop and at one other visit to. So this would not be the last time I see them.

Anyways, a large group of us got dinner at an Italian place not far from out hotel. The atmosphere was really nice and, since everyone was done working for the day, there were large groups of men in suits all eating together. Everyone was really friendly and this table of businessmen near our table even came over and cheered us and gave us high fives as we were leaving. After just a little bit of exploration, it was nice to just be able to relax at the hotel for the rest of the night. My first impression of Japan: Busy, but it's going to be a heck of a lot of fun!

By the train station near our hotel

Bottlemate, CL Saxophone Factory, and the last night in Taiwan

At the Bottlemate Factory

Today would be the final day in Taiwan. Tomorrow morning would be when we would fly to Japan to begin the second part of the study abroad. However, we still had a busy day ahead of us. The first stop of the day was at the Bottlemate Factory. While Bottlemate does do perfume, the factory we had just made the bottles that the perfume and other products would be put in. Honestly, the presentation had a rough start. I'm not sure if the company knew that we did not speak Mandarin or not, but the one who started going over the PowerPoint slide show was talking in Mandarin. Thankfully, Dr. Peng got a microphone and translated for us. From then on, the rest of the presentation went quite smoothly. After hearing about the background of the company, we split into two groups. One group was only guys and the other was only girls. The guys left for the tour first, while the girls stayed behind and sampled some of their products. I was actually very impressed by the factory, especially with just how precise the products had to be. Not only were each of the workers checking each product as it passed them, but there were line-end checkers that would go over the finished product one final time. Some of the products that were marked as "defective" only had the slightest of scratches (most of which had to be pointed out) or some other very minor defect, but ones that they noticed. Bottlemate proved to be a company that has very high standards and will do anything they can in order to meet their standards.

Part of the factory at Bottlemate

My favorite saxophone at CL

After leaving Bottlemate and grabbing lunch at a huge mall/department store, it was time to go to CL Saxophone. They started off the tour in a very entertaining way. First, they showed us a video of the history of CL Saxophone, which included a part showing that the original owner's four granddaughters all play the saxophone and have even been featured in commercials and have been asked to perform for prestigious people. After the video, our attention was brought over to the three saxophones out on stage. They then let us try playing them. The saxophones themselves were very beautiful and well crafted. Matt and I went first and then a few other students tried playing them as well. After everyone who wanted to had a chance to play, the tour began. The factory itself really was more of a museum then a factory. The tour we had showed us the history of the company and also a variety of the different kinds of saxophones they produce. At one point, were were even able to make a design on a valve piece of a saxophone that we all got to keep as a souvenir. While the tour was entertaining and the saxophones we were able to see were very beautiful, I wish we could have seen a bit more into the process of  making the saxophones. Especially the beautiful etchings in the saxophones themselves.

With all the business visits out of the way, it was time for our last group meal in Taiwan. We went to a restaurant on Tunghai University's campus. Dr. Chen-Jui Huang and one other faculty of Tunghai University joined us on our goodbye/thank you dinner. The dinner itself was huge. It had everything from shrimp, to fish, to pork, to rice, to ice cream! We all sat around a round table and the food was placed on a spinning tray in the middle. This way, the food was more of a community grab, meaning everyone could just grab what food they wanted and how much of it they wanted. It was really nice to sit down and just talk about everything we had experienced so far in Taiwan. By this point, all of us have become good friends and we all enjoyed sitting and having the chance to just talk about whatever we wanted. I would have to say this was a perfect way to end our trip in Taiwan and I really look forward to seeing what new experiences Japan will bring.

A pharmaceutical company, Giant Bicycle, and another night market

Some dolls at Yung Shin Pharmaceutical

Today began with a visit to Yung Shin Pharmaceutical. This was a rather interesting company visit. The manager of the factory was the first one to talk with us, but he could not speak English. So, he had a translator who would also be the one who would do most of the explanation for the rest of our time there. After watching two short videos that gave a little explanation about the company history, it was time for the tour of the factory. Because of the company wanting to minimize the amount of human contact with the machines and the drugs (which makes sense) we actually did not really go into any of the rooms with the machines. Instead, we walked in the hallways outside the machines and looked through windows into the rooms. There were information about each machine on the outside of the door though. I was impressed the capacity for each machine. Some of them could go through like 30,000 pills per hour! One of the things I liked was the technology of the company. There were even self-driven machines that would transfer boxes of products. I understand why we could not go in and actually inspect the different machines more closely, but I still wish we could have been able to.

Chris Lai from Giant Bicycle

After leaving Yung Shin Pharamaceutical and eating a quick lunch at McDonalds, we headed to the next visit at Giant Bicycles. Chris Lai was the representative that would give us the initial presentation and the tour of the factory. The presentation was very informative and really showed that Giant is a company that is pushing for people to get a more healthy lifestyle through biking. In fact, their CEO at about 72 years old did a bike trip all the way around Taiwan and still bikes to work everyday. Giant even has a company retreat biking event where managers and employees from all over come to Taiwan and do the bike trip around Taiwan. It takes about 8 days or so, but all of the employees love doing it. After the presentation is when we went on the actual tour of the factory. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures here. The assembly line was about how I would expect it to be. Everyone had a specific job for each part of the bike, and the bikes constantly moved down the line until they were completed. There were goals set up around the factory, like how much product should be completed or the maximum amount of downtime any line should have for each day. When we were there, they were pretty much matching or beating all of their goals. Overall, I was extremely impressed by the friendless of the company, the willingness to listen to new ideas (in fact they asked us what we believed they should be doing more of), and the efficiency at which they were completing their product.

In the entrance of Giant Bicycle

With both of the business visits done, it was time to head to the new night market. This one was the Feng Jia night market. Dr. Peng told us that this one was the entrepreneur night market. Basically, this was where people would bring their new products and, if it sold well here, then it would come to night markets all over Taiwan. Since I was not overly familiar with a lot of the products, I'm not sure what was new and what was not. However, I did try some of the chicken's feet that Dr. Laurence bought, but I did not think they were tasty at all. The night market was a neat experience and still a lot different then the one at Shih-Lin, but I still really enjoyed myself there and it was a good way to relax at the end of another great day in Taiwan.

A day at Tunghai University

This day reminded me of a normal school day. I got up in the morning, had some breakfast, and then went to a class. In order to get a better understand of the financial markets in Taiwan, we had a special lecture with Dr. Chen-Jui Huang, a professor from Tunghai University. While I originally thought this was going to be a boring lecture, I was pleasantly surprised. Dr. Huang was a very interesting man and very knowledgeable. He was able to present a lot of information about the financial markets in a way that kept everyone engaged and enjoying themselves at the same time. Some of the main facts that I was very surprised to learn about though was information like Taiwan has had unemployment around 4%, but has also been as low as 2-3%. I was more interested in the "hot topic" in Taiwan right now. This topic is offshore markets in China. For investment purposes (like stock markets), there is one type of stock called an "A share" in China, which is only allowed to be used by the Chinese. However, a decision is trying to be made if the Taiwan people should be able to invest in these "A shares". If this does happen, they will be the first foreigners who are allowed to invest in the market. This is something that is still up for debate though.

Tunghai University

Following the lecture, it was time for lunch. Lunch was at a nice coffee shop right on the campus. The food was actually pretty good and the coffee was delicious. The lunch was followed by a tour of the campus. I had been looking forward to this because of everything Dr. Peng had told us. Dr. Peng got his undergrad from Tunghai University and he would always tell us that Tunghai had the most beautiful campus in the world. I had also heard from my friend Peggy (from Tamkang University) that the campus was very pretty as well. The campus did not disappoint either. The scenery was very pretty and I really liked the buildings. I was surprised how big the campus was too. Out of all the universities we'd been to so far, this is the one that reminded me of a campus like MSU from home. Overall, I loved just how peaceful the entire campus was.

One of the buildings at Tunghai

After the tour and a group discussion about the trip thus far, we met some students from Tunghai. There was about four or five grad students and the rest were undergrads. Each of us told the students our experiences as a college student at UofM - Flint. In turn, one of the grad students and one of their undergrad students told us about what it is like being a student at Tunghai. While there were definitely a few differences, there were not as many differences as I would have expected. We then got a chance to mingle and talk with the students while eating our dinner. The food was really good and I enjoyed getting a chance to talk with the students in a more relaxed setting. 

After eating and talking with the students, we were given the rest of the night to ourselves. I ended up going into the nearby night market with Dr. Peng, Dani, Chris, Ray, Laura, and Thersea. This market was not as big as the Shih-Lin one, but it still had some really good stuff. Specifically, the squid balls and the fried dumplings were absolutely delicious. After spending a good portion of time at the night market, it was time to head back to the hotel and just relax for the rest of the night.

The chapel at Tunghai

Free Day!

I think it can be pretty obvious that one of the main things we were all looking forward to for today was the chance to sleep in. Since checkout was not until noon, we could all take our time in getting up and packing (since we would be moving to Taichung that night). It was nice to be able to have a morning where there was absolutely no rush.

Chang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

Once everyone was up and packed though, this is where we split up. There were three main groups. The first was going to the zoo and a movie, the second was going to the movies and Taipei 101, and the last group (which I was in) was going to visit the Chang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall and then just planned on relaxing. My group consisted of Dani, Chris, Andy, Ray, and Dr. Laurence. We decided to meet up with one of the girls from NTNU named Anne as well. Since none of us wanted to move too much today, we decided to stay at the hotel until we had to check out and then go to the memorial. This got us to the memorial at about 12:30ish. After meeting up with Anne, it was time to do some exploring. The outside of the memorial was very pretty. The building was impressive and the landscape itself was well taken care of. At the center of what seemed to be like a courtyard, you could see an archway, two buildings, and the building that had the memorial to Chang Kai-Shek himself. This was what we decided to visit first. This turned out to be a good idea because we pretty much walked in right when they were starting the changing of the guards. The entire thing took probably about 10 minutes and was pretty intense. It was impressive to see the guards do all the rifle flips and steps and never once move their heads or look anywhere but straight ahead. I watched one guard for quite awhile and I'm pretty sure I never saw him blink either. So far, being able to see this was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Changing of the guards

After the changing of the guard, we headed downstairs and looked at some historical objects of Chang Kai-Shek's. They had a lot of medals, pictures, books, and even two of his cars that were open to the public. Reading some of the inscriptions and reading the history was actually quite interesting. However, once we got done looking around, it was definitely time for lunch. Anne led us to a nice little restaurant nearby. The food there was quite tasty, but I found out there I'm not a fan of bubble tea. During lunch I commented that, if we passed an electronics store, I wanted to stop in because my headphones had broke and I wanted to replace them. Anne told us about this street and mall-type building that is literally dedicated to electronics. Everyone was okay with seeing this so we set that as our next destination.

Part of the outside of Chang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

Turns out, Anne was not exaggerating. The name of the area was the "Digital District" and it lived up to its name. Every store had all sorts of electronics. The mall itself was five floors of a bunch of different stores that had everything from amps, to video games, to computer parts, all the way to  DVDs. This area literally had everyone you could think of. It did not take me that long at all to find a good pair of headphones (reasonably priced as well), but I really enjoyed exploring the area. Once we had pretty much seen everything though, we decided to go to this little coffee place by the train station called Barista Coffee. We knew this would be our last stop before it was time to head back to the hotel to meet with the rest of the group, but we wanted a chance to just sit down and relax. This part actually turned out quite fun since we all just started sharing a bunch of different stories from our childhood and our thoughts on the trip so far. Sadly though, the time got later and we had to say goodbye to Anne and head back to the hotel for the last time.

The rest of the day became as hectic as the rest of the trip has been. After meeting everyone back at the hotel, we all grabbed our luggage, went to the train station, and rode it to Taipei Main Station. This is where we had to get off to get onto the High Speed Rail (or HSR). The HSR was actually quite a bit of fun. The ride was so smooth, the only way I could tell that we were even moving that fast was when we would pass another HSR train going in the opposite direction. It would literally be like a second and the other train would just flash by. Thankfully, once we got to the station at Taichung, the rest of the trip was easy. All we had to do, was go out front, grab a taxi, and head to the next hotel. This hotel is in Tunghai University. The rooms are not as nice as the last hotel, but everything is still very comfortable and, worst comes to worst, we'd only be here until the 23rd (which is when we fly to Japan). While there is a night market close by our hotel, everyone was pretty tired and we all decided to head to bed to prepare for whatever the following day would bring us.

Tours and the sky lanterns

The next day (day seven for those keeping track), was going to be a day full of tours. After breakfast we went outside our hotel and got on a charter bus with some students from NTNU. We also met our tour guide who was a very energetic girl named Jenny. Our first stop was the gold ecological park and museum. Besides the heat, this was actually a pretty cool stop. Part of the stop included an old Japanese house that was meant for a prince (this was back when Japan occupied Taiwan). For reasons unknown, the prince never made it to Taiwan though so the house was never used. Either way, the house was really nice to look at. This part of the tour also had us go through an old gold mining tunnel. The tunnel itself was quite cool and damp, thankfully we had the helmets that blocked most of the water and made accidently hitting the ceiling of the tunnel not quite so painful. Towards the end of the tour we got to see and feel big chunk of solid gold too. I think the only thing that would have made this more enjoyable is if the humidity was not as heavy as it was.

The prince's house from the back

At the gold ecological park

After the gold park, we headed to an old town named Jiufen. This was probably the most crowded place I've been to yet. A lot of the areas we walked through were very small alleyways. Combine that with a lot of people and people trying to drive their mopeds through the alley and there was barely any room to move. However, I could see why it was so busy. There were many small shops set up on both sides of the alley and a lot of them either had some interesting items or tasty looking food for sale. Once we got out of the alley, we found a nice restaurant for a group lunch. After lunch, we had about an hour or so of free time. Because of how crowded the alley was, a few of us decided to just sit in the restaurant, rest our feet, and just talk. Two girls from NTNU named Julie and June stayed with us. I really enjoyed learning about some of the different kinds of music, movies, and activities they like to do in Taiwan. Surprisingly, it seems like karaoke is the major thing a lot of the college kids like to do in Taiwan. Once our time was up, the entire group met up again, got on the charter bus, and headed to our last stop.

Sky Lanterns

Our final stop was the town of Shifen. Here, we would get to experience the sky lanterns. All of us were allowed to chose our own sky lantern and write whatever we wanted on them. There were many different colors to chose from and each color represented something different. I chose yellow which represents wealth. After painting on all four sides of the sky lantern and letting it dry, it was time to set it off. With the assistance of one of the workers there, we got the sky lantern lit and I released it into the sky. While it might be such a simple thing, actually holding it as it starts filling with hot air and then seeing how quickly it floats in the sky when you let it go made the entire experience really cool. The other interesting thing about Shifen is that it is one of the few towns left that actually has a train running through the center of the town. The only warning that the train is coming is the whistle from the train and the whistles from some of the workers to warn everyone of the approaching train. While it was fun to explore Shifen, the day itself had been a long one and I was okay with returning to the bus and returning home for the night. Especially since I knew that tomorrow would not only be the first full free day we would have, but it was also going to be the day I'd get to ride the high speed rail as well, which is something I had been looking forward to the entire trip! So, until then, it was nice to just take the rest of my night and just relax.

New University and new friends

Our initial tour of the Tamkang University

Today had us going to a brand new university called Tamkang University. We took the train and met up with a professor from the University at the train station. From there, it was a short bus ride to the campus itself. Waiting for us was a large group of students from Tamkang University. All of them were either freshmen or sophomores and all were accounting majors. The students then gave us a tour of their campus, which included us stopping at different points in order to learn a little bit of the history of the University. Walking to each destination also gave us time to talk to the students. Personally, I don't think I've met a friendlier group of people before. All of them seemed really excited to meet us and all of them wanted to talk to us. Pretty much every single one of the students that were with us made sure to introduce themselves to all of us and wanted to get pictures with us. I ended up meeting two girls named Peggy and Jenny and one boy named Peter who I would spend most of my time hanging out with.

After the tour we went to a classroom to have a special lecture titled: When East meets West - communication in Eastern society. This was not a typical lecture though as most of the lessons were taught through various games. The first game had us looking at different images and writing down everything we saw. We were scored based on what we noticed about the picture. Lower points were awarded for the foreground and higher points were awarded to the background. The point of this exercise was to show that most people do not really pay attention to the background and instead only focus on the foreground, or what is in front of them. The second game split us into different groups. The first group was just seven UofM - Flint students. The second group (which I was in) was six UofM - Flint students and one Tamkang University student. The third group was three UofM - Flint students and four Tamkang University students. The last three groups were all just Tamkang University students. The game had us playing telephone with predetermined sentences. Our team did not do that good, but then neither did the group of just UofM - Flint students. After this game is when the professor explained that this game was almost rigged from the beginning. The first phrase was written in the manner that English is spoken, while the last two sentences were written in the manner that Chinese is spoken. This actually made it harder for us to remember the sentences. The professor used this to explain how, because of the different manner of speaking, how easily we can judge others based on the manner they talk. Or rather, the order of the information. While I was not overly sure if I was going to like this lecture in the beginning, I realized how clever the information was actually presented to us and I ended up enjoying it quite a bit.

Giant ice cream!

Following the lecture we had quite a delicious lunch that was paid for by the Tamkang University students. After eating and having our second group discussion, we headed out with the students from Tamkang University on a tour of Tam Shi, which is an older town. Like last time, we would stop at different points in the town and the students would explain some of the history of the town. At this point, my favorite part was when we walked down by the water. The view was beautiful and we bought an ice cream cone too. The ice cream was bigger then any I've ever been able to find in the United States and it was only 59 cents (in USD)! It was interesting to see all the different views and I was still shocked just how friendly all of the Tamkang students were.

Once the tour was completed, we were told the meeting time and place for the next day and were told we had the rest of the night to do whatever we wanted. Dani and I invited Peggy and Jenny back towards our hotel so that we could hang out in the night market. We ended up exploring the night market some more and I even played one of those carnival type games where you have to shoot little rubber balls with a airsoft gun (which I got like 7/9). This meat I got to choose a prize. Unfortunately there wasn't that much to choose from, so I ended up getting the game UNO. At this point, we were all pretty worn out so we went back to our hotel and just hung out, talked, and played UNO in the lobby. It was really nice getting the chance to just sit down and have a normal conversation with them and we all became pretty good friends. I had Peggy write down my name in Chinese (which is 克里斯托福 費里 高登 by the way). I was sad when it was time to say goodbye to both of them, but I knew that, thanks to technology like facebook, I would be able to keep in contact with them and we'll hopefully be friends for a long time.

Peggy (left) and Jenny (right)

Class at NTNU, a stock exchange, and expensive porcelain

After leaving Taipei 101 and getting some rest, we returned once again to NTNU. This time though, it was to go to a class. We listened to a presentation about eHarmony from a group of four students and then had a discussion. The main topics was about the business structure of eHarmony. For example we talked about the pay structure of eHarmony and ways that it might be improved in order to make current and potential subscribers happy. Hearing some of the opinions of the NTNU students was quite interesting and I enjoyed participating in the discussion as well. Plus, the classroom itself was interesting. This particular classroom was set up with cameras so that classes could be held with people from long distances (like UofM - Flint). While I'm usually not a big fan of classes, I really did enjoy this one and I was actually a bit sad to leave.

Following the class, it was time to go back to Taipei 101 one last time. This time, it was to go to the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE). The presentation was very well set up. We sat at tables and watched a short video about the stock exchange before listening to a representative named Alex Liu. He told us about some key points that happened in the stock exchange since it began in 1962. The TWSE has 809 different stocks, but this includes foreign companies. What was really interesting is that about 40% of the entire population of Taiwan (about 9 million people) have a trading account. Of those people, 60% of them are just regular people. This is partially what leads to some of the other differences in the rules of this stock market. For example, the trading hours are from 9:00am - 1:30pm. The minimum trade that is allowed is 1,000 shares and each stock is only has a daily price fluctuation limit of 7% (meaning it can only go up or down 7% from the previous day's closing price). These are some major differences from the markets in most other countries, but it is what fits Taiwan. This really showed me I haven't exactly learned a lot about other stock exchanges, because I thought rules like the ones in the DOW and NASDAQ were more common. It was interesting to learn about different rules though and I'm glad I had the chance to learn about this market.

At the Taiwan Stock Exchange

After getting some lunch in the food court of Taipei 101, we headed to our next visit. This time, it was a porcelain company called Franz. While I am not a really big art fan, this was a rather interesting trip. I was surprised to learn about how Franz has kept themselves so successful, but have limited the amount of stores they have opened. They do very well at making themselves be appealing because of how exclusive they are. In fact, their artwork has been given as gifts to people like the Pope and President Obama. I think one of the main things I found most impressive was just how much work goes into making one of their art pieces. It was somewhere around 3 months just to get one of their pieces completed, from the planning stage, to the designing stage, to the production stage, and then just finishing it. I was impressed by just how much dedication, time, and effort they put in to making their vases. It definitely gave me a high respect for Franz.

With the visit to Franz completed, it was time to show our appreciation to the NTNU students. We told them we would pay for dinner and they could choose where we went. Surprisingly, they decided they wanted to go to McDonalds. Equally surprisingly, the Big Mac I got was probably the best Big Mac I've ever had. Also, the McDonalds was two floors and really set up as more of a hangout spot then the McDonalds back home. After taking a few group pictures, everyone split up into groups and enjoyed our free night. Personally, I explored the night market some more and then went to bed since I knew the next day, like all the previous ones, was going to be very busy.

Franz vase

Franz vase

HTC and 89 floors into the sky

Dr. Laurence (right), Dr. Peng (center), with HTC rep (right)

Following our lesson in Chinese medicine and a tour of NTNU's campus, it was time for the business trip I had really been looking forward to. It was time to go to HTC. Upon entering in HTC, I was immediately in awe. The inside of the building looked like it was entirely made out of a white marble and it was so open. The lobby area had a lot of open space, but also artwork. It turns out that HTC purposely had a more open concept in the lobby in order to let local artist put their artwork inside the lobby. We started with a tour of the building. Like ASUS, HTC had a free buffet, a huge work out area (including a boxing ring) and a basketball court/badminton court all for their employees. Even from the beginning, their tour was extremely professional. They had employees waiting for us at the elevators (which had glass walls) and were extremely helpful and informative. What I found really interesting on the tour was that the open concept was everywhere, including in the actual work spaces. The employees really didn't have separate desks to work at. They were all working in the same room and the only thing separating them from their coworker was a very thin divider on the desk. This struck me as a very good technique to encourage cooperation among the employees and it sounded like it was working. The presentation following the tour was also the most professional one we had thus far. What was extremely clever though, was that the presentation not only presented their company and how they do business, but was basically a plug for their new product, the HTC One. We even got to have hands on demonstrations of the new phones at the end of the presentation. As a final parting gift, everyone was given a HTC memo book as well. By far, this was my favorite business trip so far.

Giant artwork in HTC's lobby

As if the day wasn't exciting enough, we were returning to Taipei 101 for a special treat. We were going to go to the observatory on the 89th floor. Just getting to that floor was special, because Taipei 101 is home to the world's fastest elevators. The elevator went up so high so fast that the change in pressure actually had my ears pop in the same way an airplane does upon takeoff. We were greeted by a beautiful view from the observatory. You could literally see for miles around and, because we were there at night, you could see the entire city lit up by the lights on buildings. We were also given little cell-phone type devices that, when the station number was inputted, a description of the area was read through the speaker. It was amazing to be able to view the city like this. Only four days into the trip and I've been able to experience so much more then I have most of my entire life. It really is getting to the point that I'm not quite sure I'm going to be able to tell for sure what my favorite part of the trip is going to be!

View from the 89th floor of Taipei 101

A trip to ASUS and a lesson in Chinese Medicine

Continuing from where I left off last time, the end of the tour of KPMG meant it was time for the next business visit. This one was to ASUS. ASUS is a computer company that is quite popular in the U.S.A. However, the company is actually based in Taiwan (a fact I was unaware of). The company was rather an interesting visit, even with the technical difficulties during the presentation. After the presentation (which consisted of a summary of their history and just the different accomplishments they've had) we were given a tour of their building. They showed us that, inside the building, they have a floor of restaurants, some coffee shops, work out equipment, a basketball court, tennis court, and a pool and hot tub for their employees to use. I was surprised just how much they had for their employees and (except for the food I believe) it was all free. Unfortunately, my camera's battery died right when we reached ASUS so I was only able to get one picture while inside the building.

Inside ASUS

After leaving ASUS, we returned to Taipei 101 to eat dinner in the food court. There, I went with Dr. Peng, Dr. Laurence, Dani, and Chris to this nice restaurant in there (where the staff is required to learn like three different languages) and I got to try soup dumplings (or Xiaolongbao). They were very creative and extremely tasty! After eating and browsing the various shops in Taipei 101, we returned back to the hotel and went to sleep in preparation for the next day.

Learning Chinese Medicine

The following day had us, once again, waking up and heading to NTNU in order to have another class. This time though, the class would be taught from a doctor about Chinese medicine. I found this to be rather interesting. There was all kinds of medicines that we were told about, but we spent the most time on food medicine, action kung fu, and acupuncture. The food medicine basically described how food can be put into four categories. They are hot, cold, warm, and cool. The different foods can help with anything from muscle pains to diarrhea. The action kung fu was not what I expected it to be. It turned into more just different areas you hit your body, repeatably. The result of this is supposed to help loosen up muscles, relax your body, and make you feel better. One example is a spot you hit on your chest in order to help your lungs. The way you can tell if it is working is that you should start coughing. Thankfully for me, I coughed when I did it, which means my lungs are healthy. My least favorite of this was the acupuncture. It was interesting to hear about the different points that can help to relax and heal the body by sticking a pin into it, but I hate needles. At this point, the doctor was actually putting pins into a spot on people's hands for a demonstration, but I couldn't do it. While I did not enjoy the last part, I really enjoyed the lecture overall and the doctor was an extremely friendly man!

Examples of food with cold character

NTNU and KPMG

Our third full day there was going to be a busy one. After eating breakfast, we all left our hotel at and headed to National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU). There, we took a survival Chinese class, which was a lot tougher then I thought it would be. Mandarin Chinese is a language that is very heavy on the tone of your voice. There are 4 main tones. The first is a high tone. The second is a rising tone. The third goes lower and then rises, while the final tone is a sharp drop. These tones make it so a word as simple as "ma" can have four different meanings. Depending on the tone used when saying "ma" it can mean "mother", "hemp", "horse", or "to yell at; scold". Trying to really understand this took a little while. However, I did learn how to The University of Michigan (which is Mixigen daxue). Thankfully, I was able to learn simple phrases like "Hello" (which is Ni hao), "Thanks" (Xie xie), "You're welcome" (Bu ke qi), and "Good-bye" (Zai jian). Mandarin Chinese is definitely one of the harder languages that I have encountered.

Once we finished our lesson in Mandarin, we met some students from NTNU. We had lunch with them and had a chance to ask them about life at the University. Once we finished lunch though, we participated in some games the students had set up. There were 3 different games. One required you to race against another team to blow a ball to different water-filled cups. Another required you to move small green bean-like objects from one bowl to another using objects like a spoon or chopsticks (the challenge being you only wanted the green beans, not the bigger black ones). The final game required two team members to move either a ping pong ball, a small marble like object, or one of the small green beans from one plate to another, and then the other two team members needed to transfer that object to yet another plate, all while only using chopsticks. My team ended up winning the first two games, but lost the third. The games were really fun though and we were given different Taiwanese treats for participating.

Dr. Laurence (left) and Dr. Peng (right) with Jeff Chang (center) from KPMG

With the games completed, it was time to go to our first business visit. This was to visit KPMG, which was located in Taipei 101. Taipei 101 is the second largest building in the world. KPMG takes up four floors within the building. We would end up being on the 68th floor. We listened to a presentation by Jeff Chang. I was surprised to hear just how big KPMG is. KPMG operates in 156 countries and has clients like Citibank, PepsiCO, Nestle, and Microsoft. The three main services provided by KPMG are audit, tax, and advisory services. The different services that the company offered to their employees was interesting too. They had a very nice cafe and also provide massages to employees for as little as about 2 USD per 30 minutes. It really seemed like KPMG worked hard to make sure that moral was kept up by utilizing these type of little perks. Overall, I was very impressed to hear about all that KPMG does and how successful they are. I really enjoyed the opportunity to visit this company.

Taipei 101

The end of the KPMG visit meant we were halfway done with our day. However, the rest of the day and more is to be continued...