So, I figured I'd write a post from somewhere else, so I wrote these notes on a page from Megan's sketchbook - this was last weekend:

At the observation deck of the Mitsukoshi Building, forty-six stories up, and sitting at a cafe here, choosing from selections of tea on the menu. Let's see, we have Lover's Tea, Fantasy Tea, and Super Breast Milk Tea. Hmmm. We opt for two beers.

The sun descends from behind clouds - had been hidden up til now. It's a warm, deep pink. First, only the bottom edge of the sun, and now a beautiful disk of rosy red-orange. The city flows and crawls beneath us. Taxis are yellow here, a characteristic that reminds me of NYC. Many public buses have flat-screen TV's that run a steady stream of commercials, something that doesn't remind me of NYC.

The orange disk is now bisected by a long, low cloud. The sun seems to be disappearing before it touches the horizon, or perhaps it's descending behind a further mountain range hidden by mist. It's now out of sight.

Five minutes have passed, and already the headlights twinkle in the landscape laid out below us. We eat our wasabi peanuts and drink our beer. Although the menu was entirely in Chinese, the waitress was able to suggest the wasabi peanuts, although they taste a little stale. I recall another restaurant in Yangminshan - on the menu under snacks, it said "Joyful Outcome". We ordered them, and they brought a bowl of pistachios.

The Mitsukoshi Building seems a bit anachronistic. As we walk around the observation deck up here, it's clear that this building was once the tallest in the city, but now Taipei 101 looms out one window, the tallest building in the world. So all the souvenirs and trinkets seem out of date, and kind of unwanted. But there are a lot of interesting historic photos that illuminate Taiwan's past. Until I looked, I had no idea that the United States bombed Taipei in 1945. My father was probably in The Philippines at the time. Strange to think about that. Could he have ever imagined the son he hadn't had yet would one day be in the Philippines, walking the streets and thinking of the dad he no longer had?

Tonight, a concert at Chiang Hai Shek Memorial, then out for pizza and beer. A nice way to spend a Saturday outside of Tien Mou.