Cat and I took these on our vacation in China and Japan from the 10th to the 24th of December, 2007. We bought the camera partway through our stay in China, so we're missing photographs from early in the trip — and of course our interest in playing with the camera varied from day to day. All of these pictures were taken with a Canon PowerShot SX100IS; to publish on the web, I decompressed them, shrunk them by a factor of four, and recompressed them, which probably degraded their quality by quite a bit. Also, none of the vertical pictures have been properly rotated, which I apologize for.
Cast of characters:
These first few pictures are from the exterior of the Taiwan-Fujian Friendship Museum in Quanzhou.
Taiwan-Fujian (columns 1)
Taiwan-Fujian (columns 2)
Taiwan-Fujian (columns 3)
Taiwan-Fujian (Cat)
Field near Taiwan-Fujian Friendship Museum
The nominal purpose of the trip was to unite Cat's family in celebration of Miriam (her mother's) birthday. The hotel surprised us with a birthday cake and a card signed by every employee there; as far as we can tell, they read her birthday off her passport.
Miriam's birthday cake from the hotel
Miriam with birthday cake
After about half a week in Quanzhou, we left for the tourist spot of Gu Lang Yu, which used to house several European consulates during the colonial era. Gu Lang Yu is a small island off the coast of Xiamen (which is itself on an island); most vehicles are banned there, so it's very peaceful.
Impresive tree on Gu Lang Yu
Roots of impressive tree on GLY
Mangled English on GLY
View of downtown Xiamen from GLY
Another view of Xiamen from GLY
Street on GLY
Gu Lang Yu, and particularly one of its peaks, was used as an outpost by the Ming loyalist Cheng Cheng-kung, who later launched a successful invasion of Taiwan. There's quite a bit of calligraphy engraved on the rocks around the peak; there's also a temple and a museum.
Street on GLY near temple
Cacti on GLY as seen from temple
House on GLY near Cheng Cheng-kung museum
The folks near CCK museum
Garden near CCK museum
View across GLY from CCK museum
Last sign in CCK museum (not as over-the-top as signs in T-F friendship museum)
Statue near CCK museum
You can walk, along with hundreds of other tourists, to the peak of Gu Lang Yu; we did so, succumbing to the temptation of taking entirely too many pictures along the way.
Greenery on path towards GLY peak
More greenery on path towards GLY peak
Lush greenery on path towards GLY peak
Trunks and walls on GLY peak path
Intriguing roots on GLY peak path
More intriguing roots on GLY peak path
East from the peak
Southeast from the peak
Northeast from the peak
North from the peak
John at the peak
One last shot from the peak
Cat and I went alone to the true peak, but we made a simple arrangement with the others to regroup at the cable-car which takes you across to the aviary. Naturally, this plan went awry, and we spent ten minutes or so attempting to find each other. We did get to spend some time on these silly concrete platforms, though.
Cat on the ewok platforms near the peak
Cat on the platforms 2
Cat dancing on the platforms
Cat on the platforms 3
No-one really wanted to visit the aviary, but some of us wanted to explore a bit more, so Cat, Joe, and I took the cable car over.
Joe on the cable car to the GLY aviary
Roofs from the GLY cable car
Looking back towards the peak
Southeastern GLY from the cable car
Garden near the aviary from the cable car
Another perspective on the garden
Pottery in the garden
Birds in the GLY aviary (we didn't go in)
Those birds again
Garden, returning
Garden and pillar
Garden and pillar, out of focus
Back to the peak
An officer and his laundry
A house from the cable car
Those who did not ride the cable car
Quick shots from the cable car
One tourist slogan for Gu Lang Yu is "the piano island", and pipe organs are 1) distinctively European and 2) like pianos, so there was a pipe organ museum that we stopped in. It wasn't much of a museum: just a gallery of pipe organ consoles, really, plus a few workings, mostly piled in lumps.
One valiant effort to reach the organ museum
A mural near the organ museum
Workings of a pipe organ from above
We crossed back to Xiamen one day, stopping in a youth hostel there after visiting the market. Later we found a fantastic Xinjiang (Uighur) restaurant, then walked along the lake.
Scene from the youth hostel in Xiamen
Some of the gang at the youth hostel
A shambling building near the youth hostel
Pictures on the hostel courtyard wall
Nan at the wonderful Xinjiang restaurant in Xiamen
Along the lake in Xiamen
Across the lake in Xiamen
Xiamen from the ferry back to GLY
Joe on the ferry
GLY from the ferry
The guardians of Gu Lang Yu
The rest of these are from Tokyo; somehow we failed to get a picture of either Deanna or Patrick.
From the front of the Tokyo museum
A shrine in Asakusa
Weekend foot traffic in Akihabara
More foot traffic in Akihabara
Up the street in Akihabara
A canal near Suidobashi
Christmas decorations in a department store
An almost-completed building in Shinjuku
