Hello there! 👋
I am writing you from a small, former gold-mining village in the mountains at the northern tip of Taiwan. We have been here for a few days, touching down in Kaohsiung in the far south, traveling north to Tainan and then Taipei, and now here in Jiufen. Now a tourist destination, the town of Jiufen is a series of switchbacks and houses clinging to the mountainside, overlooking the foothills and the sea. There is a famous teahouse which served as one of the inspirations for the bath-house in the Ghibli film Spirited Away. We had a very relaxing tea experience, reminiscent of the Japanese tea ceremony, in a different tea-house with a wrap-around balcony that hangs out over the valley. Gentle music played as we watched the wind push tufts of clouds upward and over the verdant mountain ridge above us.
I haven’t had much time to do my month-end reflection and write a proper newsletter. A lot happened in April — I will have to catch you up at the end of May. But let me take a moment and just talk a little about photography.
Micro.blog, the indieweb publishing community I am a part of, has been running a month-long photo challenge for April. Participating has been a pleasure since every day I got out of the house, armed with my good camera, hunting for creative shots to post for each day’s theme word. It was just the creative outlet I needed as last month I was contemplating “making” (And now I am looking to finally add a Ricoh GIIIx as I remember how much I love to take photos, and how much room I have to grow my paltry skills.)
The sakura finally began blooming at the beginning of the month so I restricted myself to images related to cherry blossoms 🌸. You can see them all posted to my microblog, or see all my recent cherry blossom photos by having a little scroll on Flickr:
Chad Kohalyk | Flickr
Explore Chad Kohalyk’s 8,863 photos on Flickr!
Then, after arriving in Taiwan, my microblog photos took that as its overarching theme. I interleaved photo challenge photos with general daily update photos. Have a scroll to see what I’ve seen here in Taiwan:
chadkoh
Generous with Likes ❤️
So far Taiwan has been fantastic. We came to try and get “the straight dope”… only to find it is even more complex than we thought! I am motivated to learn more, and can definitely see myself coming back.
We are here for a few more days and will return to Japan near the end of Golden Week. Then it is time to buckle down and start prepping for the final return to Canada. Only 2 months left to go!
Take care, and I hope you get the opportunity to drink a relaxing tea and watch the clouds drift by.
Chad
PS. The subject of this email is inspired by the One-Stroke Calligraphy of Master Hsiang Yun that we saw while visiting Fo Guang Shan near Kaohsiung. Learn more →