旅のしおり_COLO's Traveler Guide - MAGIC HOUR

COLO’s Traveler Guide: Taiwan

Kaohsiung Lighthouse

San Fong Kong

Wufeng Lin Family Mansion

Temple at Taichung Market

Times listed are based on the schedule at the time of the visit.

Day 1

Tokyo Haneda 0840 (Japan Airlines JAL097) > Taipei Songshan 1140

Taipei High-Speed Rail Station 1401 (Taiwan High-Speed Rail 1317) > Taichung High-Speed Rail Station 1452
Xinwuri 1508 (Taiwan Railways) > Taichung 1519

・Fengjia Night Market

Dinner: Miyahara Moon Pavilion

Accommodation: CHECK inn Taichung Zhongshan

Day 1 Tips
・A famous spot in Taichung is a sweets shop called “Miyahara Eye Clinic.” Apparently, there is always a line at the ice cream counter. Reservations are available for the restaurant in the same building, and it serves ice cream.

Day 2

・Chun Shui Tang (Original Store)
・Taichung City Second Market
・Wufeng Lin Family Mansion

Dinner: Qin Yuan Chun (Original Store)

Day 2 Tips
・Another famous sweets spot in Taichung is the flagship store of Chun Shui Tang, known for its bubble milk tea. I heard it gets crowded during the day, so I decided to stop by for breakfast. Since this is where the famous tea chain was founded, I imagined it would be in a historic building but it turned out to be on the first floor of an ordinary apartment.
・For dinner, I went to Qin Yuan Chun, a famous xiaolongbao restaurant. Reservations are available, but time limit on stays is a bit strict. I believe the difference between an “exquisite” restaurant and a “delicious” one lies in the perfect balance of saltiness in the finishing touches (the final pinch before gets salty), and everything was exquisite in here. If they would let me stay another 30 minutes, it would have been perfect.

Day 3

Taichung 0700 (Tze-chiang 371) > Chiayi 0808

・Beimen Station
・Chiayi Depot Park
・Zhuzhi Station
・Chiayi City East Public Retail Market
・Suantou Sugar Factory Sugarcane Yard Cultural Park

Chiayi 1439 (Tze-chiang 121) > Kaohsiung 1555

・Kaohsiung Lighthouse
・Sanfeng Temple

Accommodation: Kindness Hotel – Kaohsiung Main Station

Day 3 Tips
・I visited the former sugar factory site in Chiayi. It was better maintained than the one in Kaohsiung, but I actually preferred the Kaohsiung site because it felt more authentic.

Day 4

Kaohsiung (MRT) > Zuoying
Xinzuoying (Taiwan Railway) 0742 > Fangliao 0907

Fangliao 1025 (Breezy Blue) > Taitung 1335
Taitung 1410 (Breezy Blue) > Fangliao 1738

Fangliao 1800 (Taiwan Railway) > Xinzuoying 1931
Zuoying High-Speed Rail Station 1955 (Taiwan High-Speed Rail 156) > Taipei 2129

Bar: Kavalan Whisky Bar

Accommodation: Roaders Plus Hotel Theme

Day 4 Tips
・Visited the bar operated by Kavalan, a Taiwanese whisky distillery. I tasted whisky aged in casks from famous French châteaux. I got hinted why Scotch producers, many of them are under many French ownerships now, do not use wine casks very often.

Day 5

・National Railway Museum
・Ri Xing Type Foundry
・Lin Hua Tai Tea

Taipei Songshan 1535 (JAL098) > Tokyo Haneda 1925

Day 5 Tips
・National Railway Museum is currently partially opened. Looking at online articles of the unopened sections, I noticed that many of the train cars I wanted to see were in the unopened areas. Even so, since they have made good use of the former factory facilities, the atmosphere is quite nice.

Need-to-Know Principal / Oirase Gorge, Japan

Oirase Night Tour

Oirase Snow Walk Tour

Wild Grape Tree in Winter

I visited Hong Hong for the New Year’s holiday. Because it was the dry season, the weather was perfect. I had a really wonderful time enjoying dim sum and bars. That said, I do believe winter is a time to enjoy the cold, so I would like to visit a snowy region.

Last year, I skipped the snowshoe trekking at Goshougake Onsen and went to Mt. Moriyoshi to see the snow monster instead. I figured I should definitely go to Goshougake this year, but when I asked my wife where she wished to go, she said she wanted to visit Oirase Gorge.

There are many things in life that are better left unknown. So, I intentionally not asked her why, but I suspected there was a high possibility that she was not interested in snowshoe trekking.

When I visited Oirase a few years ago, I stayed at Hoshino Resorts. Maybe because I handle cost management at work, I am actually not a fan of the Hoshino Resorts where I feel everything is well managed in terms of cost and efficiency, but I wanted to see the fireplace designed by Taro Okamoto.

I am strict with the company’s finances but pretty lax with my own. Even someone like me was able to know staying at the Hoshino Resorts right after returning from Hong Kong would cause a cost management issue to myself. Since I have been to Oirase several times, I have a sense of the area. This time, I decided to stay at a local hot spring inn and join a public bus tour.

Last time, I booked an airline award ticket to Misawa Airport and headed to Oirase via Towada City by buses, but I could not find benefits other than getting a free flight. While it certainly helped my cash flow, the travel time was fragmented by too many bus and flight sectors which left me exhausted. In fact, I found the itinerary had more downsides than upsides.

Cost management is not simply about reducing expenses; it is about ensuring that spending yields the most efficient results. As I keep lax on my own finances, I tend to be lenient when it comes to weighing the pros and cons on my own. Despite I was able to find award ticket this year too, taking the Shinkansen would be financially acceptable even right after returning from Hong Kong. On the Shinkansen, I can sleep for two or three hours after boarding, making the trip a lot easier. This is to say that I would have more efficient trip.

If I stay at the Hoshino Resorts, they will arrange all activities. However, I had to check and book the activities by myself for this trip. After looking into it, I found that in addition to a famous bus tour to see the winter scenery illuminated at night, there were various other activities available.

I had assumed I would have to take some local buses to get to Oirase, but there was a daytime bus tour. By taking this tour, I could see the winter scenery of Oirase Gorge and then head to a hot spring inn. Even more, there were snowshoe trekking tours available in Oirase. Since there were two snowshoe trekking courses, I decided to sign up for both.

Since I did not intentionally ask my wife, I did not know why we did not go to Goshougake Onsen at the first place. Therefore, I did not foresee any issues if I scheduled the snowshoe trekking. I suppose.

I simply did not know the fact. Ignorance is knowledge and power. Importance of information management is in here.

While I have different finance management standards for work and personal life, when it comes to information management, I adopt the “need-to-know principle” in my personal life just like at work.

COLO’s Traveler Guide: Oirase Gorge

Times listed are at the time of visit.

Day 1

Ueno 07:38 (Hayabusa 3) > Shichinohe-Towada 10:37

Shichinohe-Towada Station 12:30 (Tour Bus) > Oirase Gorge Onsen 16:23

・Oirase Gorge Night Tour

Accommodation: Nonohana Yakeyama-so

Day 1 Tips
・At Yakeyama-so, if you are participating the Night Tour, they will serve dinner at 17:30 instead of their regular 18:00 or after.

Day 2

・Snowshoe Walk Frozen Waterfall
・Winter Oirase Snowshoe Walk
・Oirase Gorge Night Tour

Day 2 Tips
・I hoped that if I joined Night Tour twice, it would have good weather at least once, but it snowed both times.

Day 3

Oirase Gorge Onsen 08:57 (Local Bus) > Towada Art Center 09:47

・Towada Art Center

Towada Are Center 11:42 (Local Bus) > Shichinohe-Towada 12:20
Shichinohe-Towada 12:54 (Hayabusa 20) > Omiya 15:40

COLO’s Traveler Guide: Hong Kong & Macau

Sunset in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Skyline from Star Ferry

Macau Wet Market

Day 1

Tokyo Haneda 11:00 (All Nippon Airways ANA965) > Shenzhen 15:20
Shenzhen Airport around 16:10 (Bus) > Tsim Sha Tsui (China Hong Kong City) around 18:45

Accommodation: Intercontinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong

Day 1 Tips
・After clearing immigration at Shenzhen Airport, I headed to the ground transportation area and purchased a bus ticket to Hong Kong. There seemed to be two companies, I ended up buying a ticket from Eternal East Bus (永東巴士) to Tsim Sha Tsui. A minivan takes you from the airport to immigration, then walk to Hong Kong side. From there, you take another bus into downtown Hong Kong. A sticker is attached to your clothes, so even if you do not speak Chinese, the company staff will guide you.
・Since this was the peak season during the New Year holidays, I calculated the airfare difference based on the cost per hour of extra travel time. It was clearly more than my salary, so I thought traveling via Shenzhen was a reasonable option. In my case, I wanted to give it a try anyway.

Day 2

Sheung Wan Macau Ferry Terminal 07:30 (TurboJet) > Macau Outer Harbor 08:30

・Dim Sum at Lung Wah Tea House
・Red Market
・Ruins of St. Paul’s
・Ying Kee Bakery (Snoopy-themed store)
・Senado Square

Macau Outer Harbour 14:00 (TurboJet) > Sheung Wan 15:00

・Tim Ho Wan
・Mandarin Oriental Hotel “Bar Chinnery”

Day 2 Tips
・I visited the bar on the second floor of the Mandarin. It was wonderful to see that the gentle, elderly bartender was still there.

Day 3

・Dim Sum at Lin Heung Tea House
・Chun Yeung Street (Market street where the tram runs)
・Mandarin Hotel Bar Chinnery

Day 3 Tips
・I had heard that Lin Heung Tea House had closed down. It was reopened at a new location, so I got up early to check it out. It was as lively and fun as before. After breakfast, I went back to the hotel for a nap.
・For dinner that night, I had fish and chips with Guinness Beer at the Mandarin’s bar. It was probably the most expensive fish and chips in Asia. The Guinness comes in Mandarin’s original beer mug, which looks like made of tin, and I almost gave in to the temptation to take it home. The only reason I resisted was that I knew I would get caught — it definitely was not because of my strong sense of morality.

Day 4

・Dim Sum at Luk Yu Tea House

香港の老舗「陸羽茶室」で本場のレトロ飲茶を堪能しよう

・North River Street Market

Mong Kok 12:00 (Bus) > Shenzhen Airport around 14:30
Shenzhen 17:25 (All Nippon Airways ANA966) > Tokyo Haneda 22:20

Day 4 Tips
・I had picked up a timetable from Eternal East Bus, the first bus from Tsim Sha Tsui to Shenzhen Airport departed at 1:10 pm. Since that seemed a little too late, I took the bus from Mong Kok. While entering China was relatively smooth, it appears there is no set schedule for the minivan from the immigration to the airport. Considering the time and hassle, riding a high-speed train to Guangzhou East Station then take to subway or taxi to Guangzhou Airport might have been a better option.
・Of course, the best option is not Shenzhen Airport nor Guangzhou Airport. If you take the Airport Express, you can get from Tsim Sha Tsui to Hong Kong Int’l Airport in about 40 minutes. While it is true that “everything in life is an experience,” there are no need to experience some of the things you do not have to.