A short video I made in February 2024 during a winter when I was experiencing a strange video-making obsession after putting together “The Wonders of Kyushu.”

PART I 

A time-lapse of the artwork and scrapbooking entry I made to commemorate my first trip to Taiwan.

PART II 

Clips of nice memories with Sophia, shot mainly in Taipei and its surrounding areas.

Closed Captions

PART I

In winter 2023, I had the chance to go to Taiwan and my favourite part of the trip was reuniting with one of my best friends from university, Sophia.

We did a lot of different things. My favourite parts were hiking in the north and also visiting the National Palace Museum. I really liked a lot of the art that I saw and I was inspired to create things that were of a similar style, so when I went back to Japan, I did some ink paintings.

These were some watercolours from our hiking trip. So we went on a rainy day, on a Thursday as well, and we didn’t really see anyone else in the mountains, so it was quite an experience. We actually got chased by some wild dogs.

In a night market, I tried cupping for the first time. I really liked it. It felt strange at first, but I was really glad I did it because my back felt really great afterwards.

Sophia and her mom got me some really good pineapple cake and I saved the packaging and I pasted in my scrapbook. This was a postcard that I really liked from the National Palace Museum.

All in all, it was such a wonderful trip and I really had a good time when I was there. I think Taiwan is a really beautiful island and I feel very grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to go.

PART II

These were some clips from our lonely hike. On the way there, the bus driver actually reprimanded us a little for going on a rainy day without any equipment.

In Beitou, I ate some of the best fried chicken I’ve ever had in my life. In terms of food, I can say that Taiwan just has such an amazing, amazing culinary scene. I really, really enjoy Taiwanese food, especially the night markets and the street food were really pleasing to my stomach.

Yehliu Geopark was one of the coolest places I’ve ever seen in terms of natural rock formations. They looked almost alien, and really porous, like sponges. And then we also saw a lot of fossils which was really interesting. I’ve never seen fossils out in the wild before.

Taiwan is such a beautiful place and I can’t wait to explore more of it in the future.