Taiwan is close to Japan, relatively inexpensive, and not particularly cold in the winter, which makes it an ideal destination for winter break. Although I had visited Taipei in 2019 for Julie & Max's wedding, that was a weekend trip with little time to see the country and the countryside. This vacation, there were more than enough days to visit Tainan and Kaohsiung in the south, and then Taipei and the surrounding area in the north.

The food and drink were excellent everywhere, with "drink" referring to coffee, although tea lovers say that the tea is spectacular too. Food is interesting because spending more money doesn't make the taste improve. Google Maps and the night markets provided plenty of inexpensive eateries with exciting entrées.

East of Taipei in a town called Jiufen, the A-Mei Teahouse, said to be the inspiration for Spirited Away, was quite amazing. The crowds arrive around 11AM, and if you get there early, before many shops open, have a serene stroll on the narrow sidewalks, all on the side of the mountain with a view of the sea. From that location, it's a jaunt down to Houtong, a coal mining town turned cat-themed village. Following that I went for a walk south and stumbled into the Sandiaoling Tunnel. Of course the signs for the tunnel, including useful information such as where it goes and how long it is, are all written in Chinese, but translation apps are boring, and it was more interesting to go inside and start walking... Apparently, the tunnel leads to a town called Mudan, which is not particularly notable for tourists, but it has a train station so you can get home after the spelunking session has concluded.

It's so easy to travel internationally these days. Google Translate makes ordering food relatively simple — just take a picture of the menu, or even screenshot a menu pic on Google Maps, and walk in ready to order — and OpenStreetMap and Google Maps make navigation a piece of cake. Many buses and trains in Taiwan, as in many countries, have signs with the stops in English, and to pay you swipe the card when boarding and disembarking, so you don't have to calculate fares or learn the numbers. Ideally we would all have time to study the language for a few months or years prior to visiting, because surely talking with the locals would make the journey even more rewarding, but that's easier said than done. Anyway, it was a fun trip.

I started climbing the peaks of Oze last summer and returned this summer for more adventure. Oze is a 4-hour drive from my house, and it's remarkably remote. The last real town is Uonuma, and heading east from Uonuma on Highway 352 brings two hours of hairpin turns and curves that look like malaria germs, naturally with no cell signal. What few people can be found are there for fishing, hiking, and hot springs. Some of the roads and villages are summer-only, and you get the feeling that it's just you up here. I climbed Mt. Naeba (Niigata), Mt. Echigo-Komagatake (Niigata), Mt. Aizu-Komagatake (Fukushima), and Mt. Hiragatake (Niigata), all on Japan's Top 100 Mountains list.

Some years ago, there were a great many free campgrounds in the country. These days you can find a few here and there, but what's more common are places that charge 500-1,000 yen for a night. Search online for 無料キャンプ場 and see what comes up. I prefer to use these basic campgrounds when hiking because your average campground is more likely to be designed for glamping and barbecuing. There's nothing wrong with those activities, but they tend to bring a noisier crowd and higher prices. Also, for some reason they tend to have "check-in by five" policies, which doesn't work well if you arrive after a long hike or drive. On the other hand, some commercial campgrounds have great views and facilities, and the crowds are a non-factor in the off-season. Either way, there's some beautiful nature to be found.

There is a ferry from Tokyo to Kyushu, all the most people don't know about it because it's slow and expensive. But it's not expensive, at least relatively speaking, if you already own a car and your other option is to fly to Kyushu and rent a car. So then you might think to yourself, "Why don't I go down there for two weeks and camp and hike? That seems like fun, right?" And you would be right. It is a lot of fun.

One thing to be careful of is the weather. In the age of climate change, all kinds of exciting things can happen. For example, it could be above 100° for seven days in a row. That's the kind of thing that might make one want to stay inside. It's also the kind of thing that might make one want to climb high mountains, because the temperatures are cooler the higher you go. If you were to climb, for example, Mt. Kyo (Saga) and Mt. Unzen (Miyazaki), you could take the ferry and then drive south camp on the coast, and then climb Mt. Kaimon (Kagoshima) and Mt. Karakuni (Miyazaki), the highest peak of Mt. Kirishima.

You might be inclined to summit Mt. Kunimi (Kumamoto), but that's easier said than done because mudslides took out all of the roads leading to all of the trailheads anywhere near the summit, and mudslides may also have taken out of the trails, although we can't find out until the roads get rebuilt. So then you might drive north, because the mountains near Mt. Aso are panoramic and onsen abound.

The highlights of hiking in Kyushu are perhaps Mt. Aso (Kumamoto) and Mt. Kuju (Oita). It's well worth driving on the Aso Panorama Line, and then following the Yamanami Highway — what a spectacular road — all the way into Beppu, so that you can tour the seven Hells, although the prospect of going to see extra hot hot springs on hot summer days might lead some to wonder when proper planning went out the window. But by the time you think about that, after a brief stop at a monkey nature preserve and an aquarium, you'll have moved on, back to the cooler mountains, so that you can summit Mt. Sobo (Miyazaki) and Mt. Shaka (Fukuoka).

And that's it. By that point you will have climbed the highest point in each prefecture in mainland Kyushu, along with the Top 100 Mountains located therein. You will also have ridden two of the Top 16 Motorcycle Roads. If you still have time to spare, you could drive to eastern Yamaguchi and hike Mt. Jakuchi before slowly meandering back east, along the northwestern coast of the prefecture, finally returning to the ferry terminal in Kitakyushu. That all makes for a nice vacation. You should try it sometime.

You have to be flexible to happily travel during spring break. Roads and restaurants might be closed for the winter, it might be hot or cold or rainy or sunny. On the one hand, I didn't summit three of the peaks on my list. On the other hand, I climbed four others, drove on some beautiful roads up in the mountains, and relaxed at some grand campgrounds.

I made a schedule because it's easier to organize with one. The first day in Kansai I climbed Mt. Kongo, the highest point in Osaka, in the rain. Later the sun came out, and it was a beautiful drive up the Koya Ryujin Skyline to the summit of Mt. Ryujin, the highest point in Wakayama. That was a nice first day.

On the second day, I hiked a trail that didn't deserve to be called one. In reality, it was rock hopping and bushwhacking, and then some ladders to climb where if they didn't exist you would have had no choice but to turn around. A great time, certainly. In fact, it was such a great time that there was not enough left over to reach the summit of Mt. Hakkyo. Ah well, there's another trail head that opens later in April, and it is said that the other trail is less about parkour and more about hiking. Regardless, it was an exciting venture in the woods.

After two days in Nara I headed north with no delay. Mt. Minago, the highest point in Kyoto, was a quick morning walk. Later in the day, I discovered that Mt. Ibuki is currently closed to hiking, so it will also have to wait for another trip. On the long drive home, I stopped by Mt. Chausu, the highest point in Aichi, got a nice view of the Alps, and slowly headed back east.

Here are some pictures from a two-week winter trip to New Mexico.

My family got together at George and Cora's house in Los Alamos. We did some snowboarding, shopping in Santa Fe, cooking, and then we played with the cat a lot. Later, Dex & Betsy and Matt & Diana flew home, and I went south in a rental car. The first stop was Guadalupe Mountains National Park, just across the state line into Texas. The hiking was excellent. For the entire trip, the nights were around freezing, and during the sunny days the temperature rose to the 50s, which made for great conditions for being outside. Several days later, I stopped by Carlsbad Caverns, which is a ridiculously large and impressive cave complex. From there it was up to White Sands National Park, with the overnight at Aguirre Springs Campground in the Organ Mountains. The last destination was a brief stop at Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, then a quick sprint up the interstate to Albuquerque, an airport hotel, and a long flight home.

I've been to New Mexico several times, and even to some of the above locations before, but that was a long time ago, and some of the previous visits were short. It's nice to relax and focus on seeing those areas with time to spare, to walk around longer and take in more views. It's a beautiful part of the U.S.

Here are some pictures from a two-week summer trip to Ireland with Marjorie and River.

We started in Dublin for several days, complete with day trips to visit Glendalough, Knowth, and some other sites with somewhat old and very old ruins. After that we headed west to Galway. The Sky Road was a scenic drive. After Galway, we headed south to Doolin. The sites to see there were the Aran Islands — we visited Inishmore, the large island — and the Cliffs of Moher. The views and landscape here, as with elsewhere in the country, were amazing. The coastal cliffs are distinct in color and vegetation from the inland mountains, even though they're only twenty minutes' drive from each other. Following Doolin, we continued south to Killarney. Our rainiest day was a bus tour of the Ring of Kerry, which was designed to be fun regardless of the weather. Finally, we spent two days in Cork.

I didn't know much about Irish history before visiting, so it was exciting to learn about the neolithic people, the history with the Vikings and later the British, and small things like the fact that George Boole was the first mathematics professor at University College Cork or that famous wool sweaters come from the Aran Islands. The food was mostly excellent. Many of the sandwich shops and bakeries we visited served great food, and classics like mussels, fish & chips, and the full breakfast were as good as I'd hoped they'd be. It was a nice time seeing the historical, cultural, and natural sites with friends.