April 9, 2013

Last Thursday and Friday were public holiday's.  As always, am never 100% sure what the hell is going on here, but I think that Thursday was National Youth Day and Friday was Tomb Sweeping Day.  Traditionally, you go to your ancestors graves to pay respect and clean them off, but it also is an opportunity to celebrate the coming of Spring, the planting season and general rebirth.  Seems like a pretty decent reason to celebrate, and is similar in some ways to the Easter holiday also celebrated around this time of year.  While it is close, I am giving the nod to Easter over Tomb Sweeping day only due to the deliverance of chocolate covered peanut butter eggs by the Easter bunny.   Our cousin Sharon invited us to go outside of Taipei with them for the day on Friday to hang out and see some sights.  Knowing that Paul is a bit of a junkie for it, she wowed us by arranging a tour of the Kimlin soy sauce factory.  The tour of the factory itself was a bit of a letdown as we did not get to go inside the factory to see how they make it, but we did get to stand in the rain looking at the fermentation tanks while Betty and Sharon translated what the tour guide was telling them in Chinese.  As usual, pretty sure they made up their own narrative just to screw with us.

They seemed overly impressed with the importance of that sky bridge and its ability to allow for the movement of product from one building to another and kept waiting to hear about some mythical sky bridge that transported the spirits out of darkness or something.

Then it was time to go inside the Soyseum to learn about the long and rich history of soy sauce and it's importance to the world.  On one of the walls was a chronology of soy sauce.  In the excerpt from the wall in the picture below, there is a line about the Japanese that I found telling. 

It is hard to see on this condensed picture, but it says..."Japan not only learned Chinese characters, production of tea, clothing and architecture from China in the Tang Dynasty, they also learned the technique of making sauce from dried beans and grain."  So before the Chinese, the Japanese were drinking plain water and eating unflavored food while sleeping naked in caves?  How funny that they have to give a subtle slap to the Japanese by saying "not only" did they teach the stupid pagans everything they know on the wall of a soy sauce factory.  The irony is that the most popular soy sauce worldwide is the Japanese brand Kikkoman. 

That's Sharon's son Dede in the picture by the way and we all love that kid.  Dede means little brother and we all call him that and am embarrassed to say that we don't know his real name.  Another  confusing Chinese-isms...they call him little brother, but he is an only child and therefore does not have siblings, so why do they call him a brother of any kind?  I tell you this so to help you understand why I am never sure what the hell is going on. 

The tour guide later demonstrated the different stages the ingredients go through before it becomes soy sauce and at one point, opened a container of partially fermented soy beans and started fanning the smell our way so we could take a whiff.  Feeling the need to pay it forward, I produced a sample of fermentation odor from my own personal brew and hand fanned it in her direction.

We then got to meet the cast of Kimlan Soy Sauce characters.  Didn't catch his name, but he is obviously some kind of Soy Super Hero.

And buying his t-shirt was a no-brainer.  How great is it that the head is a bottle of soy sauce?


Not sure if these were his side kicks or enemies, but my favorites were Aunt Showmy

 And the twins...Loser Bow and Winner Bow.

Sharon and Betty refused to ask what had gone wrong with the Bow's relationship, nor what is coming out of their noses.  And it also looks like Paul took one too many hits out of the partially fermented bean pot.

But the highlight of the factory for me was the men's bathroom.  I've pee'd all over this planet, and to paraphrase the great Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora...I've seen a million bathrooms, and have rocked them all,  but have never been in a urinal where you can gaze directly into the eyes of another urinator.  I know that some fellas complain of stage fright, but this set-up must cause some serious cremasteric reflex. 

I made Betty come in to take this picture of Paul and I with her phone and still cannot figure how to get these right side up...

Don't have enough time today to devote to the best part of our tomb sweeping day excursion, which also happens to be the best thing I've seen in Taiwan so far, but will tease it with this photo.