A "Typical" Day Off

We stay busy 6 days a week, mornings, afternoons, and evenings. Since there are three of us now, sometimes, we are all three doing three different things in the mornings, afternoons, and evenings. So, once a week, we try to take a WHOLE day off. And, once a month, we try to go out of our city to explore another part of our island. Usually, we know which direction we want to drive. But, most of the time, we have NO IDEA what we will do, eat, or see. It's always an adventure. Yesterday, we got into the car and headed down the east coast of our island. We knew we wanted to quickly follow the national 4 lane highway south until it ended and then slowly follow the local 2 lane highway back north until we reached our city.
The 4 lane highway ended at a small fishing village, famous for its temple to the goddess, Mazu. Our island has approximately 1000 temples dedicated to Mazu. Originally, she was the patron goddess for local fishermen. But as time went by, people begin to pray to this statue for health, careers, farming, relationships, and all sorts of concerns.

This particular temple has a jade statue of Mazu.

And, the only gold statue of Mazu on our island.

This fishing village is also famous for its fresh seafood.

Hopping back in the car, we headed further north. We were excited to find a National Museum dedicated to the Traditional Arts of our island. This museum is very well maintained and even has some English translation. There were lots of small shops selling local folk art. Artisians were at work, and (for a fee) you could try your hand at making an object.

There were even shows! Now, we have been to our fair share of amusement parks, museums, aquariums, art galleries, science centers, state fairs, zoos, etc., but it is ALWAYS an adventure to visit those kinds of places in Asia. There is just something very interesting about not having a clue what the performers are saying or doing.

Yesterday was no different. The stage was located outside of a traditional temple, so we knew the show would have some "religious" significance. The story centered around one particular figure in Asian culture, the Monkey King.

I must say this was our first trip to an amusement-type facility that featured stage shows and costumed characters concerning Asian "religious" culture. People lined up to have their photos made with these characters and to get their autographs...just like at DisneyLand.

The show was completely done in the local language, so we had to do quite a bit of internet research after we returned home to have "some" guess at what was being said or done.

The actors, actresses, costumes, etc. were very beautiful, but we most enjoyed watching the crowd. Lots of those in attendance were tourists from the Mainland. Hmmm...perhaps this would be a great spot to distribute some BOOKS in the future. We know it was a great spot to "think" about these folks and to hope that they can soon know the truth about HIStory.