TAIWAN
Beating out the demons
Daily Mirror
LUCKY STRIKE
An old holy man dressed in a traditional blue uniform and a dainty wicker hat held my ankles as I lay prostrate outside the main door of the temple.
Two more held my arms, and a fourth stood over me with a long wooden paddle raised above his head ready to strike. His watery eyes focused on their target, then let the paddle drop, bringing it down hard on to my backside.
A loud thwack rang out. The onlookers gasped. And I let forth an unmanly yelp of shock and pain.
I had to receive 119 more of these lashes. This definitely wasn’t how I’d imagined celebrating the end of Chinese New Year.
JAPAN
The Snow Country of Nigata
Daily Mirror
LAND OF THE FALLING SNOW
Snowflakes drifted from the sky as daylight faded behind the thick blanket of white cloud.
Gazing up at the hillside in front of me, its steep wooded slopes quilted in thick ridges of snow cascading on to the rock garden below, I realised my mind was becoming slightly obscured.
It could’ve been a state of altered consciousness brought on by my Zen-like surroundings. Or it could’ve been I’d made the green tea far too strong. But it was probably just the heat and steam going to my head.
So I sat up, allowing the breeze and the snowflakes to cool me down, before slipping back into the exquisitely hot water. I’d never even contemplated the possibility of a private bath filled with mineral-rich waters channelled from a nearby hot spring before. Especially not on the balcony of my hotel room. But this was just one of the many pleasures available in Japan’s Yukiguni – the Snow Country.