As it has become a yearly habit, whenever December rolls around, I start thinking about what I’m going to write, and what photos I’m going to include in my year-end review, which is something that I’ve done every year that this website has been active.

Since the start of the pandemic, I’ve admittedly been a little less inclined to write anything personal, or about how I’ve been feeling - so when December came this year, I wasn’t really in the mood to get a start on this one. At the time I was in the midst of researching and writing an article, which used that as an excuse to procrastinate this one for a few weeks.

Over the years, (it seems like) readers have come to appreciate these articles, so I forced myself to head to a local coffee shop to dedicate some time to make sure I kept the tradition alive.

This year, though, I’m going to change the format a little.

Since another one of my annual traditions took place in mid-December, the photos I’ll be sharing today aren’t going to be the typical collection of photos I took throughout the year, but will (for the most part) be from the Qingshan King Festival (青山靈安尊王) celebrations in Taipei.   

As usual, I first took a look back at what I wrote in my previous reviews, to see how I was feeling, and of course, what I had planned for the upcoming year, mostly just to see if I was successful in what I set out to do.

So was 2023 a successful year for me? Well, just like last year, yes, and no..

In my previous year-end review, I said that I’d try to focus more on writing ‘travel-related’ articles that are likely to appeal to people more than the typical articles that I write. So was I successful in that? Probably not. I did make an honest attempt, though.

For example, one of my most in-depth articles of the year was one that I wrote about the Huashan Creative Park, one of Taipei’s most popular tourist attractions. The article ended up being one of the most authoritative resources about the history of the area that you’ll find online. Admittedly, though, it was just another one of my Japanese-era related research projects.

In March I took a trip to Japan, and upon my return to Taiwan, I spent the next few months working on all of the photos I took during the trip (way too many), and writing about some of the places that I visited.

One of the things that I had to learn the hard way about Japan is that its historic tourist destinations aren’t really as well-documented as they are here in Taiwan. The amount of research and translation it took to write those articles far eclipsed any of the work that I’ve done on Taiwan, and as I’m just starting to post those articles now, hopefully readers will be able to understand just how much effort went into writing them.

Being that it takes a lot more time and effort to write articles, this year was similar to the last in that the amount of articles I write and the frequency I publish them has decreased. One thing that ended up being new this year was that I allowed those ‘rabbit holes’ that I naturally just fall down in during my research to consume me a little too much.

I ended up publishing several articles this year that didn’t really have much to do with photography, but instead were meant to act as resources for some of the other articles that I have published on here. In fact, when I mentioned earlier that I was in the midst of researching and writing an article in early December, it was another one that was the result of one of those rabbit holes I found myself in while researching for an article about one of Taipei’s first places of worship, Jiantan Temple (劍潭古寺).

Before I get into some personal things about life this year, let me first explain why I’ve chosen to only focus on photos from the Qingshan King temple festival - I’ve made it a tradition to take part in the yearly festival as I have an ongoing project compiling (film) photos of the ‘The Lead Generals’ (官將首) who take part in the process.

When it comes to film, I have a couple of older cameras, including one that allows me to use the Canon EOS lenses that my digital cameras use. However, no matter what camera I’m using, the one thing that always remains the same is that I only ever use AGFA APX 100 film, which I personally consider to be one of the best monochrome rolls of film that you can (still) purchase. Every year I attend this festival, I end up spending a considerable amount of money on rolls of film, and then on processing, and because so much of the festival takes place after dark, I’d say my success rate for the photos is probably only about 25%.

So this year, I joined the hipster club and purchased a Fuji digital camera.

If you follow camera trends, you’re probably aware that Fuji’s are currently some of the most difficult cameras to buy, due to high demand, and a limited supply chain. More importantly, though, one of the reasons why the cameras have become so popular is due to the fact that they have excellent film simulation modes. After waiting for a few months, I was finally able to get a camera, and luckily it arrived a few days before the event. It was the first time in my photography career that I’ve purchased a digital camera that wasn’t a Canon, so there was a little bit of a learning curve to the process, and there was probably no better way to throw myself into the fire than to take it to one of Taiwan’s most popular temple festivals.

While the learning curve was a bit of a problem, one of the biggest differences between shooting with this camera and the typical film camera that I bring with me was that I was stuck with using a single lens - a 27mm prime lens - which meant that I had to adjust the way I took photos.

All of the monochrome photos of the generals that you’re seeing in this article are from the new camera, which I have to say, I’m quite fond of now that I’m getting the hang of it.

There were a number of reasons why I wanted to purchase a Fuji, but its film simulations were high up on the list. I enjoy the process of taking film shots, especially since you can’t instantly know what you’ve got until you have them processed. But film is also an expensive process and not exactly great for the environment, so I thought I’d try my best to make a change.

I also wanted to have a smaller camera that I could take with me anywhere I go as I’m a bit tired of taking photos with my iPhone. But the most important reason was that I’ll be transitioning entirely to mirrorless in 2024 when the new Canon R5 is released. I’ve discovered that I have some issues when it comes to these newfangled photography gadgets, so I’ll take some time over the next few months to become more acquainted with life as a mirrorless photographer.

Alright, now let’s talk about how the year has gone for me. I’m not particularly good at this, but bear with me.

Last year when I wrote my review, I mentioned my weight-loss mission. Much of this year has remained the same. I’ve continued working hard on losing weight, and I’ve spent a lot more time at the gym this year than I have with my camera in hand. In total, I’ve lost about 25 kilograms, I’m the thinnest that I’ve ever been in my adult life.

That being said, as I mentioned last year, all those years of people in Taiwan calling me fat has probably done a bit of damage to my brain. I was recently having a chat with someone new in Taiwan, and they said I was probably suffering from something called body dysmorphic disorder, something I’ve never actually heard of before. I’m not particularly into self-diagnoses, but after a bit of reading, I feel like some of the pressure I put on myself, or the way I look at myself in the mirror likely means she was right, so I hope that as the year progresses, and I continue working out that I can finally start feeling better about my progress mentally as I’m obviously doing well physically. Since it’s quite obvious that I’ve lost a considerable amount of weight, I’ve received quite a few compliments, but I’ve also received “you’re too thin” criticisms from the very same people who were recently claiming that I was too fat.

All I can say is that even though I love Taiwan, all of the body shaming that people do on a regular basis here can do a considerable amount of damage to ones psyche, and its likely that I’m suffering from a bit of that.

One of the weirder things that happened this year was that my Twitter somehow got flagged by the local Taiwanese media as either a “Famous Canadian Photographer” (知名加拿大攝影師) or a “Famous Canadian Blogger” (知名加拿大部落客). Twitter is obviously in decline since that ‘guy’ purchased it, but the number of people who follow me there has skyrocketed, and it seems like any time I have something sarcastic to say about life in Taiwan, the local media picks it up and it becomes the news of the day. I’m not sure how many times I’ve made the news this year, and its not something that I’m particularly proud of, but at some point, one of my tweets is likely to get me murdered by some crazed Internet weirdo.

I guess all of this goes hand in hand with what I do as a photographer who often works for the foreign media here, but ‘photographers’ aren’t always ‘photojournalists’, I’m just a guy who clicks buttons in the right direction at the right time. I find it ironic that anything I say becomes fodder for the local media. Nevertheless, when Twitter eventually dies, which I’m guessing will be quite soon, all of that will probably come to an end.

Speaking of which, you can now find me on Bluesky: @goteamjosh.bsky.social and if you need an invite, let me know. I have a few saved up for fellow Twitter refugees and cool people.

On that note, when it comes to social media, I’ve become even less active than last year. When I look at traffic analytics for this website, well over 95% is organic traffic from search engines and social media accounts for very little. The amount of work I do cross-posting photos and posting my articles across various networks is probably a waste of time. I rarely post anything on Facebook, and Instagram isn’t particularly a photo site anymore, so I’ve just taken a break.

As for my 2024 plans, I’m once again going to make the claim that I’ll be heading south more to visit places that have been on my list for far too long. I plan to continue writing about Taiwan’s National Forest Parks, so I’m hoping to be able to publish guides to Alishan (阿里山), Taipingshan (太平山), etc. I’ll also continue with some of the other ongoing projects that I have going on. If you read my article about Taiwan’s Remaining Japanese-era Train Stations (台鐵現存日治時期車站), you’ll probably have noticed that there are quite a few stations that don’t have links yet. This is something that I plan to solve in the new year while also continuing to update some of the already existing articles that I have published on this blog.

I’m also hoping to travel back to Japan to take part in a five-day hike, and hopefully I’ll be able to visit some other new locations, preferably in South East Asia to enjoy some beaches. Traveling back home is also on list of things I have to do as I have some weddings that I’ll need to attend.

As usual, my plans are grand, but I hope that I can be more active than I was this year.

Hopefully 2023 was good to you, and all of those around you. If you enjoy what I do, keep watching in the new year as I have some interesting articles in the queue that are almost ready to go!

Your Favorite Articles of the Year

Now that it seems like the pandemic has come to an end and the world is getting back to normal, Taiwan has reopened and with the increase in tourists coming to the country, there has also been a significant increase in the amount of traffic showing up on my website looking for information.

I’ve always considered introducing Taiwan to the outside world as a privilege, and I hope that anyone visiting this site is able to find the answers they’re looking for, or at least, the inspiration they need to make a visit.

As usual, I’m going to list the five articles that received the most traffic this year, and even though some of them are the same from years prior, there are a few newer entries that made their way onto the list, bringing some variety.

1. Taipei's Top Three Temples (台北三大廟門)

This was an article I wrote quite a few years ago when I was still new to blogging, and although it remains somewhat of a mystery to me, it seems like at some point after Taiwan reopened for tourism after the pandemic, someone shared it and it started attracting a tremendous amount of traffic.

I don’t look at my website’s traffic analytics very often, but the few times I have this year pushed me to completely rewrite the article and post new photos as I felt the original wasn’t up to my current standards.

Hopefully the newly updated article helps anyone wanting to visit Taiwan learn a little about some of the attractive tourist temples in Taipei.

2. Qixing Mountain (七星山)

Earning a spot on my Top Five list last year, my hiking guide for Taipei’s popular Qixing Mountain (七星山) has once again continued to attract quite a bit of interest. Last year, with so many people forced to travel domestically due to the pandemic, it didn’t surprise me that a blog like this would be so useful, but now that Taiwan has reopened for tourism, it has remained quite popular with people who are visiting the country and looking to climb one of the highest mountains in the north.

Qixing Mountain has always been a pretty popular mountain to climb, but even though it’s located within the capital, getting there can often be a little difficult for people who aren’t familiar with Taipei’s public transportation.

With few comprehensive travel guides to the mountain in English available, I’m guessing it continues to be helpful for quite a few people, which is great!

3. Taiwan Cherry Blossom Guide (臺灣櫻花地圖)

Once again, it was unsurprising that one of the articles that attracted the most interest this year was my comprehensive Taiwan Cherry Blossom Guide. This one has been at the top of my list for several years in a row, and as the article gets updated quite often, I make sure to keep the map that’s included updated as well. Taiwan’s cherry blossom season only lasts for the first few months of the year, but I’m happy to see that it continues to be of use to anyone wanting to enjoy the country’s natural beauty.

4. Four Beasts Hiking Trail (四獸山步道)

Another one of my popular Taipei Travel Guides, this article introduces each of the trails along the so-called ‘Four Beast Mountains,’ compiling a number of individual articles into a single guide that should offer readers all the information they need to complete the entire hike, rather than doing each of the mountains one by one.

By now, visitors to Taiwan are likely all aware of the Elephant Mountain (象山) trail, as it has become one of the city’s most important tourist attractions, however it seems like few realize that with a little more effort, you can enjoy even more nature, and better views of the city from the various peaks.

5. Taroko National Park (太魯閣國家公園)

My travel guide for the insanely popular Taroko National Park on Taiwan’s eastern coast was once of the first articles I published last year, and now that international tourism has returned to Taiwan, this guide has become one of the most popular articles on my blog. Taroko Gorge is one of those must-visit places for anyone coming to Taiwan, so it’s not particularly surprising that this comprehensive guide attracts quite a bit of attention.

That being said, I have plans to update the guide in the near future, with some more destinations, and of course, new photos. I always look forward to a trip to the east coast, so I’m hoping once my new camera comes home with me that I’ll be able to hop on a train and head east.

My Favorite Articles of the Year

Once again, to the surprise of no one, there is a stark difference between the articles that I enjoyed writing the most compared to what most of you enjoyed reading. This year, rather unexpectedly, I wrote a couple of non-photography related articles focusing on Taiwanese history, which I thought were pretty interesting subjects. I have a few more of these articles in the works, which is a new thing for me, but possibly something that I’ll continue as time passes.

Below you’ll find the five articles that I enjoyed writing the most this year:

1. Huashan 1914 Creative Park

This was an article that took me a long time to complete, and it ended up being one of the most in-depth English-languages resources available online about one of Taipei’s most popular, yet little understood, tourist attractions.

In most cases articles about the park focus on the tourist aspects of the historic distillery, but I focused on telling its history so that people can better understand what they’re seeing when the visit today.

There’s always something cool happening at Huashan, so it’s one of those places that any visitor to Taipei should spend some time checking out.

2. Taiwan’s Remaining Japanese-era Train Stations

As mentioned above, this was one of the research articles that I put together this year. I compiled a comprehensive list of the remaining railway stations around the country that have a history dating back to the Japanese-era, many of which remain in operation today, almost a century later.

Even though some of these historic stations are likely to replaced at some point, while they’re still around, they’re excellent examples of a period of Taiwan’s history that not a lot of people know about.

3. Railway Station Name Change Chart

Similar to the article above, this was another one of my random research articles that I published this year. While browsing social media one day, I came across an interesting image in one of my Taiwanese history-related groups and decided to do a deep-dive into the history of the name-changes made to settlements across the island during the Japanese-era, and beyond.

4. Ogon Shrine

After waiting several years for the iconic ‘Golden Shrine’ to re-open to the public, I finally got around to posting an in-depth article about the history, and the architectural design of this abandoned Japanese-era Shinto Shrine.

Attracting crowds of people to the North-Coast of the island for quite some time, the shrine was coincidentally one of the first Japanese-era tourist spots that I visited after my arrival in Taiwan, even though I wasn’t really aware of what I was experiencing at the time.

Until this year, I wasn’t able to publish an article about the shrine due to a lack of photos, and because it was closed to the general public for almost half a decade - now that its re-opened, it has once again become a popular tourist attraction, and can be included as part of a larger day trip to the Jiufen (九分) area.

5. Taipei Guest House

Finally, on the short list of the most iconic of Taiwan’s remaining Japanese-era buildings, the Taipei Guest House (台北賓館), which was once the official residence of the Governor-General of Taiwan, and is now operated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was a spot that I’ve wanted to visit for quite some time, and I was quite happy to be able to get in on one of the rare days that it is open the public to take photos, and then write an article about its history.

If the photos weren’t already proof enough, the mansion is absolutely beautiful, and its architectural design is a masterpiece of its era.

Now that I’ve got the Guest House out of the way, I have plans to check out one of its other iconic neighbors, the Presidential Palace.

My Favorite Photos of the Year

You’re likely to notice a bit of a theme with the photos I personally enjoyed taking the most this year as they’re almost all from my trip to Japan. I was always a little afraid to visit Japan because I figured I’d pretty much fall in love and never want to leave, or at least, all of my future trips abroad would be in that direction. Suffice to say, those fears became reality, and I’m already planning my next trip to the country. However, after my experience this year, I’m not particularly looking forward to the amount of time it will take to write articles about the places on my list to visit.

The photos you’ll see here are mostly going to be from destinations that I’ll be publishing articles about in the near future, so if you like what you see, keep your eye out for the articles that appear.

This photo was taken on the Northern Coast of Kyushu at the Usa Grand Shrine (宇佐神宮), one of the most important Shinto Shrines in Japan. Taken along the visiting route, it’s a film shot of a young Japanese family walking towards a massive shrine gate, which is one of the iconic images of this particular shrine.

This photo was taken on the last night of our trip to Japan, when we got to enjoy the cherry blossoms in full bloom at the annual Fukuoka Cherry Blossom Festival. While there are some obvious problems with the photo that I wasn’t very happy with, I love the colors and the lighting that was set up so that we could all enjoy the blossoms well into the evening. It was my first experience seeing sakura in Japan, but also one of my first experiences taking photos of them at night time, so I’m a big fan of this one.

While visiting Usa Grand Shine mentioned above, we found ourselves walking along a quiet lake-side. As we walked, we came across another small path, which featured its own shrine gate at the entrance.

The path was forested, and quite dark, so I figured it would make for an excellent film shot. The shrine gate itself is red and quite bright, so it contrasted quite well with the dark nature environment around it and made me wonder where the path would take you if you walked up it.

For a bit of variety, this photo was taken during this year’s 2023 Taiwan LGBT Pride (臺灣同志遊行) in Taipei. I try to take part in the annual event whenever I can, because let’s face it, it’s really fun. As usual, one of my favorite aspects of the parade are the Queens that take part.

Taiwan’s Drag Queen scene is really vibrant and creative, and every year they go out of their way to come up with something new. Given that the parade typically coincides with Halloween weekend, the costumes that they come up with for the event are always really cool, and they also work really hard to incorporate Taiwanese culture and history into whatever they’re doing. In this case, we had a riff on a Taiwanese temple parade with a Mazu-like Goddess being paraded around on her heavenly palanquin.

Even though there isn’t really anything special about the photo technically-speaking, I have to give massive props to the creativity.

The day before leaving Taiwan for Japan, we checked the weather forecast, and were a bit worried as it was calling for rain for the entire duration of our time in the country. Fortunately, we got lucky and it only rained a bit during the mornings, and on the day we scheduled a visit to Fukuoka’s historic Hakozaki Shrine (筥崎宮).

This shot was taken on the side of the Main Shrine while we were looking for some protection from a sudden downpour during our visit. Even though it rained that day, it was still really nice, and I feel like the photos turned out quite well in spite of the weather.

That’s all for this year, once again I hope 2023 was a good one for you and yours, and hopefully the coming year will be even better for all of us!

Happy New Year everyone! 新年快樂！