Josh Ellis

Sankanten Shrine (三崁店社) — Josh Ellis Photography Over the last few months of 2024, I spent a lot of my time completely encapsulated in a project that required a tremendous amount of research, translation, and searching for the physical locations of ...

The ruins of the Sankanten Shinto Shrine, which was constructed on the grounds of one of Tainan's largest sugar factories, has recently been restored by the local government. In this one I introduce the history of the shrine, and its design.

www.goteamjosh.com/blog/sankanten

Paochueh Temple (寶覺禪寺) — Josh Ellis Photography Thanks to Instagram, there’s a Buddhist Temple in Taichung that has become quite popular in recent years on, thanks mostly to the clever positioning of a street light, and the eyes of a massive Buddha...

Taichung's Paochueh Temple (寶覺寺), a Buddhist temple that dates back to the Japanese era with a giant, very Instagrammable Buddha statue, once one of the largest in the country!

www.goteamjosh.com/blog/baojue

Linfengying Station (林鳳營驛) — Josh Ellis Photography I was born an intolerant, at least, when it comes to lactose type things, and throughout my life, I’ve never really been able to enjoy anything made with dairy, without having to suffer the consequenc...

Linfengying Station (林鳳營車站), an eighty-two year old train station in northern Tainan that dates back to the early years of the Japanese-era, and amazingly still remains in operation today.

www.goteamjosh.com/blog/rinhoei

Beimen Station (北門驛) — Josh Ellis Photography Throughout history, Taiwan has been an island of ‘gates’ and if you’ve followed, or researched the history of the country enough, you’re probably already aware that every major town - Taipei, Hsinchu,...

Chiayi's historic Beimen Station, the gateway to Alishan.

Recently decommissioned, and restored, the station is a short distance from the popular Hinoki Village, and is part of a railway cultural park that celebrates the history and development of the city.

www.goteamjosh.com/blog/beimeneki

After the recent sexual harassment incident that led to an employee’s suicide, and the company’s subsequent response, McDonalds pulling out of Taiwan would probably be looked upon quite favorably. 🤷

I’m allergic to dairy. I rarely have the privilege of eating pizza.

I live here, but I’m not sure I really appreciate it. It seems like a contest to make the weirdest stuff at this point.

Are Taiwan Pizza posts a thing on BlueSky?

In case you were wondering, no, that's not puke in the middle of the pizza. It's the new Beef Hot Pot Pizza from Pizza Hut.

Chiayi Train Station (嘉義驛) — Josh Ellis Photography Chiayi, is one of those special places in Taiwan that everybody just seems to love. Sure, it often gets overshadowed by its neighbor to the south, Tainan, but similar to Tainan, Chiayi is home to a pl...

Chiayi Station, one of Taiwan’s major railway stations constructed during the Japanese-era that remains in operation today.

Its time as one of Taiwan's busiest stations may soon be coming to an end, so if you have a chance to visit, you might want to visit soon!

www.goteamjosh.com/blog/kagieki

The only thing I ever buy at those fried food stands, apart from veggies and tofu is something called ōo-kué (芋粿). You can get sweet or savory versions, and when they fry them up, they're amazing. But then again, I like anything with taro in it.

Red bean on the other hand... never..

You’re British. You have no right to call other people’s food bland. 🤣

Taro is amazing. You need some more time, it seems.

A Little Egret, known in Taiwan as a pe̍h-lîng-si (白鴒鷥) taking flight at Tainan’s Sicao Wetlands.

2024 in Review — Josh Ellis Photography Well, here we are again with another look back at the year that just passed. As usual, whenever I do one of these posts, I always take a look back at how I was feeling and to see what was going on t...

Another year has passed, so it’s time for another year in review blog. Was it great? Was it terrible? You’ll just have to read and find out for yourself.

www.goteamjosh.com/blog/2024

Me too!

I walked around Osaka on my most recent trip with my small Fuji camera attached to my shoulder strap. It can’t really compare to my new Canon R5II, but the images it takes are absolutely beautiful, especially in urban areas, like this.

The last funny one I saw was probably about the eight most dangerous intersections in Taiwan. I'll remember this post next time I see one and share it! 😄

The Taiwan 'Eight Scenic Spots' (台灣八景) has been a thing since the Japanese era. These days there are lots of off-shoots, memes and Internet jokes based on the phrase.

Walking up to the entrance of Koyasan’s four hundred year old Kongobu-ji.

This is a really important point.

Falun Gong is an insane right wing cult and their Shen Yun dance troupe is a forced labor organization that simply pushes their anti-China and cult propaganda.

It’s entirely possible to be anti-CCP and not align yourself with these psychos.

I just spent an hour reading about an 1805 rebellion in Taiwan led by someone who named himself the 'Sea-calming Majestic King' (鎮海威武王). It's weird that there are still so many crazy cult-like leaders here, but they never lead rebellions anymore.

I’m giving her the win on this one.

I think she was fully aware that today was not only the weekend, but also the start of Costco's Black Friday sale, and actually she just hates you.

Having the King of Hualien, a notorious criminal who has been convicted of insider trading, tax evasion, and stock manipulation, among other crimes, is the real national shame.

As a Canadian, seeing red maples in Autumn was a pretty important thing growing up, but now that I'm living in Taiwan, it's not something I see often. Fortunately I was able to catch them in Japan during my recent trip, and even better is that I didn't have to rake them up off the lawn.

It's catching on, but Threads is linked to Instagram, which is probably the most popular social media network in Taiwan.

Threads remains pretty popular here in Taiwan, and unfortunately, it’s a bit better than Bluesky for keeping track of what’s going on locally. My TL, though, is constantly full of girls sharing questionable photos of themselves grifting for social media clout.

Typical Osaka restaurant.

I don’t pay much attention to YouTubers, and they both look the same, so I just always kind of assumed they were the same person. 🤣

I can’t be the only one who has just discovered that Logan Paul and Jake Paul aren’t actually the same person.