Spring Break - 1 Week in Taipei, Taiwan

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So actually spring break was two weeks ago, but I’m just going to write down some notes to let you know some of my impressions of this little, but incredibly condensed island. It made me picture Japan like Pennsylvania. Yeah, it was bad.

Taiwanese food is along the lines of the Chinese food I was able to eat when I spent a week in Beijing, but everything was a little greasier and a little heavier when it sat in your stomach in comparison. Everything was pretty delicious. A few favorites were Chinese burgers, Chinese dumplings, Oyster pancake, and some incredibly delicious strawberry kiwi juice. Oh, and everything cost about 50% less than Japan so that was a major plus.

Mass transportation was pretty good, but hard to compare against Japan who has just completely made getting to and from anywhere an easy task regardless of what language you speak. We rode the buses and metro often, and they were both cheap, but at the same time I could feel the slight decline in quality compared to the Japanese system. Don’t get me wrong, though, because I’d love to even have what the Taiwanese have in parts of the US. Wouldn’t that be great?

The one Taiwanese dance club I went to with Tsu, about 1 hour after arriving to the country was a bit overwhelming for the both of us, but an interesting and fun time. Apparently most people in Taiwan are bilingual and when I say that I mean to a much higher level of speaking English than most Japanese people I’ve met are at. I’m not sure why exactly, but maybe it has a little bit to do with this situation of ABCs (American Born Chinese) that exists in Taiwan. Maybe my friend Terry is just friends with many ABCs, but wow I met at least a dozen. Coming from Japan and the whole absence or acknowledgement of minorities made me feel like Taiwan is a much more diverse country in comparison.

I spoke no Chinese while in Taiwan, other than a few thank yous, but I was happy with the amount of Japanese I was able to speak. I thought I’d just be thrown back into some remix of the English bubble that exists now in this world. I was happy me and Tsu also communicated like we both speak the same language. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, crushing language barriers is a feeling I could never explain.

It rained every single day in Taiwan for a week and the day we left it turned sunny and I saw the sun and blue sky for the first time, but I’m not bitter. The weather was a lot warmer and more humid then Japan so it was a nice change of things. Sooner of later the warmer weather must show up in Japan. Oh, and riding double on the back of the scooter in Taiwan’s rush hour probably wouldn’t have been as fun if it were sunny and not raining.

Overall a good time, met nice people, got to see Terry again, spoke some Japanese, got to travel which is always a plus, and got to remember what it’s like to not speak the majority language again. Oh yeah how sweet it is. I’ll see what photos I can upload…

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