Day 11 - Zaijian Taiwan

---

We got up early this morning to catch our flight to Japan. Jio-Jio drove us to the airport, along with Ma-Ma, who was getting on a train back to Kaohsiung after we left. Ba-Ba met us at the airport. We had to hours to kill so we sat in a food court outside the security entrance and chatted. The trepidation was palpable, and I could tell Ma-Ma was doing her best to hold it in. The visit seemed like it went by in a blink, yet it felt like I had been there for weeks. Wade’s family was so happy to see him, especially his mother, and I knew it was very difficult for all of them to say goodbye again. They were also very welcoming to me, treating me like one of the family even though we could hardly converse with each other. Ma-Ma told me the night before that she was my Taiwan mother—it was so touching and I nearly cried.

Finally the time came to go through the immigration line, and it was a tearful goodbye for all. We scored business class seats again for the short flight to Nagoya, where we began the somewhat painful process of trying to figure out the Japanese rail system. We didn’t speak much Japanese and trying to find someone in the Nagoya JR train station who spoke English proved to be difficult. We eventually managed to get our rail pass activated and figure out where to go.

Our final destination was Himeji, where the sole item on our itinerary was the Himeji castle. We checked into our hotel, a Comfort Inn that had the cleanliness and service level of a Westin, despite the tiny, cell-like rooms. It was almost dusk, so we decided to go out and see the castle at night. The castle is almost in the geographic center of the city and we were staying very close to it. We entered the main gate and walked what looked like a large public park, right at the base of the castle. There were several people walking their dogs and I couldn’t help but think how cool it would be to have THIS as your local public park.

After a crummy quasi-Chinese meal, we headed back to the hotel for the first good nights sleep we’ve gotten so far on this trip.

---