The 166th Episode : The nearest foreign countyry
[August, 2005 Taipei -> Taichung, Taiwan]
My first visit of Taiwan in 2005. It was the nearest foreign country where I’d ever visited. I thought this trip might have been postponed because a typhoon was approaching, but the arrival time of my flight was estimated a little after the typhoon would pass and it was not cancelled. Actually the typhoon was gone but there was still windy and rainy. Landing was rather rough.
As ever our distributor picked me up at the airport and moved to Taichung city. The rain had got so heavier on the expressway. We saw a lorry overturned and stuck on the guardrail with the roof down. No ambulance nor police car was there. I worried if the driver was safe. The weather was improved around the time when we reach Taichung city, rain and wind were changed to be calm.
The expressway ran through mountains areas, of which view was quite same as Japan’s. I didn’t feel at all being abroad, that was my first time to have thought it in a foreign country. After I got into the town the smell of Chinese foods and those materials/vegetables come strongly up the nose. To my surprise, so many motorbikes were running here and there especially in the rush hour in the mornings and evenings.
Different from the Latin America, a couple of days passed without any troubles/problems and returned Japan in approx. 3 hours after take-off. Did I go abroad indeed? That's the place where I’d like to visit again without working but for foods, of course with drinking.
