Photo by Yasuharu Nagura via Flickr

I went to Taiwan, April 30th (Sun) through May 2nd (Tue), 2 nights and 3 days. I arrived there in a few hours by air from Japan. The temperature was around 30 degrees. If you use LCC, you can go for round trips of around 30,000 to 40,000 yen. The prices of commodities are very low at around 1/3 of Japan. Consumption tax is 5%. By the way, if you change the currency to NTD (New Taiwan Doller) at a local bank or airport, the rate is lower. Transportation can be easily moved by using the IC card in the subway (MRT).

I studied greeting-level Chinese, so I could communicate with the staff at a restaurant, etc. using Chinese and English. When studying Chinese, it is important to remember that Taiwanese is Traditional Chinese and Chinese is Simple Chinese. The Taiwanese used traditional kanji and the Chinese used simple kanji and the local Taiwanese were told. Both Taiwanese and Chinese have the same reading of words, but the writing of kanji is different. Please check if you are interested.

The last and most surprising thing is that there are a lot of people riding bikes. I also saw a motorcycle accident, so I would like to avoid troubles while traveling. I also saw motorcycles from Japanese manufacturers such as YAMAHA and HONDA.

Cultural differences are interesting. It is good to visit Taiwan once.

p.s. Writing at the airport while returning home temporarily.