It had at least been one month since I last met Jennifer but I know this trip would be an adventure. As usual, I was the first one to reach our destination and this time our destination being Narita International Airport. As soon as I reached the airport I decided it would be in my best interested to check in and get rid of my huge suitcase which I had lugged around from my house about a one hour train ride from Narita. As soon as I checked in I decided to walk around the airport because I had an hour to spare before Jennifer would appear. To my astonishment I found that Narita International Airport terminal 2 is actually very convenient for shopping. They have many of the famous brand shops that are in Shibuya as well as in Shinuku. Anyhow, Jennifer arrived an hour later, after helping her check we decided to head to the Mizuho bank in order for her to change money over from Yen to Taiwanese Dollars (knowing that our plane would arrive late and we wouldn’t have time to transfer money at the Taiyuan International Airport.) As soon as we exchanged our money we decided to head through security and continue with our trip. Knowing that our plane was leaving at 7;10 we only had one hour to wait until we left so he headed straight to our gate. But due to unforeseeable weather our plane was delayed an hour which made our departure time change to 8:10 in return would make our arrival about 11;00pm in Taiwan.
Knowing this I was starting to get a little nervous about the trip. For starters, I do not speak Chinese and I know by arriving late to the airport that means that there is a chance we would not be able to catch the airport bus to the city which meant that we would have to depend on a taxi to get us to our final destination. …..
Soon after landing at Taipei airport we rushed to immigration and went straight to luggage delivery and luck was on our side because our suitcases arrived fairly early. After leaving the arrivals gate we decided to head to the bus stop to see if there were any buses headed to the city and there were. So we decided to buy a ticket and this is when culture shock hit me for the first time.
Having lived in Japan for a total of almost six years I have become accustom to Japanese service. Customer service in Japan is mostly likely the best in the world, most staff even at the cheapest stores would do anything for you if you just ask. Even if they do not speak English they would try their best to convey their language to you in an easy way. However, in Taiwan it was quite the opposite. When we bought our ticket to the city which cost about 90 Taiwanese dollars the teller spoke to us in English but as soon as we finished she yelled the directions to the bus stop to us in Chinese…. Luckily for us the bus stops were located on the side of the terminal and we decided just to head out and show the ticket to the bus drivers and hopefully he or she would guide us to the right bus. We were guided to the right bus and we headed to Taipei. The bus ride was a total of one hour to get to Taipei Main Station where our hotel was located. Once we got to the station were lost because we didn’t know the area so we decided to ride a taxi to our hotel. I know the Ipad gets a bad rep but it was very useful during this trip because I just opened the Ipad and showed the taxi driver the hotels webpage and he brought us to the hotel in matter of five minutes for a fairly cheap fair of only about three American Dollars. After checking in our hotel we decided to head to the 7-11 downstairs. As many people might know, Japan is famous for convenience stores such as 7-11 because they are open 24 hours and offer cheap meals around the clock. Having not eating on the plane we decided to buy something at a 7-11 in Taiwan. Not surprising, Taiwanese convenience stores do not differ from their Japanese counterparts. However, it does lack in service and they do not provide a bag for you to carry your items home. ( Later I found out that you have to ask for a bag for an additional fee)
This trip does seem like an adventure… Like I had anticipated
