We have arrived in Taipei!

The flight was uneventful. We both slept. Once we disembarked we cleared immigration, collected our baggage and cleared customs. We made our way through the airport towards the bus shuttle for the High Speed Rail. (THSR). We bought our ticket and got on the bus. It is funny to think in different currencies. The bus receipt says $30, but that is Taiwanese dollars, converted it cost is $1.01 to ride this bus.
After a short ride we arrived at the train station. Purchased our tickets for $310 or $10.20 for the high speed train. I love countries where things are so inexpensive.
Hopefully we got on the right train, headed express to the center of Taipei. We were right, we got on the right train headed for the city. The total trip from landing to getting to the hotel took about 3 hrs. The main train station was right across from our hotel. The outside of the hotel is nothing to brag about. It is white with rainbow colored levels on the outside. I began to worry about what our room would look like...oh well too late it was paid for.
It was only 11am when we were checking in so our room was not ready. We left our luggage and headed for lunch. We had walked through an underground mall near the metro and thought we would try there for lunch. We ate at Magic Curry. It was not bad but not wonderful. Most importantly our bellies were full. We headed off on some sight seeing. First we headed to Chiang Kai- Shek memorial plaza. It was a beautiful park. The buildings were quite ornate. The main building with his giant statue was under construction and we could not climb up. It was nice walking around.
We hopped back on the metro and got off to go to the National Botanical Gardens. Another well kept beautiful park. It was a nice stroll. It was interesting watching all the bird watching enthusiasts. Many were decked out in all camouflage.
We walked around the entire park to get to the front, there on the outside was the National Museum of History. We paid $250 or $8 US dollars to go into the most crowded museum exhibit I have ever been too. The main exhibit was about Michelangelo's work. I was too claustrophobic to even care about the exhibit. There were replicas in with some real sketches, but nothing that awesome. I just wanted out of the pushy people with no space respect. It was awful. Then we went into the main part of the museum. There were a whole lot less people and the art was very interesting. They had a glass exhibit that was beautiful. I enjoyed that part of the museum.
When we were done we walked back to the metro and headed to the Red House Market. When we exited the metro it was like we had walked up to Times Square. It was an intersection with 6 streets all meeting together with a ton of people. One street was lined with crafty vendors selling artsy stuff. It was neat to walk through. We went into the red house to find more unique art work. It was a cool place.
We walked across the street to find a snack and we walked in to a huge mob. Personal space is not recognized here. I was pushed and shoved and stepped on. Finally we found a French fry place called Ireland's potatoes. We ordered honey mustard fries. And next door we orders an orange tea. Both snacks were really good. I could have done without all the people.
We hopped back onto the metro one more time and headed out to Longshan Temple. We ha heard that there were some excellent New Years celebrations.
When we got off the metro we had to walk through a deserted mall...it gave me the heebeegeebees. I was not comfortable there. It smelled, there were creepy men sitting and watching people and like living rooms set up where people were watching 8 TVs. I wanted out fast. We came to the top of the metro exit and it was lined with homeless people and their junk. I was ready to leave. Bill had to persuade me to cross the street and see the temple. And I am glad I did. It is beautiful. Such intricate carvings and painting. This is the most elaborate temple I have ever seen. And there was a huge Chinese New Year celebration going on. We jumped in line with all the parishioners. We did not so much pray but take pictures. It was a grand site. We walked all the way through. The tricky part was making sure you didn't get burned by someone's incense. It was a nice way to end the Looooong day.
Finally we were headed bak to our hotel. The plan was to take a short nap and go out for the night. I had a migraine and need to recover a little.
We checked in, collected out luggage and were told we had been upgraded to a premium hotel room.
We were on the top floor. We walked into the most exquisite room I have ever stayed in in Asia. It even has a fire place. I immediately crawled into bed. When they clean our place up and make the bed, I'll post pictures. The neat part is the bathroom. It is a glass room with partitions for the shower room/ tub room and then the toilet room. We got upgraded alright!
We did not make it out later that night. My migraine took over and by the time I felt better it was almost midnight. We always have the next night!

Chinese New Year in Taipei, Taiwan

As we do for every long weekend, we headed off island to experience some Asian culture.
We started our trip to Taipei on Friday night. Our flight left at 9pm. We cleaned house, packed up and headed to the airport. The airport is only 8miles from our home, but it took us 1.5hrs to get there. Traffic was so bad!!
Finally we got there after taking a less traveled route and met our parking guy. I love that valet parking in Japan is so cheap!
We checked in with the airline and found out our plane was delayed one hour. I was shocked, what do you mean we are going to be late. Our flight was headed to Osaka and then we were catching a morning flight to Taipei. Oh well, go with the flow.
Out flight was uneventful, we slept the whole way and arrived at midnight in Osaka. The plan had been to take the metro to the hotel, but guess what closed at midnight. We hiked through the cold terminal- literally no heat or insulation and it was 28 degrees out. Caught a bus, hiked through another cold terminal and wait outside for over an hour for a taxi. We never did think it was going to arrive. Finally taxis trickled in one by one. When ours arrived it was a joyous event.
We drive 15 mins to the hotel. Most expensive taxi ever, $70 later we arrived where we would take a short 3 hr nap. The bed was small, the bathroom was smaller and the towels felt like paper towels. But I slept so hard for those three hours.
Then it was back to the airport. Our hotel had a free shuttle, one reason I choose it. The shuttle took us straight to terminal 2. We began our check in adventure.
Apparently Osaka does not get many military. They realized we had been in the country for more than 90 days, they did not understand SOFA and we were interrogated as they tried to understand.
We stood and talked at the counter for 30 mins. Finally someone somewhere on the phone convinced the check in lady we could leave Japan and that we were here legally.
Next was the incredibly long security check. We had 30 mins before take off. We were not missing this flight. It was cold in Osaka and I did not pack to stay here.
So we gominasai'd our way to the front and jumped the line got through security and immigration with out issue. Just as Bill walks out of immigration, they call for our flight...they are closing the doors.
We run through the freezing hallway and catch up to the ticket counter. We walk out on the Tarmac and brave to cold wind to board a plane to Taipei.
All this Happened before 7am. Not a great start to the day. But we are on our way.

We are getting new furniture!

So I have been pestering Bill about purchasing some typically Japanese furniture. We have been looking for the past two years. Mostly everything looks the same and every time we shop he says we can keep looking.
Well today we hit a break through. We went to a fundraiser at the middle school on the base where we live. We found this beautiful Chinese wedding cabinet. It was asymmetric and an antique. Only thing there was a crack down the center of the main door. It would have been poor judgement to purchase something with a crack in it.
But I thought, I have to capitalize on this attitude of Bills. I had to get him into a furniture store ASAP. I had done some recon earlier in the week and found a store with good prices and about 6-8 pieces I would love to own.
I had told Bill about this place and he suggested we go there on our way to our next errand. And he also likes some of the pieces I liked. We are buying two pieces from the store. One is a yellow corner piece and the other is a green step tantsu.