Trip to Japan

I went to Japan in June for a 5-day trip with Myriam, having our 3rd gal gossip reunion with our Japanese friend, Yukako. Myriam wanted to visit Yukako in Yokohama and a freind in Sapporo before she moved back to Paris. I was not planning this trip in the beginning. However, I was not sure when we three would meet together in the near future. Plus, We have had the 1st reunion in Taipei in 2003 (Yukako flew to Taipei) and the 2nd reunion in Paris last year before Yukako's getting married. So, why not take this chance for our 3rd reunion in Japan? Therefore, I decided to join Myriam's trip in a very short time and bought the ticket one week before her
flight.

I really had a great time meeting Yukako, her husband, and her parents; visiting a nice temple in Nikko, the modern Yokohama harbor, the Tokyo train station; and enjoying several geniune Japanese meals. I went back to Taipei and Myriam continued her trip to Sapporo.

While walking in Japan, I couldn't resist comparing the buildings, streets, traffics, people, languages, etc with those in Taipei. I could almost recognise every Japanese Kanji characters and read 70% of the traffic signs, store names, etc due to Japanese characters originated from Chinese ones. However, when listening to Japanese lanaguage, I understood almost nothing and acted like a deaf... It's really an interesting but odd experience! Though, Yukako was quite glad that I finally could share how she felt while she was in Taipei! ^_^

(Retreived from an email to Patrick)

And here is some photos taken during the trip.