Finally... the Taiwanese Wedding (Part 5 of 5)
To tell the truth, I thought that I would only have three parts to this story: before the wedding, the wedding, and after the wedding. The 4th and 5th were just going to be back ups. I even had a witty line prepared, something along the lines of And what are parts 4 & 5 about you ask. Nothing in particular, just back up just in case.
Anyway, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Like building up the suspense and then having a quirky, short ending.
Well, it didn't work that way, so here's the
The whole Wang family rented a bus for the trip back. I was dead tired so I tried to sleep most of the way, but one of FuYung's cousins sat next to me to practice her English and I think that she thought I was lonely to only have FuYung to talk with. I didn't want to be impolite so I tried to be friendly.
Once we made it to the apartment, I crashed with a promise to spend my last day seeing more of the city. In the morning I found that I had accumulated a number of mosquito bites in the night. Unlike the bites at home, these were extremely itchy, large and red. We grabbed breakfast which contained a great variety of fruit, because I had said that I missed fruit in Japan and I found the Taiwanese fruit delicious and interesting.
We went first to the museum which was quite fascinating actually. It was strange however, that the two prize possession of the museum were both glass pieces of food. The most famous was the cabbage. It was beautiful, but lets face it. It's a cabbage. The second and I think the most curious piece was the slab of meat. I thought at first it was simply a brown stone that had layering lines, but it was in-fact carved that way to mimic meat and the layers of fat and skin. I mean, who takes the time to create a block of pork from a stone? Even FuYung seemed perplexed.
After the museum, we met Wayne who took us to the pottery street. Apparently, it a whole street dedicated to ceramics, many of which were amazing. I thought it was more engaging than most of the museum, but then I'm a functional art freak. The place we spent the most time was a little mall that had many little stores, more like a nice flea market than a mall. One of the stands was a tea shop. When one enters a tea shop, you first sit and the owner brews the tea for you to try before choosing which you'd prefer to buy. Not only did he brew the tea but he told all the little tricks to make the perfect cup. We tried two oolongs and one green. There were different tricks for the different types. I really only remember the oolong because it was demonstrated twice. I decided to get two bags of one of the oolongs and one bag of the green, and for my purchase the owner threw in a brewing set: pot, cup and filter.
After seeing all there was to see on the pottery street, we went to a night market. Most of the vendors at a night market are food, so once again I was in glutton heaven. I started out slow which worked to my advantage, because I was able to try this great rice and beans cooked in banana leaves, spicy chicken, a decent oyster omelet, and still had room for ice cream. Which is more than I can say for Wayne, but FuYung was able to put it all away to my continuing amazement. So I have to say that my last night was the best.
Basically, the whole trip was pretty great and I didn't run into trouble until I made it back to Japan. Actually I noticed the problem before but I wasn't going to let it mess up the vacation. I had bought a round trip ticket for a bus to take me to and from Nagoya to catch the plane. The time on the return ticket was wrong. It was leaving while I would still be in the air. I tried calling the number posted on the ticket to change the time, but every time I called they didn't understand I word I said even when I gave my limited Japanese a shot. FuYung's mom even gave it a try in Chinese just in case they might understand that but to no avail. Simply refusing to be fused over it, I just thought I would go to the ticket office, try to explain the problem and get a later time.
Finding the office was a venture all it's own. I finally gave up referring to the signs as they directed me every which way but to the office and I wondered around till I found it myself. Once I found someone who spoke a little English, I explained the problem and she informed me that there were no more free seats on any bus leaving that day and they couldn't refund the ticket. It was getting late and I was certain that if the signs had been more clear or the office wasn't in the damn basement of a shopping center, I would have been able to catch an earlier bus, so I wasn't too friendly too the poor lady.
Quickly as I could, I found where I could catch the train. The stations in Japan rely mainly on computer ticket dispensers meaning that there are very few humans around. So when I couldn't read the Japanese to tell me how much a ticket to Fukui was let alone what time it left. I went to desk to ask the lone JR employee who simply kept pointing to the computers. Frustrated, I bought a ticket for a random price and figured I would pay the rest later on the train. However the gate computers that stamped your ticket didn't like mine. Once again I found myself in front of the employee who pointed to the ticket computers again. I gave him nasty look and refused to move. He escorted me to the machines punched some buttons and requested more money, a fair more money.
That's when I decided I was going to turn in my resignation after my parents visit.
The End
Unknown Element
Anyway, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Like building up the suspense and then having a quirky, short ending.
Well, it didn't work that way, so here's the
The whole Wang family rented a bus for the trip back. I was dead tired so I tried to sleep most of the way, but one of FuYung's cousins sat next to me to practice her English and I think that she thought I was lonely to only have FuYung to talk with. I didn't want to be impolite so I tried to be friendly.
Once we made it to the apartment, I crashed with a promise to spend my last day seeing more of the city. In the morning I found that I had accumulated a number of mosquito bites in the night. Unlike the bites at home, these were extremely itchy, large and red. We grabbed breakfast which contained a great variety of fruit, because I had said that I missed fruit in Japan and I found the Taiwanese fruit delicious and interesting.
We went first to the museum which was quite fascinating actually. It was strange however, that the two prize possession of the museum were both glass pieces of food. The most famous was the cabbage. It was beautiful, but lets face it. It's a cabbage. The second and I think the most curious piece was the slab of meat. I thought at first it was simply a brown stone that had layering lines, but it was in-fact carved that way to mimic meat and the layers of fat and skin. I mean, who takes the time to create a block of pork from a stone? Even FuYung seemed perplexed.
After the museum, we met Wayne who took us to the pottery street. Apparently, it a whole street dedicated to ceramics, many of which were amazing. I thought it was more engaging than most of the museum, but then I'm a functional art freak. The place we spent the most time was a little mall that had many little stores, more like a nice flea market than a mall. One of the stands was a tea shop. When one enters a tea shop, you first sit and the owner brews the tea for you to try before choosing which you'd prefer to buy. Not only did he brew the tea but he told all the little tricks to make the perfect cup. We tried two oolongs and one green. There were different tricks for the different types. I really only remember the oolong because it was demonstrated twice. I decided to get two bags of one of the oolongs and one bag of the green, and for my purchase the owner threw in a brewing set: pot, cup and filter.
After seeing all there was to see on the pottery street, we went to a night market. Most of the vendors at a night market are food, so once again I was in glutton heaven. I started out slow which worked to my advantage, because I was able to try this great rice and beans cooked in banana leaves, spicy chicken, a decent oyster omelet, and still had room for ice cream. Which is more than I can say for Wayne, but FuYung was able to put it all away to my continuing amazement. So I have to say that my last night was the best.
Basically, the whole trip was pretty great and I didn't run into trouble until I made it back to Japan. Actually I noticed the problem before but I wasn't going to let it mess up the vacation. I had bought a round trip ticket for a bus to take me to and from Nagoya to catch the plane. The time on the return ticket was wrong. It was leaving while I would still be in the air. I tried calling the number posted on the ticket to change the time, but every time I called they didn't understand I word I said even when I gave my limited Japanese a shot. FuYung's mom even gave it a try in Chinese just in case they might understand that but to no avail. Simply refusing to be fused over it, I just thought I would go to the ticket office, try to explain the problem and get a later time.
Finding the office was a venture all it's own. I finally gave up referring to the signs as they directed me every which way but to the office and I wondered around till I found it myself. Once I found someone who spoke a little English, I explained the problem and she informed me that there were no more free seats on any bus leaving that day and they couldn't refund the ticket. It was getting late and I was certain that if the signs had been more clear or the office wasn't in the damn basement of a shopping center, I would have been able to catch an earlier bus, so I wasn't too friendly too the poor lady.
Quickly as I could, I found where I could catch the train. The stations in Japan rely mainly on computer ticket dispensers meaning that there are very few humans around. So when I couldn't read the Japanese to tell me how much a ticket to Fukui was let alone what time it left. I went to desk to ask the lone JR employee who simply kept pointing to the computers. Frustrated, I bought a ticket for a random price and figured I would pay the rest later on the train. However the gate computers that stamped your ticket didn't like mine. Once again I found myself in front of the employee who pointed to the ticket computers again. I gave him nasty look and refused to move. He escorted me to the machines punched some buttons and requested more money, a fair more money.
That's when I decided I was going to turn in my resignation after my parents visit.
The End
Unknown Element