I was fortunate to travel to two countries that have close relationship to my life
1) Taiwan: as a descendent of Chinese, it is normal for me to compare with Chinese descendent in Malaysia and in Taiwan
2) Japan: I watch Japanese drama, love Japanese food and use Japanese product. It was dream like for me to be able to travel to Japan
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Interestingly, these countries are closely related to each other.
Taiwan was under Japanese colonial for half a century. Till todate, many things in Taiwan are still heavily influenced by Japanese.
The train, they way they being polite, the product they use, they way they promote the products/awarenes, tv shows.... Etc
I immediately realised this on day 1 I stepped into Japan (i went to Taiwan in April, then to Japan in October)
In Taiwan, I went to Taipei, hualien, kaohsiong, taichung, alishan.
In Japan. I went to Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, nara and Hokkaido.
Nice view in Taiwan... In terms of nature sightseeing in alishan & hualien.
Taipei, taichung and kaohsiong are urban cities (shop till you drop in Taipei and weather in kaohsiong reminds me of KL)
We thought of visiting Taiwan again in few years time but... Malaysia Airline gave us early Christmas gift: we managed to hunt return ticket to Osaka with just... RM189
So, spent another total RM7000 in this trip. All in.
We were pleasantly surprised with all the five places in Japan. Each of them have their own uniqueness.
Osaka: a city with historical places to visit, various food, even more shopping than Taipei
Kobe: peaceful city ... Lots of European style buildings and... Kobe beef.
Kyoto: city of temples. Extra nice if you visit during autumn leaves season.
Nara: city of deers. Where deer > human
Hokkaido: RAMEN AND SEAFOOD! You can't go wrong with those two (er... Skiing wasn't part of the plan so can't comment)
Hokkaido is unique on its own. They have many products produced and sold only in Hokkaido (maybe a marketing strategy, but still feel exclusive) and their airport sells seafood and fresh corn (!!!!??)
When we were back home, my parents stopped mentioning about visiting Taiwan in near future.
My mum kept the Japanese yen asking us when are we going to Japan again.
And the couple spent the next one week revisit the photos taken in Japan.
If you have visited Taiwan, try Japan. You won't be disappointed.
