Yeah. Totally abandoned the gratitude posts. Just know that I’m grateful for everything I post about. 🙂

Japan has a number of three day weekends throughout the fall (between 3 and 4 depending on the year) and it is fantastic. Last year I went to Korea and Okinawa. This year, Taiwan and Burma (although I added a couple of days for Burma).

Honestly, I’m not sure I would have ever been inclined to go to Taiwan if I wasn’t living so close to it, but as it’s just a short flight across the sea (and I have a dear friend whose husband is Taiwanese and talks about how great it is), I thought, “Why not?”

Such a good decision!

Since my friend, Sungti, talks about how amazing Taiwanese food is, I decided I really wanted to take a cooking class, so that was the only thing I had actually planned. Thankfully, Brittany had done some research, so we were not without any plans. And the trip ended up being completely amazing. I think with whom you travel is as important in many ways as to where you travel, and I had awesome travel buddies. So fun. So easy going. And so easily entertained. My favorite kinds of people.

On Brittany’s list was the hot springs, a few temples, and a restaurant. Through facebook, I got a couple of recommendations, as well. So, with very loose plans, we were off.

Highlights of the trip:

1. Cooking class
2. Purchasing a Hello Kitty speedo because I forgot a bathing suit
3. Taipei 101 (third tallest building in the world)
4. karaoke cab
5. Ice Monster (most amazing shaved ice ever!)
6. Modern Toilet
7. Temples (both Korean and the LDS one)
8. Night markets

And here are the photos (I still need to upload my iphone photos, so these are just the ones from my real camera)–not necessarily in order because, as you can see from my sporadic posting, I have no time to worry about such things.