Breakfast isn’t included at our hotel in Taipei. We found a very nice breakfast spot, Melange Cafe. It’s not far from the hotel We went there for breakfast yesterday and today.

The air raid shelter sign right outside our hotel is reminder that the Taiwanese have a constant concern about a mainland China attack.

We went to two museums today the first is the Museum of Contemporary Art. It’s in a former school building not far from our hotel.

We walked to the second museum. It’s the 228 Memorial Museum and it’s about a mile from our hotel. It was extremely interesting. Taiwan was a Dutch Colony. It was a Japanese Colony for fifty years before World War II. As with most countries Taiwans history is complex.

After World War Two there was internal strife about who would control the Taiwanese government and whether the Japanese who had lived in Taiwan for many years would still have representation. Anti government protests broke out. The nationalist Chinese declared marshall law after protests started Feb 28, 1946. (Hence the name of the museum 228). Dissent was forbidden. The people who protested against the Chinese Nationalists were arrested and killed. For many years it was illegal to talk about what happened to them. The museum was created to redress the injustices of that period. I thought it was very well done and very interesting.

This morning we went to the Taiwan National Museum. They had several really interesting exhibits. I especially liked the one about Taiwan butterflies.

For dinner we went to a Ramen restaurant called Menya Hanabi.

About 8pm we took an Uber to a jazz show at Blue Note Taipei and enjoyed a very good trio.

Today was a long travel day. We left our hotel in Tokyo this morning at 8:30 am, walked to the subway then took two different subway lines to Narita Airport. Narita is 45 miles from our hotel.

When we tried to leave the subway at the airport the gate wouldn’t work. The agent told us that it is a different system than the system in Central Tokyo. He wasn’t very helpful and said we would have to pay with cash. Duke had intentionally used up all our Japanese cash so we had to go to an ATM machine and get out a lot more money than we needed. He paid the agent in cash and we were out of the subway. Three hours after we left our hotel we were finally at our gate

The flight from Tokyo to Taipei was about three hours. We were on Scoop Airlines. Scoop is the budget arm of Singapore Airlines.

In Taipei we took the subway into the center of Taipei. The train was full so we stood for most of the ride. We are now three hours south of Tokyo so we are back in heat and humidity. By the time we finished walking to our hotel we were each dripping in sweat.

For dinner we went to a steak house around the corner from the hotel.

Duke chose the Japanese breakfast off the breakfast menu this morning.

Today was our last full day in Japan. We did a lot of walking. Unfortunately the main public garden at the Imperial palace is closed on Mondays. So we went to the Kita-no-maru Park next to the Imperial Palace and visited the Science and Technology Museum. We took the subway to get there.

We walked around the moat of the Imperial Palace to the Wadakura Fountain Park where we stopped at a Starbucks for a cold drink and a rest for our feet.

Then we took the subway back to our hotel. For dinner we went to a beef on the grill restaurant. We have had absolutely the best beef while we’ve been in Japan.

After dinner we went to a fun Jazz club.

Yesterday we walked by this place. Having desert there was very tempting.

This morning we had a great breakfast overlooking Tokyo on the 14th floor of our hotel. Then we did laundry. About noon we set out to do some sightseeing. We walked to the Tokyo tower, which is not far from our hotel and went up to the main viewing deck.

For dinner we went to a restaurant that serves only eel. Finding restaurants in Japan has been a challenge. We find one online that looks good, but when we try to find it we can’t read any of the signs. So it’s a 50- 50 chance whether we will ever find it.

After dinner we went to another Jazz concert at the Keystone club. The owner knows us now. He was very very welcoming.