#192 Lion Cub Mountain and Japan return plans

Transcript

Well, holy hot damn. This is pretty fucking cool. So last episode I was exploring around. I really should have looked up how to pronounce this station. I've said it enough times now. But Xindian, X-I-N-D-I-A-N. Very easy to get to because the Taipei subway has different colors for the different lines. So this is the southern terminus of the green line. Super easy to get to and pretty much anywhere you go from here is nice. I went across a suspension bridge and did a nice little stroll around and it was all beautiful. But what I wanted to check out is there's hiking paths up into a mountain with a series of pavilions. It's like interlocked a whole whack of different pavilions and the signs are all like okay go this way for this pavilion or this way for this pavilion. I'm not sure what this actual mountain is called. Wait, didn't I say before it was like lion's head mountain? I unfortunately have the problem that my pre-downloaded Google map. Sometimes it tells me stuff in English, sometimes it tells me stuff in Chinese. I still don't understand how it works. I thought it was if I hadn't logged on to the internet it wouldn't give me English but I was logged on earlier so who knows. I heard a little scribbling sound at this pavilion I met and it's a squirrel. Hey, there's squirrel. It does not seem very scared of me just chilling out. But anyway this is very easy to find. I'll get the proper names after but it's just east of Shinden station and it literally is like exactly just like two blocks away because I'm sure you can hear that traffic very clearly because what I'm seeing now is like an amazing view just an incredible view. I think this is the highest elevation to lack of distance I've had to walk that I've experienced yet anywhere in Asia. This is nuts. Just a couple of blocks to the beginning of this path and yesterday when I was here when it was raining I hung out long enough that it stopped raining so I did go up and I just did a quick little tour of the lower parts of this this path. You can just kind of go up go to one of the lower pavilions, hook back into the main street and that's that so I just did that real quickly yesterday. Today because the weather is so impossible to predict and Taipei it was actually raining when I left the house but it wasn't raining as much so I thought let's just test it let's just try it out there goes squirrel see you later and what if I just head down here while it's raining because that's what happened to me yesterday is it was nice out and by the time I got out of the subway it was raining so I banked on it being the opposite today and that's what happened it was raining when I got in the subway and then once I got out of the subway at about 3 pm now it's perfect weather totally beautiful there are some clouds but I think we're done with the rain it even made it cool down a little bit briefly it's still pretty fucking hot but so now I'm going up farther at the first there's little intersections with little signs and little maps even so there's the here just go down this way to the closer pavilion and bail out which is what I did yesterday this time I went further up to the next one the pavilion name starts with Q but yeah I don't remember what it is but I'll get the name in a bit and then you just go up just straight up these steps just super super straight up way way up I wish I knew how high up I am because this view is nuts like I can see the whole fucking neighborhood there's the river with a bunch of bridges there's this huge highway it's like a dual highway two elevated highways next to each other each with three lanes and then under that is a four lane highway crisscrossing under it so that's all the traffic noise but it looks cool as fuck from up here because it's just little little teeny cars well like the cars are not as small as they were on goonsense and that was 400 meters so I'm going to guess this is like you know 180 or something it's not like crazy high it's just that the town is right fucking there like I just left the subway in fact that is the subway I'm looking at it right now it's right as this is nuts like it's so close the classic like I couldn't throw a rock and hit it but I could shoot a BB gun and hit it for sure and yet I'm in the sky I'm just way up in the sky like the geography is so fucking crazy this is like the edge of Taipei where it just becomes mountains that go on for days and days after this and it's just so immediate like there's no gentle foothills and shit it is just like boom straight up oh hey I don't know if you are the same squirrel or a new one but yeah the squirrels love this fucking pavilion and yeah just straight up in the air and just this amazing view on this beautiful day and this was so easy to get to it's insane like I thought some of those views in Fukuoka were pretty easy to get to 5:00 because it only takes two hours you know or 90 minutes this took 20 fucking minutes I bought two onigiri and two bags of chips I only wanted one bag of chips but the guy informed me it was a buy one get one for you so I have an extra one I literally just as I was walking up here I ate my two onigiri and my bag of chips that's how long it took me to get up here do I hear someone maybe I should get out of here maybe I'm eating up too much time there is someone but I don't know they they're just passing by yeah I think I'm I'm monopolizing the space I'm ruining everyone's day but yeah that's how long it took me to get up here just the time to eat two onigiri and a bag of chips insane so beautiful this is 100% worth it if you come visit Taipei because it's just come to the station at the end of the green line hike for 20 fucking minutes and just get this incredible view this is like amazing and then weigh in the distance you can see the mountains like there I mean there's really two sets of really prominent mountains have come to learn there's the there's Yin Hanglin where you can see almost the entire panorama of the town almost the whole 360 and then there's the National Park Yangman Shen and you can see both of those from here so I still have not been to Yangman Shen properly but it's interesting to see the other one and see it just like that's where I was dude I looked at this view from over there a couple of weeks ago when you look clear across the city and you see all of Taipei I'm on the other side now yeah this is incredible anyway let me go down to just one of these signs because it's also oh hey there's Quirley it's also I see okay I wasn't ruined at anyone's day too bad this dude is just at the bottom of the pavilion oh and here's another local just pass and buy so yeah the locals they don't they don't care as much they've seen this view a million times probably oh yeah there's another one so there's a ton of people up here yeah they're just pass and buy they don't even care to stop and look at the view which I understand they're just doing this for calisthenics and again it's hardly impressive I guess if you live here it's like so what so what if I got to this view it wasn't exactly hard it took 20 fucking minutes from the subway man I cannot believe how close this is it's insane it's so cool all right here we go I'm going to continue on and explore the different pavilion see where I can go from up here see how far it goes but the one I was at if you did just come here just to do one thing king kingian pavilion q-i-n-g-n-i-a-n and I think the one I went to yesterday shizilu pavilion s-h-i-z-i-l-u now if I go back chihu pavilion c-i-h-u-i now I got to figure out where I'm going but I think if I backtrack a little bit there's a proper map with little dotted lines a la family circus because I'm not quite sure yeah here we go oh I see north is not up I hate when they do that with these maps I wish north was always at the top that's what confused me so yeah shizilu pavilion is where I went yesterday so that'll just take me back down to civilization so yeah I think I actually need to go backward now I met the kingian pavilion and I want to go to chihu pavilion and then from here there's zulan temple wangu pavilion shangsu pavilion mingde pavilion food day temple fumen bridge so I'm really not sure how far this goes but I mean again because we're by the edge of town I don't know it could just all loop back into town or it could go forever I have no fucking idea but I'm gonna go a bit further I'm in at least gonna try to get to first this chihu pavilion always actually really close and then wangu and shangsu pavilion and mingde I guess mingde pavilion seems like that would be an okay well I guess I'll just recalibrate from there because it's a little hard to tell it doesn't seem that far but who knows anyway yeah this is coolest shit the only downside is I mean you can hear a lot of traffic because it's so close to town but that's a big bonus too it is so close to town it's like stupid close to town I can't even I can't even get over this this is ludicrous and it's like I don't know if you just like going up on tall mountains and looking at cool views as I clearly do this is the best return on investment ever oh here's this other pavilion amazing yeah this is so little effort it's insane even if you're a person 10:00 who was tragically born without legs I bet you could get someone to just carry you up here it's so close holy fuck look at this view what the fuck oh shit yeah from over here it was actually a little scary to my fear of heights because I'm walking out onto a deck that they've built yeah you can see the mountains all around this shit is fucking wild and yet there's the subway station right down there oh there's a weird little path you can actually I don't think you're supposed to but there is a bit of a path where you could walk out onto an outcropping there's a flag there if you're fucking insane man fucking beautiful and there's the little signs say smile trails I don't know what that refers to what constitutes a member of the smile trail system but it's a good fucking name that's for sure I am smiling bro

all right I made it to another pavilion this one is I believe the one that starts with W I should just take a picture of the the signposts so I'll remember the names it didn't take very long all this stuff is very close but already you can't really hear traffic anymore so that's nice but man this is a crazy example of how small Taipei is this is blowing my fucking mind so this pavilion it's the other one you could go up one set of stairs this one you can go up two sets of stairs so it's really high up and again there's a guy just sitting at the bottom checking his phone like I think the people who hike this regularly they don't care about the views anymore they don't give a fuck but when I went the other way from here see last episode there was a point where I had this cool view out across like to the south is just mountains very beautiful in its own way but just endless mountains but there was a view back to the north and it's like oh that's neat there's Taipei I can see it and one of the notable things was the Taipei 101 this tower that I keep seeing from all over all different places in the city you can almost always see the Taipei 101 it's like the only big tower like that I believe so it's very very evident and it looked very far away because you know it's way up by the red line and I was at the bottom of the green line you know it's like halfway across if not a little further than halfway across Taipei but now just going the other way going more toward the tower I'm not sure what that squeaky noise is random squeak in the distance anyway walking in the direction of the tower again like I said I have not been walking a long time you know total 40 minutes maybe something like that and from up in this pavilion I can see out across the city and there's the Taipei 101 and it is noticeably closer way way way way fucking closer it's just like what the fuck that is so crazy like this now looks like it's that classic thing where it looks like I could walk to it from here so that means three hours you know it's not close but it looks close but it's just because it's a huge tower you know maybe two hours because it's not as big as you know I'm using that as an example the sea and tower and the sky tree and it's not a tower like that it's not that big but the point is it's just like it's insanely larger than the last time I saw it's many times larger it's just like it triggers in my brain as feeling close it's like oh look at that it's right there I can just walk over to that neighborhood it's like no biggie and then I looked at the map and it's like yes like it's not close but it's not far it's like fuck dude Taipei is so small it's so small it's all just packed in and this reminds me of the guy I met from Alabama what was his name Alex I've already forgotten but I met a guy recently on a mountain over there over Yonder over on the other side of the Taipei 101 there was a local guy how what was his name his name was Duke like the university and the fella from Alabama and one of the things the Alabama guy said is we were talking about just how convenient it is in Asia compared to North America that North America is so big and so spread out and I was saying like yeah I don't 15:00 even have a license I'm double fucked in North America the Dutram Alabama was polite enough not to follow up because he obviously has a license because everyone has a license I'm the fucking weirdo who never learned how to drive but anyway he said yeah but it is great around here it must be because there's so many mountains and there's so little space that you can properly use to build on that you just have to build everything in a mindful way and everything is so well connected and so easy to get around and yeah that is absolutely true because not only could I hop down there and hop on the subway and just go over to the Taipei 101 in no time I could just fucking walk there it's fucking bananas and from this vantage point there is another mountain somewhere you know to the southeast of the Taipei 101 that is a very distinct mountain with a very distinct peak and they're all about tuck that away it's like I got to figure out what that is can I go there probably I don't see why not it's right fucking there it's even closer than the tower wild and then from the other side of this pavilion there's the endlessness there's the mountains that never stop that just go clear across the entire country but yeah man that is fucking cool as shit

so Here's a little height marker, 217 meters for where I am now. So I feel like where I was before, my guess of about 180 was probably pretty accurate. It's funny too though, it says 217 meters, it's just written in marker, but then under it, it has the date 2020-0307. It's like, all right, cool, but I don't think that the height of the mountain probably changed much ever. That's kind of funny. But to be totally accurate, 217 meters is the height that this was in 2020. Oh, and here's the sign, yeah, okay, cool. So I was just at the Wangyu Pavilion, W-A-N-G-Y-O-U Pavilion, and yeah, all of these are so extremely close to each other. Some of the signs are not completely clear, but if that's ever the case, just walk a little bit further and probably a few meters away is another sign that has the other, like if there's so much going on here, I guess so many different routes and trails that there's not enough room on all the posts for all the information. So there's probably another post nearby that has the other stuff you might need. So I guess Ming-Day Pavilion. Oh yeah, there's distances here. How did I not notice that? Ming-Day Pavilion, only 65 meters, mega close. So let's head there now.

It's kind of neat too. Here, there's like a lower down underneath subpavilion. There's a a little, a little mini shrine with some Buddhas and various religious iconography and benches and a table and a mirror shades of soul. Hey buddy.

Classic neckbeard stuff. All I've got is stubble, but yeah, the stubble, the stubble beard and the stubble mustache aren't so bad, but the stubble neck. Yeah, I should have done it quick.

Get that stubble off your neck, son. Face stubble is cool and rugged. Next stubble just means you didn't fucking shave. But yeah, as a mosean, I'll just update on what's coming up next, because I've got some some stuff going on. Oh, there's another squirrel. Man, the leaps of squirrels are crazy. It just leapt off of the handrail of these stairs, because there's still steps all along this whole route. Just leapt over onto a branch. Crazy. Wow, is this the Ming-Day Pavilion already? Maybe, I guess it was only 65 meters away. I might be running out of runway here. I'm not sure how much further this system goes, but this has been fucking rad, even if this is all it is, somewhat similar to when I went north from on the brown line, from those lakes. And it's just a relatively short walk through the mountains, but just very nice and super convenient.

But yeah, I had to decide what to do next, because I only have a bit over a month left in Taiwan on my visa. And I don't know, yeah, it's like weird. It's a little weird all around, where ideally, I would like to just wait the full year before I go back to Japan, just so there would be no question 20:00 that I could go back in, and it would be no problem. But I also need to fly back home during the low season, when the weather's a little bad, just so I can get a semi-affordable flight, because the flight prices, oh, there's a spider. I'm not sure if you're a Joro. I don't see any yellow, maybe not, maybe a different kind of spider. Fucking huge though.

My Taipei visa expires basically right at the same time as I went to Japan last time. Last time I arrived on October 26th, and my Taipei visa expires on October 24th.

So yeah, ideally, I guess I would go somewhere else for three more months, and just to make totally sure I can get back into Japan with no problems. But the whole reason I ended up staying so long in this part of the world is I intended to just stay in Korea for three months and probably come home. But I didn't realize Korea would have a six-month visa available to Canadians, and then by the time that was done for, it was summer, and the flight prices had like literally tripled to get home. It was like, fuck this. It is not worth it. Why don't I just go to Taipei, and you know, just stay in this part of the world where everything is, once you're here, it's quite inexpensive. And you know, what's the hurry? I already took four years of my life off because of COVID. Let's soak this in. But now I need to time things out so I don't stay in this part of the world too long, because then it'll be spring again, and I'll be back in the same situation. So basically, I'm just going to try to go back to Japan. But I mean, there is always that slight worry. Like, from what research I did, it should be fine. It should be okay. I'm just a tourist. I'm just from Canada. They just don't have it on the books. There's no official ruling about people coming back too soon. And it's not like I just left for two days and came back. I mean, I left for nine months before I come back. I think it'll be okay. But I can't help but be a little apprehensive. So I've got that flight setup, which that was weird too. There's just not that many flights from Taipei to Japan. And they're just random ass. You know, I had the problems with China, Eastern Airlines being kind of shitty. So I looked up these random ass flights from Taipei to Japan. And the trip advisor reviews are not that good. It's like I wouldn't recommend this one. And then I looked at the next one and people recommended that even less. But a lot of the reviews were for changeovers and switches and parts of larger flight systems. And yada yada, I'm just flying three and a half hours from here to Japan. I was like, how bad could it be? I don't know. And what choice do I have? There's just not that many airlines. If I want to spend, you know, $250 to get there and not five or six hundred dollars. And I did spend the bid extra because like these tickets, they'll say a hundred and eighty bucks. But it's that situation like Peach Airlines in Japan, where the hundred and eighty dollar version, where the very low price version is like you don't even get a bag. So, you know, I paid the extra the way this one worked. I don't remember what it was called jet star, I think. There's the the technically lowest price where you just get nothing and it's not functional. And then there's the, you know, add on the $60 or whatever package where you get to, you get to check a bag, you get a meal, you get the normal stuff. And it's like, yeah, whatever, just give me that. I'm not fucking with this anymore. I only have one bag, but I do have the one bag.

I got to at least have that. So I got a ticket for like 250 bucks and I don't know how bad can it go. And again, I don't know. It was either picked this bad airline or that bad airline. So, fingers crossed.

But then this also just feels a bit weird because Japan, you know, it's the special Japan thing. I've like, I went the first time in 2019 and then I didn't get to go again until 2023.

And it was all cool and amazing. And like, whoa, I'm going to do a whole podcast about this. This feels way too soon. Way too soon. You know, it's like, wow, I'm going back already. Crazy. I mean, I'm glad. But it certainly does not feel the same. I mean, especially it's weird just because of the cascading effect also of putting out this podcast slower than real time.

So in real life, right now, I'm editing the episode where I went to Mount Takao in Japan. So like, I'm still in Japan in the podcast. So, you know, a couple times a week, I sit down to edit that podcast and I get to walk through my little mind palace and remember Japan. It really feels like I just left. And I did. I did just leave nine months ago. That's nothing. 25:00 So going back feels a little weird in that sense. And also, it's a good thing. But traveling to these other countries in Asia has really taken the pressure off of Japan. Instead of Japan being the big magical place that has all this significance because I grew up reading manga and playing fucking Japanese video games. Those must be frogs. Hey, frogs. I'm back down more or less on the ground now. But yeah, all that stuff was very, I was very taken with that feeling when I first got to Japan, that weird feeling of nostalgia that is like a remix of of my own nostalgia growing up in the 80s. But you know, as things shook out, what I really liked about Japan more so was going hiking in the convenience stores and the transit. And now that I've been to South Korea and Taiwan, it's like, oh yeah, but these countries very much offer that as well. You know, if I just want to go out and go for a hike, exactly what I'm doing today. There's a lot of places in Asia that are this way. Culturally, Japan is always going to feel more like it vibes with my brain, deep down with my little weird childhood. But just the day to day, just go for a cool hike through the mountains. There's lots of options. And in fact, it's actually easier to get to mountains in Taiwan and South Korea than it is Japan.

So that's good. It takes kind of some of the pressure off Japan because it really was like, I remember that last day I was in Japan at Ome on the Ome Trail. And I literally shed tears. It's like, oh man, this sucks. I don't want to go. And then I got to fucking soul and soul before I figured out how to get to the mountains there with so crushingly shitty. It's like, god damn. Holy fuck, whiplash. Going from Ome to Seoul, yikes, heaven to hell. But then, you know, I started out how things worked a little better in South Korea and that all became fun as well. So yeah, it's like I'm excited to go back to Japan, but I could certainly wait. I could absolutely wait. If anything, I feel like I should wait. I should put more time between trips so that it builds up a little more significance. But I don't really have a choice if I want to go back. It's now or never. I got to go back so that when my three months in Japan is up, it'll be January in this case. Very end of January. Hopefully I can get a flight home because the weather sucks that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. If I put off Japan for the three more extra months, then that'll put me smack dab in spring. I'll be stuck in the exact same problem. I'll either have to stay in Asia for another summer or just fucking bite the bullet and go home.

All right. Yeah, that was it. That was the trail system. I am officially on a road. First in greeting me as a scooter. Yep, all the signs here. Oh, I guess this is the name of the trail system. Chitoshan. Chitoshan Trail. S-H-I-T-O-U-S-H-A-N. So yeah, that was a fully recommended 10 thumbs-up excellent trail. And then yeah, this way to this road, this way to this road, this way to... Oh, here's another, another cross-ridged trail, but it's two kilometers away. Not exactly close.

So that's something else. That actually might be where I was the other day. It's like we're good here. I think I'll just head back to civilization.

I suppose though, this is something that I've noticed lately, is that I always get through these trails and then I just walk down roads till I get home. Do I want to walk down the road? Why don't I just go straight back? Fuck it. Why not? I'm just going to go back into this trail system and just walk back through it the other way because I know it'll take me right to the subway at the other end. Why walk down the road for an hour? And I could walk back through the trail. And trails in the reverse, when you go through them backwards, they feel pretty different.

So yeah, I'm heading back to Japan a little sooner than feels proper in the cockles of my heart. And, you know, I mean, I guess it'll go okay, but who knows, you know? So I didn't want to book too much stuff ahead of time because I usually book everything before I get to Japan. I got the whole 90 days booked out just so I can actually get places at a decent price. But I don't quite know what I'm doing this time. And I don't want to book a whole whack of stuff just in case, in case they don't let me in. You know, I still don't know how that works. I guess, I guess I don't know, just lead me over to an airplane counter and I just buy a ticket to somewhere 30:00 else, you know? I mean, I guess I'll just go to Vietnam or something. I don't know.

Probably it'll be fine, but who knows. I just have no way of knowing. So I didn't want to book too much stuff ahead of time. But what I was thinking is where I ended off last time. I was in Yokohama and I was real taken with the coastline and realizing that the the trains just keep going and keep going and keep going. And I was like, man, I wish I could just go further and further down the coastline and see what happens. So I thought, why don't I go back to Yokohama to start with? Start where I ended and I loved Yokohama. I thought it was really cool.

The little specific room I was in last time was so neat. I liked it a lot. So it wasn't available the first week that I'm getting back to Japan, but it was available the second week. So I booked it the second week. So I figured I can hang out in Yokohama for a week, soak that in. Then just start, you know, piecing together a plan of let's see if I can just go down the coastline. I don't know. I don't know how much Airbnb is available. Maybe I'll have to try to do hotel stuff. It's going to be a lot more expensive because I'm not going to have stuff planned out well in advance. I think this time I'm going to try to be a little looser and a little more flexible with my trip to Japan and have just accepted the fact that that's going to be more expensive. And also more expensive because I don't want to book out any further than that until I get there, until I know for sure I can get into the country. And that place does have a refund policy that if I have to refund it on October 24th because they won't let me into Japan, it is a full refund. So there's really no problem there. That's early enough for the full refund.

But then I was like, all right, so what am I going to do on the first week when I first get in? I couldn't get a flight to Haneda only to Narita and it gets in at about five o'clock. And then it occurred to me like, oh yeah, there is Norahiko, the guy I met in Chiba who took me to Anizakaya and was a cool dude. His place in Chiba is very close to the airport. It's like a 40 minute ride. So I was like, yeah, I should do that. I should just go say hi to him.

I don't have any particular reason to go back to Chiba except to say hi to him, but it's just really convenient. Real easy to get to from the airport.

But he only had the one day, just the one day that I first arrived was available. Then the next day was booked and then the whole next week was free. It's just this one, somebody booked one day and fucks it up. But the way he had stuff set up, it was a little weird. It was like a dorm system with like four beds. But he only has it as one listing on Airbnb and then he said, hey, if it looks booked, drop me a line and maybe we could sort something out because there might be spaces.

And while I was there, it was just me, nobody else was in any of those bunks. So I did message him, I'm like, hey pal, it looks like I'm coming back to Japan. I see that one of the bunks is taken, but what was that all about with the double bookings and stuff? Could we sort something out? And it turns out maybe normally he would, but he can't in this case because the person who booked is a woman and he doesn't want a book mixed genders. He doesn't want to throw a man in there when a lady has booked. And I think that's a good policy. I think that's understandable. If I was some lady who booked there and suddenly some random dude shows up sleeping in the bunker cross for me and I wasn't prepared for that, I wouldn't enjoy that. I think you really got to be super upfront about that if you're going to have mixed dormitory situations. So he said, hey buddy, sorry, I know it's you and you're fine. But I don't want this lady to be uncomfortable, so I'm afraid I cannot double book you in there.

So I was like, okay, no, that's no problem, but I'm going to figure out what I'm doing, I'll let you know. And then I was always curious about the East Chiba, East of Nareda, like what's over there? So I started looking at places and there were some, but they are also, like Japan is so much tougher to book than South Korea and Taiwan. There's just so fewer options for low prices. Like I found a couple of places over on the East Coast to Chiba, but they weren't easy to get to. They're not the kind of thing I would want to try to navigate to starting in the evening, you know, through the darkness, arriving at Nareda.

And then trying to get there. And then they were still only available for like a couple of days each. I'd have to stay at one place for a couple of days and then another place for a couple of days. So I was just not sure. I was just like, hmm, I don't know. I don't know what's what to do. I was heming and hawing a bit. 35:00 And then I got a message from Nora Hiko saying like, hey, potentially good news. One of my bookings canceled. So I have more availability when you arrive. And I was like at first I was like, oh, did that one person? Did she cancel? That'd be so perfect. But no, what it is is he has a second, like a separate private room. That's where Anna and her brother who I met there last time. That's where they stayed. Since it's a private room, it's double the price. It's pretty expensive. Instead of 30 bucks a day, it's 60 bucks a day. By far the most I've ever paid for an Airbnb. No, that's not true, I suppose. When me and my friends went to Amsterdam. The first time I went there, we rented a whole house. That was crazy. But you know, on my own. That is much more than I've ever spent for an Airbnb room.

But it was available. So basically he was like, you know, you could if you want to spend the money. If you want to spend the money, you could book that room. Stay in that for the weekend. And then when the cheaper room is opened up and free, you can switch over to that. And I just decided like, yeah, let's do that just because I know him. I know how to get to his place. It's going to be no problem to get there from the airport.

And I mean, ultimately it's a little bit weird because I'm spending more money than I would like to spend. You know, double, double price for the first couple of days. And it's going to be a whole week in Chiba. I mean, last time I was only in Chiba for five days. And I distinctially remember thinking like that's enough. That's enough Chiba time. What else is there to even see here? So this is going to be quite a weird reentry to Japan. That I am just staying in Chiba for way too long. But it just kind of worked out that way of like I just needed to fill the time until the Yokohama place became available.

And it was just a lot easier on my mind as already a little nervous about just trying to even go back to Japan a little bit before I'm supposed to and just hoping it'll all work out. So I didn't want to book all these different places if I didn't have to all across the eastern coast of Chiba. And then if something goes wrong, I have to apologize and cancel to all these people. Where in this case, if something goes wrong, I probably won't even cancel with Norahiko. I'll just say like, just keep my money, dude. I'll see you again next time, you know, just an active goodwill. It's just more comfortable because I know him in case something goes wrong.

And then I was thinking like, well, all right, I'm going to be in Chiba if everything goes well for the whole week. That is way too long. But I can just explore Chiba more. Like I've seen, I saw a travel vlog. I think it was currently Hannah. She's an Australian vlogger who lives in Japan. I think she did one about down at the southern coast of Chiba, some kind of big crazy temple. And then I was looking at that East Coast stuff of like, well, maybe I could just go on a day trip to go over to visit the East Coast. But Chiba is fucking huge. Fuck, it's big. I guess I didn't really realize how big it is. Because to get from Norahiko's place right at Chiba Station all the way to the East Coast, it's like almost four hours. One way.

It's like, is that really true? But I guess so. It's just a lot of transit and trains that are not necessarily that popular. No express trains. Maybe they don't come all that often. Yikes. So to get all the way there and all the way back in one day, I don't know. I don't know. And then to go down south, again, it's huge. Like the distance from Tokyo to Yokohama. It's that same distance, but even probably farther. It's like, fuck. I don't know. So I'm going to try. I'm going to try to go explore around Chiba. I'll have all week. So I'll have plenty of time. But I don't know how realistic it is. Chiba is just really fucking big. And even Norahiko himself, he said, you know, it actually sounds like it might have been interesting to go check out the East Coast of Chiba. And I said, yeah, I mean, I agree. I'm curious about it. I'm curious about being over there. And he was very self-deprecating about his neighborhood when I first visited him. I don't even know why you're coming here. There's nothing here. I know that I've been there. He's not wrong. I'm really not sure what I'm going to do with myself that first week. But I guess I just, because I'm just sort of vaguely uncomfortable about going back to Japan a little earlier than the full year.

And I don't have an entire 90 day itinerary booked and figured out. I've only got the first two weeks now because I just want to get there and make sure they let me in the country before I figure out anything else. And then from there, I still don't really know what I'm doing, you know. I think I'm just going to try to go down the coast from Yokohama. Just start heading west and just see how far down the coast I can go, see if I can find places to book and then just see what happens. And then if some, I don't know if it all falls apart, then I guess I'll just bail out. 40:00 And I'll just hopefully just grab a flight or something, either to just go back to Fukuoka or go up to Western Tokyo or something.

But it's all kind of up in the air initially. So I mean, the fact that I might not have much to do in Chiba, who the fuck cares doesn't really matter. But I have put myself in a slightly weird, kind of funny situation.

But anyway, that's the plan after Taiwan. Back to Japan, a week in Chiba, a week in Yokohama, and then brand new adventures. So for now, I'm just trying not to think about it too much, because why bother stressing about something that I don't know what's going to happen? And I have no control over just enjoy Taiwan while I'm here. It's going by very fast, only a month left. I still haven't made it to the National Park. But so far, I think my stay in Taiwan has been pretty tip top. It's been very fucking cool. But that's what's coming up. Stay tuned for hopefully Japan Round 2.

Or if not, yet another wacky tale of calamity at the airport. Ah, yeah, here we go. Here's the official, I didn't see this sign on the way down. It's the same name that I had before, I feel like this name is spelled different. Anyway, the way it's spelled here. S-H-I-H-T-O-U. Shito Mountain Natural Trail.

This is this really cool wooden sign with some kind of animal. Not quite sure, it looks kind of like a gopher. But anyway, Shito Mountain Natural Trail. Not an extremely long trail, but a super awesome one. Just if you just want to go straight up into the sky and get a bunch of amazing views that are super close to the Shindan subway station on the green line.

Pretty fucking amazing. Oh, and there's lights. I didn't notice that either till just now. There's also lights. So if you do happen to get caught here in the dark, you're probably okay. And here's a little sign. Better mobile signals here. Yeah, that's one thing. That's for sure. Taiwan has knocked it out of the fucking park. As far as how developed all their hiking trails are. It's like, I thought South Korea was quite impressive compared to Japan. You know, much more developed and better sign posted and better maintained where Japan, a lot of the trails, are very, very rough, very nature-centric, very much your own. South Korea had everything laid out way better. And Taiwan, even better than that. I mean, again, there's the fucking railing here and just steps and lights and a mobile signal. What else could a person need? If you get caught in the rain somehow, there's even all those pavilions. I mean, there's like, must be eight or ten pavilions hidden around up there. You could go hide in with nice little roofs and stuff. Pretty awesome.