Quinni in Japan: My last morning in Taipei and first night in Japan

I woke up in a bad mood, because I do not want to leave Taipei. I was so happy here and I can’t remember the last time that I have had days packed with so much fun and excitement. One last nice experience was the employee of Mega Bank, where we wanted to trade Taiwan Dollars into Japanese Yen. As most of the Taiwanese she was very friendly and was genuinely interested where we were going and what we were doing. In Germany such friendly curiosity very rarely occurs. What I also like to remember is the taxi driver who had to bring us from the hotel to the airport. It was the same driver, who picked us up on the first day! He did not look happy, when he saw who his customers where. Haha. He asked for the payment eight at the beginning of the drive. Smart! ^_^ But at the airport he shook our hands and smiled, which we take as a conciliatory sign.
Bye bye Taipei! I will see you again!

So tired when we arrived in Fukuoka

Having landed in Fukuoka I went to the bathroom. I have never seen a high-tech toilet like this before! How to use this thing? Was my first critical incident to take place with a toilet?! And I have not touched Japanese ground for 3 minutes yet!

I have never been so afraid of making a mistake and behaving improperly in a foreign country before. I think this comes from my intensive intercultural preparation for this semester in Japan. I have read too much about mistakes one can make in Japan. So the minute I set foot on Japanese ground I was extremely self-conscious.
When I arrived at the hostel a few hours later I already made my first mistake. I forgot to take my shoes off! Shame on me.

As I was so nervous to not behave improperly and preoccupied to find a way to get to the hostel I did not really realize that I was in Japan that I saw the first vending machines in the street. I am in JAPAN for God’s sake!! Months of preparation for this moment and it is already there!
My first time in a Japanese konbini (small drugstore) also gave me an opportunity to make a mistake again. I gave the cashier Taiwan Dollars instead of Japanese Yen. Having three different currencies in my wallet no wonder I confused them!