No.79 Taiwan Visit

This year marks the 45th anniversary of the Tokyo Inagi Rotary Club. I have been appointed as an honorary member of the club and had the honor of attending the commemorative ceremony held in March 2018.
Many guests from the Linyuan District of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan also attended that seat. Since its establishment, the Linyuan Rotary Club has been a sister club of the Tokyo Inagi Rotary Club, and the members are old acquaintances with each other. I visited Taiwan for the first time the year before last and received a warm welcome in Kaohsiung. Since then, we have continued to exchange visits, welcoming them when they come to Japan.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Hayamori Rotary Club. We are coordinating a schedule that is easy for visitors from Japan, and we have been requested for the mayor to attend. Therefore, I made my second visit to Taiwan to attend the commemorative ceremony on April 30, 2018, during the first half of the Golden Week.
This visit, like the last one, is not an official duty of the city as we are not engaged in a Sister City relationship, so it is a private trip. However, the welcoming side from Taiwan does not mind such details and greeted us with a large red banner saying "Welcome Mayor of Inagi City Takahashi Katsuhiro" in the arrival lobby, smiling. Taking commemorative photos in front of a banner with my name in the international airport lobby is a bit embarrassing.

By the way, the purpose of this visit is to attend the 40th anniversary ceremony of the other party, so of course there will be greetings from the president of the Tokyo Inagi Rotary Club, and I was also scheduled to have my turn to speak.
Greetings for Foreign Visitors on Site... Well, I was troubled and struggling with preparations in advance, but I decided to go with the local language, knowing that I might not do it well, as the saying goes, 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do.'
Fortunately, there is a member of the Tokyo Inagi Rotary Club, Mr. T, who is from Taiwan and has naturalized in Japan. He translated the manuscript I wrote in Japanese into Mandarin, and also recorded the pronunciation and sent it as an audio file. I practiced it all in one night and faced the actual ceremony, but I received positive feedback from everyone in the Hayakawa area. It was truly diplomatic courtesy.
This visit was a two-night, three-day itinerary, during which we toured Kaohsiung City and Tainan City the following day. Kaohsiung City is located south of the Tropic of Cancer, belonging to the tropical region, and its beautiful white sandy beaches and deep blue skies can make one mistake it for a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. There are also large resort hotels. The local fruits, such as ripe Taiwanese bananas and pineapples, were abundant and delicious.
However, after the change of government to the Democratic Progressive Party, I have also heard that the number of tourists from China has drastically decreased as the pro-independence faction in Taiwan has gained strength.
It seems that there are not as many tourists from Japan as there are in Taipei, but if you have the opportunity, why not visit Kaohsiung, Taiwan, a tropical island, which is about 3 and a half hours from Narita Airport?