Our guests left this afternoon, but before that we went to a matcha teahouse in an old Japanese house, very rickety indeed, for lunch and tea. Our plan had been to then get the train to the Chimei museum, a somewhat ridiculous seeming place, part US Capitol and part Versailles, with a collection of Western art, natural science and stringed instruments. As it happened, the Japanese place took so long that we decided to just stay in town, first lounging on the tatami floors at the tea house, and then getting coffee. A pleasant afternoon, though I felt a little unwell afterwards, with meals since the previous night consisting largely of wheat and sugar (I had miso noodles for lunch and a Basque cheesecake for breakfast). They did make some very delicious shiso onigiri.
We saw off the Woodland Creature and the Boddhisattva at the train station and now, to me, it felt like our stay in Taiwan was nearly over and one could look westwards.