Even if it rains, you should still go traveling; a rainy-day trip can be just as wonderful

Singing Crowd Lu's "Beautiful Morning" at the top of my lungs, amid all the "dui a dui a" refrains I suddenly had an epiphany: so-called love has gradually withered away, and the hundred kinds of life I do not even want will only be understood after a very, very long time! So I swiftly searched for the possible hundred travel routes.

The Capricorn man said it might rain these two days? His eager eyes revealed the look of a homebody who just wanted to stay home and play online games.

I said that even if it rains, we still have to go traveling!

(Because at home I would surely have to do laundry, mop the floor, and wipe up dog poop again. The housekeeping queen can just be left to Nanako!)

I can no longer remember exactly when the last time was that I took Milu traveling with me!

(I really miss the freedom of drinking myself senseless in the middle of the night while single, without having to report to anyone!)

(Suddenly I remembered Kevin Tsai's philosophical quote: "This thing called love, dead or alive it is a death; this thing called life, dead or alive you still have to live. Put these two things together, and all you can do is toss about half-dead.")

The Capricorn man probably cannot read the OS inside my heart, right?! Pisces women always have a way of thinking one thing while their mouths rehearse something completely different!

(It is time to put the scheming skills I learned from watching Empresses in the Palace to the test, right!)

(But how to act sweet and coax one's husband, why did Huanhuan never teach that?!)

He looked at my eyes, which were even more eager than his, and with my beloved little dog vigorously wagging its tail beside us as reinforcement, he had no choice but to pick up the phone and book a room.

(Ah, the ace in my hand is always Milu! I really must protect it well so it lives to a ripe old age!)

Yoshimoto Banana said she likes traveling with companions best, because that way you can completely forget loneliness. She said this is fine, what we have now is fine! Every night listening to the unfamiliar sounds of an unfamiliar city, lying on someone else's sofa and breathing properly.

Although this place is not Kyoto and has no devastatingly beautiful red maple leaves, leaning lightly on the small second-floor terrace and breathing in this local atmosphere that belongs exclusively to Taiwan, somehow I suddenly thought of the line: "The spring breeze brushes the railing, the dew is rich." Even though I did not see the precious tree frog, the atmosphere made one feel as if in the Tang dynasty!

I asked Miss Chen why this guesthouse is decorated with all kinds of frogs, and why even the Paper Church uses frogs as mascots?! She said this place belongs to Taomi Eco Village in Puli. In Taomi you can encounter two-thirds of Taiwan's frog species; here you can also meet one-third of Taiwan's dragonfly and bird species; in Taomi, nestled by mountains and water, the area is less than one two-thousandth of all Taiwan, yet its rich ecological resources are more than two or three townships could match! That is why you see frog signs everywhere.

Then she took out a visitor guide and shared it with us: the Paper Dome was built in 1995 after the Great Hanshin Earthquake, and in January 2005, when New Homeland Foundation chairman Liao Chia-chan was invited to attend the 10th anniversary commemoration of the Hanshin Earthquake and learned at the exchange meeting that the Paper Dome was planned to be dismantled and relocated, in his speech he blurted out: after the Paper Dome has fulfilled its mission, could it be moved and rebuilt in Taiwan? This unexpectedly opened the opportunity for the Paper Dome's rebirth in Taiwan.

Together we tasted 18 degrees C Uji matcha raw chocolate at the bar and discussed why this shop's business is so booming! It was late at night, and she asked if we were hungry, shyly saying that although there was no romantic candlelit dinner, the unique taste of "beauty's leg" instant noodles was something you could not get anywhere else! Before she had even finished the sentence, the Capricorn man had already wolfed down 2 bowls!

Flipping through the guesthouse owner's book collection: Haruki Murakami, Cosmopolitan, Matilda Tao's I Love, Therefore I Am… The mismatched collection did not diminish my desire to just curl up on the sofa and read. Who says travel must be packed with a full itinerary? I just want to spend 1 hour slowly eating the home-style breakfast Miss Chen prepared; I just like listening to Mayday and watching Milu chase Dongdong, and even if it is pouring rain outside, I feel completely at ease! Because Murakami wrote: everyone has a forest of their own, perhaps we have never gone there, but it is always there, will always be there. Those who are lost are lost, those who meet will meet again.

So even if it rains, we still have to go traveling! Because only then can we have the chance to meet our long-unseen selves again!

<Recommendation: Frog Castle European-Style Country Guesthouse>