Gray areas

For quite some time now, I've been using a combination of my Washington state driver's license and a valid International Driving Permit in order to drive legally (or so I thought) here in T'ái​wān​ 台灣. However, I was recently informed by the police that as I'm a resident here, I'm required to get a Taiwanese license (a fact which I knew, but I'm a firm believer in the concept of "plausible denial"). So this afternoon, my wife and I went to the local motor vehicles office to get the skinny on having my present driving papers changed over to the coveted Taiwanese chià​shǐ​hchíh​chào​. I cooled my heels outside while Pamela did the inquiring indoors. She emerged about 15 minutes later with a paper in Chinese that (according to her) says everything is hunky-dory with my current arrangement, and that therefore there is no need to get the local license. Apparently it has something to do with the principle of reciprocity, as the state of Washington allows Taiwanese drivers to use THEIR 駕駛執照 in conjunction with an IDP. Actually, very little is spelled out clearly, and the paper says nothing about motorcycles or scooters. Anyone who has been in Taiwan​ for a while can tell you it's not uncommon (in fact it's very common) to be told different things regarding laws and regulations by different officials working in different sections of the government. Now I need to keep the "explanatory" DMV document with me while I'm driving or riding just in case I end up being interrogated by a member of the local constabulary. TIT - This is Taiwan​.

This is also Taiwan - a car parked illegally outside the motor vehicles office:

A couple of signs espied this evening in T'ái​chūng​​ 臺中:

This food stand selling sushi 寿司 (shòu​ssū 壽司 in Chinese) and oden おでん (kuān​tūngchǔ​​ 關東煮 in the local lingo) is called "House" ハウス in Japanese. At least it thinks it is. Unfortunately, the characters 八咫屋 can't be read in this manner. Yes, this is also Taiwan​ :-)

This sign advertises full body and foot massages. For Japanese tourists, getting a マッサージ (legitimate and otherwise) is a popular activity in this country.