It rains a lot in Taiwan. If you read about Taiwan you may see that it has a rainy season, but don't be taken in by what you read. In reality the whole year is rainy season.
This is why I never go anywhere without my bag. On most days I only have two things in my bag; an umbrella for heavy rain, and a cap for light right. It's quite troublesome because I really don't want to be bringing a bag anywhere. Some genius invented pockets on pants, and i hate disrespecting that guy by bringing a bag everywhere. But of course the time you don't bring your umbrella is the time it is guaranteed to poor.
But now seeing this I'm thinking that I may try to go out without an umbrella. This is a spot in the subway station to take an umbrella on your way out of the station and in theory, return it when you go back to the station later. It's actually a really nice way to manage all the umbrellas that people must forget on the subway.
The subway is not the only place to do this. One particular supermarket chain will have umbrellas that people can use and then return later. However I don't think they do this anymore, because it started a very bad trend. What used to be "there are special store brand umbrellas that you can borrow" became "any umbrella in the stand outside the store can be borrowed" which eventually became "you can take any umbrella from any stand anywhere."
Meaning that people essentially just steal other people's umbrellas from stands. Which is another reason why I bring my bag. So i can easily wipe off my umbrella and put it away without needing to put it down and have it potentially stolen.
But that's ok. My bag has become an iconic part of my attire. Many times I've been out and somebody has seen me and they say "oh i wasn't sure it was you but then i saw your bag." Now you may look at it from the angle of "wait, how in the world could they not be sure it was you? you're a foreigner and nobody else in the country looks even remotely like you." But my take away is that if I'm ever going to get started on my ninja assassin career, I need to first ditch my bag. It's too conspicuous. You know, not like a guy dressed up like a ninja walking down the street.
