此れ何でしょう？ Can you guess what this building is?

日本人の友達は多分此れを見て、「ラブホテル」を当てて見ただろう。実はラブホテルじゃなくて、移民署だ。マジで。

俺は昨日、移民署への用事が有って、もう一人の留学生と一緒に行って来た。二人で行って、台南のタクシー費が非常に安いから、タクシーで行く事にした。多分タクシーじゃなかったら見つからなかったと思う。だって、全然政府のビルに見えないからさぁ。

此の建物は元々レストランだったと聞いた。別に、歴史的な物じゃない。偽物だ。西洋風を飾っているだけだ。しかも、中に入ったら、地味に普通な市役所みたいな感じに成っている。中の見た目が外と同じスタイルだけど、順番の数字が印刷されている紙を出している器械も有るし、申請書を普通に書いている人があっちこっち座っている。何か、其の矛盾性が凄く気に入った。

又、待っている間に、窓の隣りに座って、気付いたら、外の女性が写真を撮っていた。勿論、俺が目的じゃなかった。建物が。でも、俺は人生初めて市役所の様な建物に待ちながら、観光客に写真が撮られた。ちょっとウケる。

____________________________________
"Well, this must be one of Tainan's many historic buildings, some of which date back to the Dutch colonial period and are therefore done in a sort of western style."

Wrong.

But maybe you figured that out.  Something's fishy about this building.  Yeah, it looks kind of western, but like a movie prop or something.  I don't think there's any architectural style in the history of western architecture that this fits into, unless there's a name for those suburban houses you see sometimes that have lots of faux-marble statues on the front lawn.

From what I heard, this building used to be a restaurant.  Interestingly enough, it's now the Tainan City Immigration Office.  No, really.  I don't know how much credit I have with people who know me--perhaps almost none--but whatever I do have I will place it all on the table now.  This really is a city government building.  I am not lying.

Actually, when you go inside the fun doesn't stop.  On the one hand, they have one of those ticket machines with the numbers, where you take a number and they call it and you go to the desk with the digital display that has your number above it.  They have the row of desks with people in government uniforms filling out papers.  But the decor inside still has this kind of movie-set, European mansion feel to it.

Wouldn't going to the DMV be more fun if it looked like this?  I might just go every day.