#15 Typhoon Afternoon

Once again it may appear as if I was neglecting this poor little blog (and perhaps I was) but I've been working on ideas to make it less crappy. But first for an important weather update! Right outside now a typhoon is whirling around! (that is an exaggeration and I apologise profoundly). It's the first one since I got here in mid August, which I am told is strange. I was unlucky (or lucky!) enough to have experienced a particularly long, hot, humid, Japanese summer. The weather in the past week has gradually gotten colder, wetter, as well as more overcast and windier. I was talking to a friend of mine here and we both agreed that last Thursday was the first night neither of us woke up in a sweat at around 4am, fumbling for the air-con remote.

Anyway, back to the typhoon. For those unsure, a typhoon is a hurricane, it just has a different name in different regions of the world (or something. . .contact a meteorologist if you want to know more?). This is a screen shot of two different pages of the Japan Meteorological Agency. There they have lots of weather warnings and information on storms and earthquakes, and in perfect English too!

As you can see, basically all of Japan is screwed. Especially the Kanto/Tokyo area.

It's now 11pm and the weather's pretty wild out there, although it is dry. I can't imagine what it'll be like when it rains (although I'm sure I'll wake up with the noise). It was a nice bright morning, then around 4pm it became darker and it was getting windy, shortly after there was some heavy rain but it died off to a light rain after a few minutes (I sound like a weather reporter here, I apologise). From pretty much then onwards the wind has just been gradually picking up. I'm still not exactly sure when the worst is going to hit, I think it's anytime from now until tomorrow morning. 

From my knowledge this isn't a particularly big one so I'm not too worried, but every now and then a gust of wind does seem to catch my flimsy Leopalace door. This isn't a new building though so it has withstood previous typhoons and should therefore be nice and safe. . .or so I assume.

UPDATE: It never did rain, and the 'typhoon' was a big disappointment in all. When I woke up the next morning it was the brightest, hottest day its been in awhile. Silly Japanese weather!