Typhoon Ma-On Coming, River Rising

The biggest typhoon to hit Tokyo in the past 10 years is quickly making it's way toward us. We've been watching the news and waiting. I don't think we're in any danger here, but we're expecting some powerful weather. I went out earlier and laid all our bicycles down so they won't be blown around so much, and I carried some other stuff indoors. Then I walked down to the river because my wife said the water was rising. I took the picture on the left in April from a bridge about 50 meters from our house. I took the picture on the right an hour ago from the exact same spot. As you can see, the river has risen A BIT -- and the typhoon hasn't even arrived here yet.

Typhoons are basically hurricanes by a different name. You can learn more here. Currently, the wind at the center of the typhoon is blowing about 144 km/hour (about 90 miles/hour).

My daughter's preschool "undoukai" (sports competition) was scheduled for this morning, but it was cancelled for obvious reasons. If the typhoon blows through tonight, as expected, they'll have the undoukai tomorrow. Here's a plug. If you can ever go to an undoukai, definately do it. An undoukai is generally a community, cultural event featuring cute kids, smiling parents and a crazy assortment of games, dances and quasi-competitions. Bring your camera or you'll be bummed.

I'll post pictures of the undoukai soon, as long as this river doesn't rise up and wash us away tonight.

[Update: The typhoon turned out to be an anti-climax. Yea, the neighbor's bicycles blew over, but the house didn't shake;, the windows didn't rattle; nada. On a positive note, nobody seems to have died in Tokyo (though I heard about a delivery man on a motorcycle who went missing near a swollen river). On the whole, typhoons that peeter out are a good thing. My wife grew up on the coast, so she has childhood memories of storms shaking the whole house. I've been in that house, and it's a wonder that jumping up and down doesn't bring the whole thing down. Just kidding (although an engineer who checkd to see if the house was "earthquake safe" said emphatically "No.") Anyway, she misses walking out to the beach under a mountain of water pouring down from the sky. Natsukashii, you know. But I asked my friends, the workers at Starbucks, if THEY like typhoons, and they laughed like I was being funny.]

Posted by jw at October 9, 2004 06:52 PM