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The Little Typhoon That Couldn't
Sep. 8th, 2004 10:31 amYesterday, school (for the kids, anyway) let out three hours early, so everyone could get home to safety before the AMAZING HORRIBLE NO GO VERY BAD TYPHOON that was bound to strike at any moment actually showed up.
The staff room was going apeshit over this thing - just about every teacher had their laptop booted up and tuned in to an online weather tracker that showed the typhoon as it came up over Kyuushuu and into the mainland.
They also had the radio on, as well as the television, although they'd turn the latter off whenever a non-typhoon segment came on. (Rules are rules). Typhoon reporting is no joke on Japanese TV. Every fifteen minutes they'd do a segment on the typhoon, where it was at the moment, how many people had been killed (zero, luckily), how many injured, how many buildings destroyed, how many buildings partially destroyed, how many roofs blown off, how many roofs partially blown off, and while all this was going on a ticker scrolled along the side of the screen giving the total rainfall, total expected rainfall, and anticipated damage.
They also sent reporters out into the street to interview people. There were several shots of schoolboys staring dumbly at their blown-inside-out umbrellas, businesspeople charging through crosswalks and down the pavement, and women who were happy to be interviewed about the storm. All of the women had impeccable make up and hair; one wonders if they did themselves up specially for the purpose of wandering the streets and getting interviewed.
Anyway, the storm. Both of my 英会話 for the day were cancelled on the anticipation that the horrid winds and rain were going to hit any minute now. Deprived of anything to do, I wandered down to the 中央 to peoplewatch. The winds did pick up, to such an extent that my backpack (containing a Japanese textbook, Korean textbook, dictionary, hardback novel, bottled yogurt drink, notebook, folder, and assorted junk) would have been blown down the street were I not holding it.
The masses of clouds were incredible - cirrus, cumulous, nimbus, all scuttling across the sky at various speeds, depending on their altitude. It was gorgeous. It's so rare to experience nature anywhere in Japan that seeing them was a real treat.
The station was blaring constant announcements concerning the trains that were cancelled or delayed on account of the storm. (Wind delay is no joke. I was blown backwards and sideways on my bike by this wind. I also watched it blow a crow backwards as the bird tried to fly from one building to another. Imagine what the wind drag will do to a train.)
Perverts were out in full force to watch the high school girls expose themselves, thanks to having to wear those little sailor skirts. Of course there were some girls who stood around for the express purpose of letting the wind expose them Monroe-style, then shrieking wildly with laughter whenever high school boys were around.
Then, life shut down. All the stores closed, the government offices closed, and everyone went home.
And then-
Get ready for this-
It was the storm of my life-
Or not, because nothing actually happened. The wind died down at about 7pm. There wasn't even a draft. We had no rain. We had no drizzle. The winds were actually stronger during the one typhoon a few days ago.
Thus far, I've "survived" four typhoons in my years of living in Japan. They all follow the same pattern - people get freaked out. Holy shit, it's coming right for us! School is cancelled and places of amusement are closed early. When I lived in Nagoya, it rained. Here, we just get wind.
And then nothing.
Typhoon. W00t.
That will be all.
The staff room was going apeshit over this thing - just about every teacher had their laptop booted up and tuned in to an online weather tracker that showed the typhoon as it came up over Kyuushuu and into the mainland.
They also had the radio on, as well as the television, although they'd turn the latter off whenever a non-typhoon segment came on. (Rules are rules). Typhoon reporting is no joke on Japanese TV. Every fifteen minutes they'd do a segment on the typhoon, where it was at the moment, how many people had been killed (zero, luckily), how many injured, how many buildings destroyed, how many buildings partially destroyed, how many roofs blown off, how many roofs partially blown off, and while all this was going on a ticker scrolled along the side of the screen giving the total rainfall, total expected rainfall, and anticipated damage.
They also sent reporters out into the street to interview people. There were several shots of schoolboys staring dumbly at their blown-inside-out umbrellas, businesspeople charging through crosswalks and down the pavement, and women who were happy to be interviewed about the storm. All of the women had impeccable make up and hair; one wonders if they did themselves up specially for the purpose of wandering the streets and getting interviewed.
Anyway, the storm. Both of my 英会話 for the day were cancelled on the anticipation that the horrid winds and rain were going to hit any minute now. Deprived of anything to do, I wandered down to the 中央 to peoplewatch. The winds did pick up, to such an extent that my backpack (containing a Japanese textbook, Korean textbook, dictionary, hardback novel, bottled yogurt drink, notebook, folder, and assorted junk) would have been blown down the street were I not holding it.
The masses of clouds were incredible - cirrus, cumulous, nimbus, all scuttling across the sky at various speeds, depending on their altitude. It was gorgeous. It's so rare to experience nature anywhere in Japan that seeing them was a real treat.
The station was blaring constant announcements concerning the trains that were cancelled or delayed on account of the storm. (Wind delay is no joke. I was blown backwards and sideways on my bike by this wind. I also watched it blow a crow backwards as the bird tried to fly from one building to another. Imagine what the wind drag will do to a train.)
Perverts were out in full force to watch the high school girls expose themselves, thanks to having to wear those little sailor skirts. Of course there were some girls who stood around for the express purpose of letting the wind expose them Monroe-style, then shrieking wildly with laughter whenever high school boys were around.
Then, life shut down. All the stores closed, the government offices closed, and everyone went home.
And then-
Get ready for this-
It was the storm of my life-
Or not, because nothing actually happened. The wind died down at about 7pm. There wasn't even a draft. We had no rain. We had no drizzle. The winds were actually stronger during the one typhoon a few days ago.
Thus far, I've "survived" four typhoons in my years of living in Japan. They all follow the same pattern - people get freaked out. Holy shit, it's coming right for us! School is cancelled and places of amusement are closed early. When I lived in Nagoya, it rained. Here, we just get wind.
And then nothing.
Typhoon. W00t.
That will be all.
