It’s been an interesting day. I woke up super early this morning (5am is super early for me now) to go see this year’s fighting mikoshi festival at Dogo. I didn’t bring my real camera because I didn’t want it to get rained on, so I’m glad I got decent photos and video last year. The pics snapped with my phone camera are pretty useless, but Kevin got a decent video or two.
It’s been raining for the last three days, actually. It started out as a nice steady light rain, but just in the last few hours it’s gotten heavier. At this point though, the rain isn’t as big a deal as the wind, which almost inverted my umbrella as I was riding to work. You see folks, Typhoon 18 is about to hit southern Japan.
I hear about typhoons pretty regularly, but I don’t usually pay attention to the warnings because the east-west mountain range just south of the city usually diffuses any strong weather before it hits Matsuyama. (Unless of course, I’m riding a bicycle across a series of bridges that day. Then it will undoubtedly rain cats and dogs.)
This time is a little different though. I actually have a typhoon warning on my phone, evening classes at my school were canceled (which I didn’t learn until I had already pedaled over there), and the business next door to my apartment building piled sandbags in front of their door.
I think we’re in for some real weather here.
If I don’t post again, look for me in Oz.
******** Update October 9th, 2009 ********
Much ado about nothing down here in Matsuyama. It hardly rained that night, and the next day was beautiful. The city of Tsuchiura, in Ibaraki prefecture however, was not so lucky:
“Don’t they all move?” you may ask. Yes, but I mean “move” as in “Let’s go rent a truck for half a day and move this stuff in weather that’s so crazy all the schools are closed and the trains stopped running.” I helped Joe move his scooter, bicycle, and some miscellaneous stuff from Sakurai (a small town about 45 minutes away) to Matsuyama in gale force winds and driving rain. We actually had to take the panes off the second story window to lower the bed on a rope. Awesome.