Typhoon 5 hits Japan; We’re okay

Hey all,

A few weeks ago I got all these worried messages from family and friends, asking me if we were okay because an earthquake hit nearby where we live. “What earthquake?” I said. “Oh, didn’t you feel it? It was all over the news!” people said. Well, we didn’t feel a thing even though it took place in a neighboring prefecture. It took people on the other side of the planet to tell me what was happening in my own “backyard”. Surreal, to say the least.

Yesterday a big typhoon blew through Japan (Typhoons are what they call hurricanes here in the Pacific). It hit the southernmost island of Kyushuu pretty hard, then went north up the coast. It was non-stop news for a while there, but again, we hardly were affected. About 6pm on Friday we had some pretty strong gusts of wind, but that was it- there wasn’t even any rain! Apparently it took a wide line way out in the Sea of Japan, as this graphic shows:

Another natural disaster averted! We are all fine.

Oh, one interesting point about “typhoons”: here in Japan they don’t give names to each storm like they do in the States and elsewhere- they just give them numbers. Typhoon season is now here, and we can expect about 20 storms or so to blow through. Most are not that big a deal. Very rarely do they come to Toyama, as we are protected by the mountains. It wasn’t until I found an article about the storm in English did I realize the western media had given the storm a name- Usagi, which means “rabbit.”

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