Tuesday 19 July 2011

Typhoon Ma-on

The bad news is there's a large typhoon coming - the most likely trajectory will have the storm glance off the edge of shikoku (the best protective island ever) and wakayama before heading back out to the pacific. The 50 knot wind circumference will likely hit Kobe, though and there's the outside possibility that the storm will head inland farther and hit Kobe dead on. We find out some time around 3am tonight.

The good news is that:

A: School was cancelled for the afternoon (work at home time)
B: School was cancelled for tomorrow (work at home time)
C: I get to focus all my energy and time on the nagging projects that have been building up with no distraction from teaching classes, students being chatty, students wanting to make up missed classes, co-workers (who I love, but who can be a bit chatty as well)
D: I get to eat all sorts of great snacks I stockpiled for the typhoon
E: I get to listen to lots of rain and wind while tucked in nice and snug indoors
F: The weather has cooled down! Its perfect Jaci-temperature! Hooray!

All together, I'm pretty happy with typhoon Ma-on. Of course, I hope nothing happens to make me eat my words, but based on past typhoon experiences, I'm pretty confident. Japan seems to have exceptional typhoon infrastructure - especially in the cities. We weathered a larger typhoon than Ma-on our first year and other than some downed tree branches, there was no damage.

I'l post again if anything exciting happens, but I'm looking forward to 24 hours of cozy, snack-filled, "get-stuff-done" time.

If you want to track Ma-on, I recommend the Japanese Meteorological Agency

Update: Ma-on seems to have bounced off of the tip of Shikoku and is heading back out to sea. Shikoku had massive flooding and Wakayama is still getting pounded, but far less of Japan was hit than expected. Here in Kobe we had heavy rain yesterday with strong gusts of wind every now and again, but nothing more than a regular storm. There was none of the window rattling that kept us awake and nervous during the other big typhoon two years ago. Now the grey storm clouds are heading away from us and the sun is coming out.

Time to get to work!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jaci,

This is Auntie Inchun from Malaysia. Your Mom gave me your blog address. When I left Eugene in October 1987, you must be 5 or 6 years old. Look at you now! You are someone's wife....boy, I feel old!!

You are not very far away from Kuala Lumpur. When are you coming over? I pray I get to meet your mom again sometime. I miss her, you and Jared, your mom especially because she made my stay in Eugene memorable.

Anyway, take care. Stay clear of all those typhoons and earthquakes. Say hello to Russel for me....love, Auntie Inchun.

p/s: My late son Afzal has a blog, masafzal@blogspot.com. Visit when you have time - loads of pictures of me, my husband, Andi and Jaffri (do you still remember them?)