Typhoon Incoming

ETA: Tomorrow.

I hear that it's the biggest one to hit these parts in like 10 years. Probably going to have to go in to work anyway...heh.

Here it comes.

How to lock down a country...?

Hint: It doesn't take an epidemic. Give up? Just conjure up a typhoon.

Ok, I exaggerate, I'm sure. I'm fairly sure some countries fly into Kansai International (hence the "international" part). Yesterday, however, bad weather shut down Tokyo Narita, Japan's main airport. As a result, instead of writing this entry from work or my cozy little apartment, I'm killing some time before checkout at Chicago O'Hare's Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Of course no one is to blame for the weather, but my whole strategy is messed up now. Aside from having to take extra time off work, I have to fly United in an undesired seat. First off, United doesn't offer personal screens and video players to Economy passengers. Instead we are provided with "big projectors with one movie choice." One choice? What - no vote?

Second, when you have a long flight, always request an aisle. That way you can stay hydrated without worrying about having to displace people (who may be sleeping) when you have to empty the tank. Well, this time I was lucky to get a seat...so of course it's a window seat, blocked in my not one, but two people. When you fly on the inside of one, you can kind of strategically time your bathroom runs - get up when they do. Two is going to be trickier.

Third, I try to put myself on Tokyo time the night before I head over to Japan, so I didn't sleep a couple nights ago. As a result, but sleeping pattern is kind of messed up - I got 4 hours yesterday afternoon-evening and then another 4 last night. Oi. Work is gonna be fun the next couple days. "Hi, kids - excuse me if I fall asleep on my feet."

Well, hopefully my complaints aren't moot and I'll make it to Japan this time. Wish me luck.

Prayers and thoughts for Sayo-cho

Typhoon season usually arrives in Japan about midway through the summer and peaks in September. Some years are worse than others. Early this week, the town of Sayo, located in Hyogo prefecture (where I am living), was hit hard. There was a significant amount of damage and at least 8 people are dead, with others still missing.

Coverage from the Japan Times:

A 55-year-old office worker said he saw three women washed away by waters Sunday night.

"I heard them scream and saw three women washed away. The current was so fast the three disappeared in seconds," he said.

Before the women were swept away, they were walking together while only a little rain was falling, the man said.

In the town's Hongo district, Satomi Kobayashi, 40, was evacuating from her home to a nearby elementary school with her three children when she was swept away in a flood of muddy water. The bodies of Kobayashi and her 16-year-old daughter, Ayano, were found nearby.

A nearby bridge was washed away and rice paddies in the area were submerged in mud.

Naomi Ikeda, 45, said her husband was missing.

She found his car stuck against a tree in the Sayo River.

Kazuma Ikeda, 54, left their home in the car at around 8 p.m. Sunday to take a flashlight to his mother's house, where the electricity had been knocked out.

"I shouldn't have let him go," Naomi Ikeda said.

She said that soon after her husband left home, the rain turned into a downpour and within five minutes the house was filled with water, coming up to her chest.

Forty minutes later, she called her husband to ask him to come home, but that was the last contact she had with him.

I think this is a good time to offer up our prayers and/or thoughts for the vitcims of the typhoon.