'Super Typhoon Melor'

So here I am in another coffee shop, thinking on the day that's passed.

There's a typhoon coming; but those on the news aside, there's not much fuss about it. Although I'm certain it's the biggest one this year (a few reports have mentioned as much) and although I'm certain it's changed direction and is now going to pass right over here, rather than glance us as previously predicted; the people here pay little attention to the matter. Only upon prompting will they talk about it, and this is puzzling me. Maybe the fact that a serious typhoon is a threat to life plays a part in my perceived ambivalence surrounding the subject. Not wanting to relive past events and whatnot. Think back to the storm in the late 80's in England, and the furore that caused. Think winds that are twice as fast and more rain than is logically possible and you get the kind of idea of what typhoon means here.

Or maybe I've got it all wrong. The reason they don't talk about it, even though it's already affecting southern areas of Japan as I write this, is because it's not a big deal. Between the typhoons, massive fires, earthquakes and tsunamis this little bit of wind and rain is probably nothing to get excited about. Six feet of overnight snow would plummet England into the dark (I toyed with the idea of putting ice here instead of dark) ages, but in the Scandinavian countries? What you're used to defines your responses to such situation, I suppose.

Anyway, I'm in an absolutely prime position to witness this storm first-hand and have made the necessary preparations to do so. Yokohama is on the North Eastern side of a peninsula just below Tokyo, and the storm will (if it carries on as predicted) travel overland to hit me. Essentially, the storm is travelling at around 40m/s North North East, and will be weakened by the time it reaches me, because of the land it travels over.

Quick geography lesson: Oceans fuel tropical storms, evaporated water provides the storm with energy, so when it's over the ocean it has the potential to incorporate more water into its' mass. Once over land water can no longer join the storm, so at most the storm will stay the same intensity, but in most cases will rapidly dissipate. Lesson over.

Therefore, travelling up Japan means the storm will lose energy as it rains all over the southern parts. It also means the leading edge can't affect the seas here, as it will on the other side of the peninsula. The high wind speeds will counteract the extremely low pressures (935 millibars!) by essentially forcing the waves away from shore. The situation is completely different on the other shore, with winds and low pressure forcing high tides towards the land. It should be interesting to see the effect on damage between both areas, if there is any of course.

On the news I've seen the smaller islands south of Japan being battered, trees coming down and whatnot. There has also been at least one death, but where I have no idea. The warmer the waters are the more ferocious the storm, (until you go too far south, then there are no storms, but that's a whole different lesson) so these islands are always the ones you see on the news being destroyed by all manner of different god (sic) based acts.

So by preparations I mean I've purchased a few supplies. Firstly, to go with my rain proof jacket, I've bought plastic trouser overall rain proof cover things. If anyone knows their official name, please, do tell. I'm currently hunting for a plastic cover for my bag, and a plastic bag for my camera. Ideally I want a proper bag cover (everyone here has one), but I'll settle for a Tescos bag. (They don't have Tescos here, it was just an example) The plastic bag for my camera has to be completely clear though, I want to shoot through it without taking my camera out. It hasn't stopped raining for two days here because of the weatherfront, so I can only imagine how hard the rain will be once it actually hits – thirty seconds in the rain could spell disaster for my camera. These supplies aside I think I'll be in good stead to check out what's what.
I'll definitely go out and have a nose around when it's dead overhead, that is, until cars start sailing past my window. Then I'm very much the indoor photographer. There's a great park looking onto the seafront, and I think I'll find myself wandering in that direction. I might try taking some drenched reporter style footage, with the trees bent double and twenty foot waves crashing upon the break behind me.

Yeah they do that here too. Send reporters into towns that have been evacuated, wearing bright blue or yellow plastic packaging holding a microphone that's cellophane wrapped to stop it getting wet, shouting something no one can understand into the microphone. Pretty much the scene I described above. I've not had the chance to ask if anyone here thinks it's weird too, but I'm guessing it's stupid in any culture. It must be fun being the guy who gets to do that. Well the first few times it would be fun. It sure as hell beats going into Iraq and doing that kind of correspondence, anyway.

That's pretty much my day tomorrow sorted, I'm going to get very wet.

Then the day after is my interview of course!

And in other interview related news, I have another interview for a strange but cool sounding English speaking cafe. They hold lessons in English, but also have a cafe where the teachers and students hang out outside of lessons, and speak English! Sounds interesting, but I'm not sure how economically viable it is. Maybe it would be something fun to do at the weekends, to meet new people and earn a little money on the side.

That's it for now, I'm going to head back and collect my washing (it's free here, so it's very much a case of fill your boots.)

The typhoon is called Melor by the way.  You can keep track of it on google!

じゃまた。