Typhoon 22

Wow! Now that was a typhoon! I left work today around 4 and got thoroughly drenched on my way to the station. My pant legs were wet up to mid-thigh from all the rain. When I arrived at the station the water was pouring in through the roof - the eaves couldn't deal with it fast enough, so great sheets of water were coming down onto the platform itself. When I got to Osaki station 10 minutes later, the wind had picked up. I quickly grabbed some groceries and then had to be let out by an employee who was holding the door closed! Or opening it - I'm not sure if the wind was preventing it from opening, or whipping into the store when it opened and therefore he was keeping it closed. It was like walking into a wind tunnel when I left.

On the walk home I got more drenched and had to fight to keep my umbrella. It even turned my umbrella inside out a couple times! Now this is a typhoon! I arrived home wet but safe and jumped into my futon to warm up and watch the news. The main typhoon hit around 6, and between 5 when I got home and 6 when it hit in force the rain was just pounding down. This combined with the really low pressure served to make me sleepy. On the tv, they were monitoring the water levels in the rivers in my area. At 5:30 they started to rise and an advisory was issued. At 5:40 that went to caution and the flood sirens started (when the river rises by a certain amount in a set time period, warning sirens go off). At 5:45 it flooded. How's that for fast??!!

Around that time the wind picked up and rain was being pelted against the windows on the balcony - which was good because now I don't have to clean them LOL. Rain never touches those windows. I remember thinking about 5:50 that it would be cool to go outside and run around in the street (weird thing I want to do - run around in pelting rain and high winds for fun). Only, I fell asleep!

Yes, instead of going downstairs to look at the rain and wind of my first real typhoon in Japan (let alone play in it), I was out cold in bed! In fact, I slept straight thru until 10 pm. Geesh! So I missed all the street flooding, land slides, flying branches and the like. It looks like there wasn't much wind damage. Just lots and lots of water. I can't believe I slept thru it!