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Wednesday, October 27
I guess this is my one and probably only entry for the month of October! Two more
typhoons hit Japan this month, both of which resulted in my school closing again.
The first typhoon of the month pretty much passed up Okayama Prefecture, but the
second one, last Wednesday, hit us and pretty much most of Japan hard. It was the
strongest and deadliest typhoon to hit Japan in something like 15-20 years, I think.
There was no damage in my city that I'm aware of, except for my umbrella which busted
in the wind while I was walking a block to the convenience store. But the wind and
rain were strong enough to make going out pretty much impossible. My dad and I were
forced to cancel our trip to Shikoku and instead stay home all day and watch "Dogville,"
a horrible, boring movie that I can't believe someone got Nicole Kidman to star in.
Japan was further cursed by Mother Nature on Saturday when a series of powerful earthquakes
struck Niigata Prefecture in northwestern Japan. They were felt as far away as Tokyo and
strong aftershocks are still continuing now, four days later. They are the deadliest
most damaging quakes to hit Japan since the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake struck Kobe.
Over 30 people dead so far, 2100 injured. A shinkansen derailed for the first time ever.
I hope the aftershocks stop soon so people can get on with cleaning up and get on with
their lives.
Got damn cold here the past couple days. Last week it was 76 degrees in my apartment, now
it's 66. Feels like only about 50 outside. Had to break out my slippers.
So, as I mentioned above, my dad was here for the third time! Stayed 10 days as usual,
although he arrived on a Tuesday not Wednesday. We spent 2.5 days in Kyoto; went to
the Golden Pavillion, the Silver Pavillion, Gion, and San-ju-san Gendo, a famous shrine/
temple with 1000 buddha statues inside. We also went to Otsu City (10 minutes from Kyoto)
and took a 1.5-hour cruise on Lake Biwa. To my surprise and amusement, the ship was
called the "Michigan" and half of the staff as well as the two on-board performers were
American.
Sunset over Kyoto - the view from a hill on the Silver Pavillion grounds
That's the only out of town trip we took, because our Shikoku trip was cancelled due to the
typhoon. Our only other venture was back to Osaka (Itami Airport) to spend the night before
Dad's early morning departure. Itami has a nice observation deck and I got to watch his
plane (and many others) take off. As always, it was sad to see him go, but I'll see him
and the rest of my family again when I go home in a little over 4 months.