Inverted Orientation

All I wanted to do was make it home without the umbrella inverting. But on the final stretch, with Apollo USB only a few steps away, a vicious gust of sea-brewed wind whipped by, turning the rain-blocker inside-out -- I'm lucky my convenience store yakisoba was safely secured in its plastic container. Just after the first gust, another came from who knows where, restoring the device to its proper orientation.

So it's a little stormy here. A few days ago, the forecast was that a typhoon (tropical cyclone) was coming directly for Mie prefecture. Since then it's made a turn toward Tokyo as a category 1 storm (I believe the same 5-point scale they use for hurricanes back home). But the storm has not completely forgotten Mie, it seems. The wind and rain make walking, cycling or anything outside pretty uncomfortable.

It's not enough to cause worry over damage here; if it were still coming right for us that would be a different story. It is making question whether or not I'll go to our weekly Japanese class tonight. I probably will seek out whatever's left of my rugged Oregonian spirit and tough it out. Also we go to the bar after and see friends, so there's even more motivation.

This of course is Thursday night, so one more day and the first week is over. I'll try to post an assessment of the first week at school sometime over the weekend. For now I've got to figure out how to get across town without ending up drenched. I left all of my rain-gear back home planning for it to be shipped, but I really didn't anticipate this sort of rain this time of year. But I should of ... in the weeks before I came another typhoon buffeted Mie. A Columbia Sportswear coat would be solid right now. That's your cue, parental units. Bottom drawer of the dresser in Corvallis.

THIS JUST IN: We may have a ride to Japanese class. Alllll riiight.