Typhoon update

It's hard to say, and we're still under storm warnings, but Sinlaku appears to have passed by far enough off shore that we're hardly seeing any effects. It was raining all afternoon and into this evening but the rain has let up and the high winds have not come. Still could see it pick up again, but it looks like this calm may last.

Typhoon Sinlaku nears

Once a Category 4 typhoon, Sinlaku is nearing Mie as a Category 1 storm after moving up the coastline mainly as a tropical storm. Sinlaku killed about 15 people in Taiwan, but bear in mind it was much more powerful when it made landfall there.

On my commute to work this morning, which being Friday included my bike and a bus, there was no rain. But the rain started up around 10, and by 11:30 schools around the region were sending students home. In another part of Mie, news reports say that more than 17,000 people had to evacuate.

I was in the middle of a lesson when the announcement came over the loudspeaker for teachers to report to the staff room. Moments later the decision to send students was made (though teachers are expected to stay throughout their workday; I got to go home on an earlier than usual bus.)

After my ride home from the bus area, I was completely soaked. The plan now is to hang out at home for a bit then ride out the storm at our usual bar, Nanaimo, where I anticipate a small massing of the regulars for a typhoon party of sorts.

I caught a glimpse of the area's largest river on the way home.

Here's a shot of it on a semi-normal day, though it was pretty high on this day too:
And here's another shot today:


You can clearly see a rise in the water level ... the river looks a lot more fierce that usual as well. Not sure if there will be any flooding, but we are under a flood warning, a heavy rain warning, a wind warning, etc.

The storm does not appear to making a direct pass overhead, but it will be passing nearby, bring perhaps 50 mph winds or higher and torrential rain.

Here's a tracking map from 9 a.m. this morning Japan time (it's now 2:45 or so p.m.)


Right near where it says 9 p.m. Friday is where I live. The yellow indicates the storm will likely still be a category 1 typhoon (same as category 1 hurricane back home) as it passes by.

I really don't know what kind of actual effects we'll see here in Ise, but if there's anything worth photographing I'll post it later on.

For now it's just raining without rest and the wind appears to be picking up.

Otherwise, it's the weekend!

On the third day, we hiked

Normal weekends here consist of going to the bar and/or going to karaoke, but on Monday (three-day weekend) I mixed things up a bit by going for a hike.

Kentaro, who owns the bar we frequent, and Ben-chan, another regular customer who is a hair-dresser/mountain guide, and I headed for Mt. Asama, Ise's highest point at roughly 1,800 feet above sea level. (There's another, much taller Mt. Asama between Nagano and Gunma prefectures; the kanji characters for the two mountains are different.)

While this is obviously not a towering mountain like Fuji or Hood, it makes for a good hike. Since it had been quite a while since I'd done anything like this, I was quite tired on the way up and I'm a little soar today. It makes me wonder how I would have fared at Mt. Fuiji had those plans not faded (we're hoping to try Fuji next summer ... perhaps I should go for some more regional hikes to get in condition).

But the slight pain aside, it felt good to be out doing something different. We set off just after 10 after Ben's boat of a car weaved through the tiny capillary-like streets of rural Japan neighborhoods.

While the summer humidity was in full force, the temperature was mild thanks to cloud cover, which would later dump heavy rain and leave us soaked but cool for the return trip.

The only wildlife we encountered were bees, which had us occasionally running up sections of the trail. A sign at the trailhead suggests that other possible sightings could have included wild boars, foxes, or a raccoon-like animal called a raccoon-dog, along with a host of other insects.

Instead of such animals, we saw a number of middle-aged to nearly-elderly climbers heading down. They had obviously started early in the morning and wisely avoided the coming rain. The three of us had been at the bar until about 2:30 that morning ... so 10 a.m. was already a stretch.

After about 90 minutes up the trail, the official path ends at a viewpoint. But at this point you reach a paved road connected to other area points of interest accessible by car. So we hiked up the road and later through the woods again for a while, eventually coming to a visitors center and view point at the actual summit of the mountain. Here we ate lunch, took a rest, changed shirts and then set off for the decent.

Overall, it was a nice return to hiking, something I've always included in my list of hobbies when asked here, but something that I hadn't actually done in an entire year. I'd like to find some more trails nearby before winter sets in.

Well, the chimes say it's lunch time, so I'll grab my sandwich and head to the international building for "English Lunch." I may come back to this post and add a photo or two from yesterday's hike.

No other news to report, except this ... typhoon Sinlaku is now a tropical storm. Having left Taiwan, it's turning toward Japan and will skirt the southern edge of the main archipelago in the coming days. Perhaps by late Thursday or Friday Mie's coast will see heavy winds, rain and thunderstorms, but I don't expect anything major.

Dr. Catfish

As a typhoon (hurricane) slowly churns toward Okinawa, some Brazilian "prophet" has predicted a huge earthquake in Japan set for this Saturday. While I don't buy into it, a huge earthquake could happen at any time, so, I plan to follow the advice of Dr. Catfish:


If you want to read more of Dr. Catfish's advice, download this (large) pdf file.