Well blow me down...

Oh hang on, the typhoon nearly did.

The typhoon was crazy. Apparently the worst one since 1991, 68 pople died across the country in accidents and landslides and such. There was also devastation in my area. As I walked home (!!) I had to stop in the town office where it was pointed out to me that the car park sign had fallen down. This sign was 3 foot by 2 foot, made of metal and erected on a large pole. Oops. At the Town Office they insisted on giving me a lift home, but I was wearing my stiff upper lip and wanted to walk. Besides, I had to go to Lawson's. And the last typhoon was a wash out and I was wet already, so it would make no difference.

Well! By the time I got home I was literally wringing out my trousers. Fortunately I had plenty of supplies and a bike light that was pretty strong. This became even more useful as the power was on and off more times than a tart's knickers. The 8th power out was particularly annoying on as I had my rice cooker on...

Although it had seemed very loud and windy, I had no idea of the scale of things until, on my way to school on Thursday, I saw a student walking the other way who said school was cancelled. The day after a typhoon? When I got there it was clarified for me. Because of the typhoon there were no trains and buses to our town. Trees had fallen and lots had happened. And oh yes, the roof had been blown off the gym. What??!!

And there it was. The back third of the roof had been flung of the gym and took out the sumo hut on it's way down. The woodwork room (which is funnily enough made of wood and coated in corrugated steel) had had it's back peeled off like it was a tin of corned beef. Various trees had been uprooted, sports equipment battered, and everything inside the gym was sodden through the heavy rains that got in because of the lack of roof. Although inside the main school buildings, water had managed to get in through concrete walls. At first I was looking for the face of the Virgin Mary thinking this was a Northern Ireland style miracle, but then I realised it was probably just poor workmanship...

It was actually a fun day as all the teachers spent the time cleaning up the school and working together (add songs of peace and love here). When the trains came back on, Johanna came to town and we ended the day with dinner at Wakaba (the best Katsuyama restaurant) and an hour of Karaoke. We murdered Cher, Toni Braxton, Mariah Carey and Oasis, but unfortunately not in a way that would make the general public grateful...