America= Hurricane. Japan=Typhoon....

Hi All,

Reporting live from Namegata, where we've been in the middle of Typhoon Krovanh all day today and most of last night. It's our first one, and while we haven't seen any trees uprooted we've definitely been impressed.

Apparently, a typhoon is the same thing as a hurricane, or tropical cyclone. The name just refers to geographic locations: typhoons for west of the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean, and hurricanes for east (typhoons in Asia, hurricanes in America).

Anyway, we've had heavy gales and blowing rain for the last 18 hours or so. In Japan, many homes and apartments have big metal sliding panels that cover your windows, which you would definitely close in case of a typhoon. But each of our two windows has a stuck slider, making the wind blow through them, causing it to feel almost like an earthquake. It's not very serious where we are, but I know that in Kashima (45 min away on the Eastern coast, and very windy most days) they cancelled classes at the English school where our friends work.

As some of you might have heard, yesterday Japan held Parliamentary elections and there was a huge power shift. It was expected by many, but the Democratic Party won by a 3 to 1 ratio over the Liberal Democrats who have been in power since WWII. As evidence of Chris' comedic influence on me, I say that this typhoon is merely the winds of change......

get it? Winds of change? Yeah, I know. . .

Well, tomorrow we go back to school for the start of Term 2. I actually had to iron today for the first time in 6 weeks. We've been here 5 months now, and look forward to getting through this next term quickly.

Enjoy the beginning of Fall everyone!