a typhoon is coming

so apparently there’s a typhoon approaching japan, which accounts for the rain that we’ve been receiving so far. to be honest though, i’d no idea whatsoever about the approaching storm, until i saw the typhoon warning issued to students in school yesterday, and when a colleague at the BOE asked me the difference between “warning” and “alert”.

the impending storm has made news however – it has been all over the tv, apparently – but because i have never made the habit of turning on the tv or watching japanese news, i’m completely in the dark. not a good thing i guess.

we discovered today that the japanese meteorological agency has an english website with the same information as the japanese version – a never-before experienced phenomenon in this country, where english websites always have just a wee bit of information compared to the japanese versions.

osaka is due gales and high waves, so no threat of experiencing a proper storm as yet. i hope we dont though, as i have no idea what to expect nor what to do – i’m surprised the Met Agency’s website had no information on precautions to take and other advice. last year, there was a storm advisory in place too, but it died before it reached anywhere near osaka.

because of the rain, everyone is carrying an umbrella, and it occurred to me this morning that most people in japan carry the long, non-foldable umbrellas, whereas singaporeans tend to favour the foldable kind.

i’m not sure why this is the case – nor am i aware of what it’s like anywhere else, and any information is welcome – but i actually dont mind carrying around a long umbrella here. everyone does it, so it seems perfectly ok, whereas back home a big umbrella looked really cumbersome and somewhat uncool.

it helps too that you can buy pretty umbrellas in japan, like that one above. in fact, it was raining so heavily and so much when i was in tokyo this may, that i gave in and bought myself a nice umbrella too:

it’s a nice pink and i like the dainty floral patterns on it. it wasnt cheap though, having cost me about 2000yen, which is more than SGD30. standard price for an umbrella with patterns, however. i think it’s worth the money too, because it makes rainy days less miserable because it’s pretty. the handle is thin and the umbrella is light, so it’s not that heavy or clumsy to carry around. in fact, i like it so much that i’m actually considering bringing it with me when i go back home in december during the monsoon season..