Typhoon Man-Yi
The first of Kitakyushu's regional festivals, called Kokura Gion (Matsuri) was to be held this year on the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth. That's right, it started on Friday the thirteenth, an ill omen for sure. Sure enough, that day Typhoon Man-Yi (Bebeng in the Philippines, Number Four for 2007 in Japan) hit Okinawa and came into Japan slotting it to arrive here at three o'clock today smack in the middle of the festival. It is being billed at http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aPKPtUCDIk9w&refer=japan for example as a super-typhoon. It is unusually wide, but far from disperse it seems. The ferry boat between Wakamatsu and Tobata is stopped. I could go around by rail of course, all the way to Orio, but I cancelled my weekly voluntary lecture this week thinking it was most likely to bring injury to someone and sent my wife by car to work. We put down the shutters on the sliding-door windows on the first floor and are anticipating the storm. The sound of thunder began moments ago as I was writing this. . .