Trapped typhoon prolonging the rain and the disruption

I caught a weather report on the TV tonight about typhoon #10, aka Shanshan, which is currently wreaking havoc in Japan. The report explained, with weather maps, that due to a high pressure system to the west AND one to the east, the typhoon is trapped. Hence it is moving at the pace of a bicycle and thus rain is expected right into early next week.

My plans for the weekend went down the drain with the rain! But it could be worse. I am safe and sound in my home in Saitama. There are people stuck overnight in train and airport stations around Japan. And by the sounds of it, they maybe without transport home for some time to come yet. In addition, there are some quarter of a million homes without electricity. Moreover, thousands of people have been told to evacuate and a special alert has been raised for Kagoshima. But even more poignantly, this typhoon has already taken at least three lives and injured more than 80 people. (Source: Kyodo News)

Many of the cities and towns around Japan started preparing in advance, cancelling events and even exams scheduled for this weekend. In Kochi prefecture they removed statues from in front of the station to put into safe storage! Around the country roads that tend to flood have been closed. Even some factories and offices closed their doors, such as Toyota Motor Corp in Aichi, to keep their staff safe. That is not something you see often in Japan. On the flip side though, there are many cities and towns that are not prepared sufficiently for this mammoth typhoon. And with it stuck at the speed of a bicycle, unfortunately it is inevitable that there will be more tales of disruption and destruction.

So I will not remorse that I can't go to a fireworks display or to see the sunflowers this weekend. I am grateful that we are safe and I hope that you are too. 

The featured photo is of mini umbrellas, the size of a hand, at a shrine in Fujimi Saitama Prefecture. Unfortunately that display was destroyed by a typhoon earlier in the summer.