During the last day or two of May and the first couple of days in June, Typhoon number 6, called Jangmi, blew its way here, causing record-breaking rainfall, flooding, and quite a lot of disruption in many areas of Japan.
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| Morning world....here comes Jangmi. Photo Jason Shaw |
Jangmi, a Koren girls name which translates to Rose, a somewhat benign name for a storm that was anythng but. It affected Okinawa, Kyushu, Shikoku, and western Japan. According to the local news channels, it was a particularly powerful Typhoon, with strong winds, around 126 kph with gusts up to 180 kph, that's 78 and 112 mph! Travel was widely disrupted, some 524 domestic and 92 international flights were cancelled and numerous train services either halted or delayed.
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| Typhoon number six whilst having a morning cuppa. |
The storm produced record rainfall in a number of regions, and there was some flooding and damage. According to News on Japan, 1.6 million people in the Tokyo metropolitan area were affected by official warnings; indeed, some parts of the city had Tokyo’s first-ever Purple Level 4 (Urgent warning - all residents should evacuate from affected area, when or before Evacuation Instruction is issued). The area where my apartment is located, just across the river from Chuo City, four streets away from Sumida City, Koto was in a level 3 warning area, but I had no plans to go out. The day before, I'd purchased enough food and supplies for three days, including food that didn't need to be cooked or heated up in case of power outages. I've lived through the so called great storm of '87 in the UK, a Super Derencho in Illinois, USA in 2009, a 7.9 eartquake in December last year whilst enjoying my first visit to this fine country. Yet, I'd never been through a Typhoon, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.
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| Even during a typhoon the expressway is busy Photo Jason Shaw |
Opps, I went out on the balcony in my slippers, I'm so naughty!
and wind was the answer, a rather lot of each and then a wee bit more of both and guess what, even when I thought it was over a whole lot more came from the skies. As the day passed into afternoon, the typhoon had moved up and venturing out, I was greeted by a surprisingly pleasent early evening. In fact, if you'd been asleep all day and just came out after 17:00 you'd be forgiven for thinking nothing but a brief shower had occured.
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| Sumida River - the calm after the storm. Photo Jason Shaw |
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| A poets view, a perch up high, refreshed anew, water drips from the sky Photo Jason Shaw |
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| In the olden days you could see Mount Fuji from that bridge. Photo Jason Shaw |
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| The river seems high, the cloud breaks. Photo Jason Shaw |
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| A ripple of light is a right good sight on a cloudy day. Photo Jason Shaw |
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| Eitai Bridge over the Sumida River. Photo Jason Shaw |
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| The typhoon is blowing away as the skies clear. Photo Jason Shaw |
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| Watching the clouds pass Photo Jason Shaw |
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| You'd hardly believe more than 7 inches of rain had fallen in 24 hours. Photo Jason Shaw |
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| Its almost sunset time. Photo Jason Shaw |
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| Can you see the bird? Photo Jason Shaw |
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| Clouds and dreams. Photo Jason Shaw |
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| A view to the back side of the departing Jangmi. Photo Jason Shaw |
That's all for today.....
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