Ari's Planet

Ha, typhoon shmyphoon. Nothing slows down Shinjuku, why, Japanese must have their after-work drinks and pachinko and Internet manga. You'd hardly know a typhoon was heading straight for Tokyo in a few hours. I'm out there going, ohh, it's getting windy. Hmm, what's that I heard about a typhoon? Why are several Japan train lines shut down? What am I doing on the other side of town? Hey, first time I've had to use those nifty hold-your-hat-on cords on my dorky sailing hat. Maybe I should stop burning this DVD and go back to the hotel.

Not to worry, I'm safe and dry in a solid hotel. There's a bunch of folks here talking in other languages, including Finish.

My guidebook got soaked at Nikko, what a downpour. Cool I made it there and back, Japan trains are great. Nikko pretty cool, if a bit overdone. Japanese worship dead dictators and are about the most industrialized country in the world. Go figure.

So, go to wunderground.com and lookup the track for typhoon Fitow,

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/wp200710.html

Straight over Tokyo around 3am. Pretty cool. Blowing like the bejeezus out there. Only a category 1 as it makes landfall, should drop to around a tropical storm by the time it reaches Tokyo in a few hours.

My flight to Beijing is at 6 pm Friday, hopefully it won't be delayed by the storm and that any backlog will have been cleared out, could be a bit of a mess at the airport. I stay overnight in Beijing, then fly in AM to Mongolia. About time my warm-weather clothes justify my hauling them all over the place. Glad I didn't try them out on mount Fuji, nothing like tropical storm weather to liven up a trip to the mountains.