ECO Japan Days

October and November brought a couple more opportunities to host some mainland students.

They loved seeing "the sea"!!

 

Toguchi Beach is a great place to find Okinawa sea treasures--- sea glass and seashells and coral!

 

 

 

They also had a great time on the roller slide!

 

 

 

 

 

They always enjoy the view from Zanpa Point...

 

 

 

 

The day I partnered with my friend, Deidre, we took the students to her house (out in town) for lunch. We made english muffin pizzas and introduced them to the apple peeler/slicer/corer!!
We also played a few hands of UNO and Wii "Just Dance" :0)

 

Typhoon Season 2012 videos

TYPHOON BOLAVEN

Taken at 3:30 and 3:32 pm on Sunday, August 26, 2013.

Sunday, 7pm

TYPHOON SANBA

Sunday, September 16, 2013 7:56am

Let me tell you--- that wind whistling through the doors gets real old, real quick.

Last, but definitely not least--- TYPHOON JELAWAT

Saturday, September 29, 8:06am

Would you want to be out driving in that stuff?!?!?!?!

Saturday, back to back videos taken shortly after 1:00 in the afternoon.

The first video looks like I'm outside, but I'm not! I'm shooting it through our little bathroom window.

At some point between these videos is when our power went out and stayed out for about 24 hours.

Saturday, about 4:30.....

I'm sure now you can see why we were thrilled to get out of the house the following morning!!!

After this, we were still in typhoon season for another month, but, praises be this was the last hoorah!!

Typhoon Season 2012 Grand Finale!!

As the end of September neared, we realized we had another target painted on our little island on another weekend!! Typhoon Jelawat approached and began her attack at the end of the day on Friday, September 28, just a few days after being classified a Category 5 Super Typhoon!!! Thankfully, she had downgraded just a bit before running over us.

All night we heard her yowl and blow....
Finally, a break came along Saturday morning by way of the eye and we were able to get a glimpse of some of the damage done to that point....

Our landlord was going to have quite a mess to clean up after the storm!!

It may look like rain, but it's actually blowing water!!
It was so loud it was like constant roar in our house. Too loud to even try to read a book or watch a movie!!  From time to time, the doors would whistle an almost ear piercing shrill.... FUN!

It even blew over this heavy, anchored vending machine!!

 

The only damage we had from any of the typhoons.... The wind ripped the lattice off the railing which then ripped the screen off the sliding door. 

As the back half of the storm rolled over us, it knocked out our power.

 

Sunday morning finally rolled around with sunshine starting to peek through. We still didn't have power, but given the "all clear" we headed out to check out the neighborhood.
Our first casualty----
 

First errand after a typhoon--- the car wash!!!

 

We soaked in the fresh air and headed down to the park. The waves are spellbinding after a typhoon!!!

The park was covered in sand!!

As were the vending machines and statues!!

 

The flea market down on the corner was completely destroyed.
This Lawson's suffered some serious damage, as well, losing much of their signage and part of the ceiling inside.

 

Such a trippy picture!! It was crazy how the trees were blown over to same angle. Although, there were some that were blown all the way over.

That poor BMW!!
The windshield was completely spider-webbed.
And, these people won't be watching satellite anytime soon!

It was still a few more hours before our power came back on after about 24 hours. Although, that was relatively nothing considering there were many villages on the northern part of the island without power for five days!!

Typhoon Season 2012

Typhoon season (June - November) started quiet enough, being unmentionable until storms 5 and 6, Mawar and Guchol, came to visit June 5, then 18.

Even though they were the first storms of the season to actually hit typhoon status, Mawar only achieved  TCCOR-3, but still managed to skim that board from over the wall to land right beside my car!
Guchol gave us cause to be concerned heading our way with Super Typhoon expectations, but it moved through at a simple TCCOR-1 status, never even putting us into "Caution" or higher..... But, it did make for some fun wave watching!!

 

When a 'big one' is approaching, by the time TCCOR-1 Caution is announced, its time to make sure everything outside is secured.

For us, that means bringing in the table and chairs (SO thankful they fold up!!), plants, grill, and 'stuff' from the balconies.

Of course, with no garage, that means it all has to come inside....

 

On advice from our neighbors who learned the hard way, its best to tie open the balcony door to save it from getting ripped off its hinges or even the slats being pulled out by the nails!!! 

So, our first real "fun" came by the name Typhoon Bolaven. On Saturday and Sunday, August 25 and 26, she locked us down and whipped up gusts as high as 161 mph!!!!
And as you can see on the satellite picture, we were afraid she was bringing a friend!!! Thankfully, that turned out not to be the case.

 

Once we were "all clear" and able to emerge from our concrete bunkers, we were greeted with this "potty barge" right out in front of our place!!! It's a fishing dock, usually anchored out in deeper waters, that had been moved into the 'secure' breaker area and tied up to the fishing dock here. Evidently, not tied securely enough!!
All the 'brown' in this picture is actually run-off from the canal just down from us!!

 

And two weekends later, September 13 and 14, Typhoon Sanba decided Okinawa was a great place to visit!!
One thing about it, she sure made for some colorful radar pictures!!!

 

Notice, they've covered the potty and reconnected docks in preparation... Only time will tell if they were successful!

She sure made for an ominous looking evening as she started to make her appearance! 

Sanba's eye was half the size of our little island!!! 

It's crazy that the locals still get out in these storms!!! I couldn't help but wonder where they were going when most businesses actually did close..... Although, the bar next door to us was open....

Ok, so not just locals were crazy.....
(Don't worry, I didn't let him stay out there but a minute!!) 

Instead of window fountains (see  http://wanderingweavers.blogspot.jp/search?q=window+fountains) we had door fountains!! But, living in a Japanese apartment, our entry was made for this (tile entry, then raised floor) all the water stayed right there, then drained back out once the storm turned.

One thing about it, post-typhoon waves are incredible!!!

Our season went out with a bang two weekends later---- did you catch that?? Three typhoons, every other weekEND..... Anyway, Mother Nature showed her power once again with Typhoon Jelawat.....