Hiroshima got a good scrubbing yesterday, care of typhoon Bart. I woke up earlier than usual-my host mom did not even have to go "pon pon" on my door. The air had a strange air about it.
I started to put on my school uniform's polyester pants when Okasan made the rounds. Apparently in Japanese you say the onomatopoetic "pon pon" as you knock. Instead of the usual "Get up, Forresto-kun," the day's morning message was "No school... taifuu warning." I did not think much of the warning, since warnings never count for much back in North Carolina. I read some of my Zen book, then turned on the movie channel. I was able to read the title of the upcoming movie, which made me proud: "Tempest..." an American remake of Shakespeare's play. So I sat down on the floor pillow and started watching it. About 15 minutes into the movie our own tempest-Bart-came to visit...
I have been through a couple of earthquakes in my life, along with almost drowning twice. Every time I am in a could-die-situation I enter a very strange state of mind. It is like watching a movie of myself... I am still scared, but in a very calm sort of way. The typhoon shook the house and rattled the screens... There was a nice howling wind effect, too. I opened the window for a second (to get the full effect of the storm) and both of the cable-box cranes did an about-face... very haunted house. The family remained calm, and I figured that there was not much else that I could do beyond that. The howling-rage-and-fury part lasted about three hours, then the sun came out. It was over, and I had weathered the storm.
I took the monorail to downtown in search of an ATM machine that would accept my card. The roads and buildings were scrubbed clean. On top of the clean roads were leaves that had been blown from the trees. There are two places that I know of in Hiroshima that are usually packed: Hondori, which is a pedestrian and bicycle only Street; and Sogo Square, which has sumo daily at 5:30 on the Sony huge screen TV. Both of these places had a ghost town feel to them. The sumo show was on, even though a section of the screen was broken from the typhoon.
And so I survived,,, Forrest