The day after the storm...

I must say, typhoons are quite strange...and they invoke strange behavior in people. Experienced my first typhoon in Hokkaido (experienced one in Saitama back in HS). Everyone in the office jumped up and yelled, "TYPHOON!" and stopped working to watch as the rain beat everything outside to a pulp. It was like we were underneath a waterfall. I had never seen so much water falling at out of the sky at once. It was quite a sight to witness.

But the day after a typhoon, that's a whole different story. It was AMAZING from the moment I woke up. The sun comes up around 4am, so, needless to say, when I wake up, I can look out and see the potential weather forecast for the day. Today just looked awesome!

On my lunch break, I went for a bike ride around town (mainly so I could go to the bridge and take some photos). I'll tell you right now that those clouds are real. I just took those pictures maybe 20 minutes ago (as I sit at my desk all sweaty).

So this is Shibecha the day after the storm...




And while it was typhoon-ing (I don't think that's a real word) last night, I decided not to be a bum and watch Japanese TV. Instead, I picked up the guitar that was left by my predecessor. I only know the D chord which doesn't get you very far. Since there's no internet at home, I can't even look up how to play other chords. I also don't know how to strum. But I managed to figure out how to pluck "Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)" after about an hour and a half. My left middle finger is still tender, but I found something new to do when I get home from work!