Typhoon Melor and Sports Day

We had our first typhoon pass through our area of Japan last night. It's still hitting to Tokyo area today, but is dying out and won't really amount to much up there.

The winds really started picking up at about midnight or 1a and continued strongly until about 5a or so. Amazingly, all of the kids slept right through it.

I think Nathan and Laura had gotten rather worked up from all of the talk at school and were clearly worried when they went to bed. Katie woke up cheerful and asked if today is the day the typhoon is coming. She almost seemed disappointed she missed it.

Megan and I, however, did not sleep through the night. The storm was very loud and caused the whole building to groan and sway. It was never really dangerous, but you couldn't help but hear the noise for 4 or 5 hours and you could even feel the movement as the building swayed back and forth in the wind.

This morning, it's all back to normal. People had basically secured everything on the island, so there was nothing to blow around. There was hardly anything in the way of leaves or branches either. Really, it looks just like another night of rain.

Also, the few days after a typhoon are usually very good weather. The temperature drops a bit and the air is cleared out of pollens and pollutants. The kids should have a great day for sports day on Monday.

Sports day is quite a concept. All of Japan celebrates it, but the exact day varies locally. In this area, it's October 12th. At the schools, it's the same as field day, but parents all come and it's taken very seriously. Amazingly, most Japanese companies also take a day and compete in a kind of corporate olympics against other companies based in their area. This is a VERY big deal. The senior executives watch and the employees and managers go all out. It's very important to try to win and the competitiveness is high. At the end, through, it's like the Palio in Siena -- only bragging rights are at stake.

P&G just takes the day off and doesn't stage it's own series of competitions -- so I won't get to run a marathon against a bunch of middle managers from Asics. That's just as well considering how out of shape I am now.