Typhoon, typhoon, typhoon!

Typhoon Dianmu on its way


Bye bye typhoon!



Well, it's about 30 degrees here today,whew!! Living in Nagoya in the summer is like permanently being in a sauna! The piccies are of the typhoon that just roared through here yesterday. A few people died further south in Japan, but nothing major here. Just a lot of wind and rain, and downtown Nagoya was littered with naked 100 yen umbrella frames. Why you would even bother with an umbrella in a typhoon is beyond me! I like storms, so I was enjoying watching it pelt down from my balcony window. And, as you can see from the second photo, when it did clear up just before sunset, it made for a very pretty sky. I can now say I've experienced a typhoon!!

Had to go do the immigration thing last week, and get my working holiday visa renewed. Oh. What. Fun. They open at 9am, and I was told by my friends to get there about 8:30, to go line up with all the Thai hookers and Brazilian overstayers. Well, I got there about 8:20, and there were already about 50 people there! Anyway, got inside, and managed to stand in 2 wrong lines before I got to the right one (no one there speaks any English, which is a little odd for an immigration office, don't you think?!). Had to fill out tons of forms (luckily in English and Japanese), and I ended up being there until 10am. Still have to come back this week to get the actual stamp in my passport. Oh the joy, especially on my day off! At least I'm still legal to be here!!

So, as a present for standing in the never-ending line, I went to UniQlo (cheap but nice clothes), and bought a yukata. It's like a summer style kimono, very light weight fabric. It's a beautiful red with a grey pattern, and the obi (belt) is a really pretty yellow. It even comes with a cute little matching purse! When I can figure out how to put it on properly, I'm going to have a lot of fun wearing it! I can't wait, it's really pretty (and cheap, only about $40, whereas the big department store ones are about $300). I got some matching wooden sandals too, quite cute. It's very common to see people wearing yukata in the summer, and it's almost mandatory for attending things like summer fireworks festivals. There are many of these festivals around the area, and unlike western fireworks displays, these ones go for about 2-3 hours at a time!! I saw some out my window last weekend, pretty amazing! Huge fireworks too, not just little crackers!!

Oh, I went a little shopping mad last weekend, and also bought an electronic dictionary (a Canon Wordtank 3000). It's really cool, I'm going to get a lot of use out of it! I can even look up kanji in it, which is really really useful! I've decided to go for the Japanese Language Proficiency exam in December, but I haven't decided which level to study for. Level 4 is the easiest, but I think I could probably pass level 3 if I put a lot of time into studying between now and then. Still doing the kanji studying thing, but I think I'm going to change my method a little. I'm going to use the techniques I learned from the "Remembering the Kanji" book, but I'm going to do it for the kanji I need to know for the exam (so I won't be studying in the order the book dictates). I am remembering the kanji as the book promised, but if I'm going to spend that much time studying, I would like to take an exam and get something out of it at the end (other than the ability to actually read what's around me, that is!). I wasn't too fussed about taking the exam, but all my friends said it looks great on your resume to have a JLPT certificate. So, we'll see how it goes!