The coming of the typhoon season in Japan has reminded me of all of the
hurricane experiences I’ve had in my youth- despite the genuine
destruction these masses of nature can wreak, the nostalgia brings some
amount of comfort- maybe because if it’s a choice between typhoon or
earthquake, I’d choose typhoon!
Tomorrow,
work is going to be canceled because of a large typhoon heading up the
coast of Japan that is slotted to hit Osaka (and therefore, most likely,
Kyoto). The Town Mouse and I plan to curl up in the comfort of our
home, but the prospect of it has reminded me of two or three hurricane
and flood experiences I had back in the days of my childhood among the
magnolia and pine trees.
In particular, I remember when I was
in sixth grade in Junior High, and a large scale tornado hit my small
town. The power went out, the generators didn’t turn on, and my school
principal had to run to every room telling everyone to get under their
desks. Of course, hurricanes happened all the time around our area, so
no one took it seriously, but when the tornado actually hit, we were
instantly under our desks. I remember looking out the window and seeing
one of those large trash dumpsters rocking on one leg as if it were full
of helium. Apparently we were quite lucky too- our bus driver was on
the road when the storm hit, and all of the buses windows were blown
out. She had minor injuries all along the arm she used to protect
herself during the blast.
The tornado had also been slotted to
hit all of the major buildings in our town, but managed to jump over
every school in its path, leaving them unharmed, before completely
desecrating the post office, court house and several small businesses.
My school’s gymnasium was repurposed as a place to dry out and
reorganize all of the criminal records for several weeks while they
replaced the roof on the court house. Our post office became a network
of temporary buildings.
That was
just one of the memories that I was reminded of as this weather has
started to hit Kyoto. It’s strange, to feel a sort of pleasant nostalgia
now despite the genuine misfortune association with those memories and
the present... I wonder if there’s a better word than “nostalgia” for
it...