Typhoon

There’s a 台風 (typhoon) near Tokyo now.

It’s been raining in Tokyo since yesterday…and it’s forecast to rain until Friday.

The TV weather information said that the typhoon will hit Tokyo the day after tomorrow (Thursday). So the rain and wind will be really strong on that day.

If you’re in the Tokyo area, be careful if you have to go out this week…especially Thursday!

The good news is that’s it’s forecast to be sunny from Saturday…so it’ll be nice weather for the upcoming three-day-weekend (Monday’s a holiday (体育の日 (Health Day))).

On the TV

At the moment, all that is on the TV in Japan is either the 台風 (typhoon) that is hitting the Tokyo area today, and the national election results.

Tokyo is in the path of the approaching typhoon.

Be careful if you’re on the east coast of Japan and you have to go out today.
The weather will be bad all day today, but it’s forecast to be nice tomorrow (normally, after a typhoon passes the sky is very clear).

Regarding Japan’s election today, the results are still not all in yet, but it’s winding down and the 民主党 (Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)) is winning in a landslide.
This is an upset victory because the 自由民主党 (Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)) has won nearly every national election in Japan since the end of WWII. The current Japanese Prime Minister (Taro Asou) is the president of the LDP.

The next Prime Minister of Japan will more than likely be 鳩山由紀夫 (Yukio Hatoyama).

鳩山由紀夫 (Yuki Hatoyama)

竜巻

Yesterday at about 2:00PM, a 竜巻 (tornado) hit 群馬県 (Gunma Prefecture), a couple hours north of Tokyo.

About 200 homes and shops had their windows broken and many had the roofs ripped off. A number of cars were flipped over. And other damage like that.

It was reported that there were about two dozen injuries but no deaths were reported so far.
The worst injury was sustained by an elderly woman who was hit by a bicycle that was thrown by the high wind. She’s in serious condition at the hospital.

It’s unfortunate that people were injured and had their property damaged. But it’s good that there were no deaths caused by the 竜巻 (tornado)!
群馬県 (Gunma Prefecture) is a rural area. If the 竜巻 (tornado)* struck a densely populated area like Tokyo, surely there would have been alot more damage and casualties!

*(竜巻 (tornado) in Japanese literally translates to “rolling dragon“).