Of Typhoons

Today is day 1 of the typhoon. It's supposed to hit bad tonight, but right now it's just raining incessantly. It honestly feels like normal Kyoto weather. For any of you who haven't been to Japan, let me just tell that Kyoto is like Japan's version of Seattle. If it isn't raining, something's wrong. Honestly, I'm still wondering how Kyoto isn't a tropical rainforest yet. With regard to the weather though, there are a couple things that are different. The rain is blowing sideways. It's like when you turn on the TV, and you see the rain and you go, "Wow, I'm glad I don't live there." Oddly enough, I live here, and it isn't that bad. In fact, it's kind of fun except for the fact that you can't really go out. And if you do have to go out, it's miserable. The other thing that's different is that the river next to my room is pretty high. It's probably around a meter and half so far. I'm really thinking to go take a picture.

So, the question is, "What do you do on a typhoon day?"

For me, it's probably things that aren't that interesting. I'm sitting inside reading articles about the Meiji Era (明治時代), 1868-1912. I actually have a presentation on it this Tuesday. For those that are a little lax in their 1800's history, think post-Commodore Perry. This is the time when Japan opened up to the rest of the world. Therefore, I'm researching things like wars, the constitution, reforms, and so on. Since I don't know about every third word I read right now, it's killing my head. In the good news, I'm learning lots of new words.

I'm eating rainy food as well. I woke up this morning and made ochazuke, making sure to put some salmon in there for personal enjoyment. And although it's not rainy food, I also ate something called warabi-mochi (わらび餅). Sometimes it's like a gelatinous-type mochi, but the one that I bought is a little different. It's actually honest to goodness mochi, filled with an (あん), or sweet red-bean paste. Normally, I don't really like an, but it's great in this. Warabi-mochi is quite popular with kinako （きなこ）powder over-top. Kinako powder is a sweet soybean flour. Wiki actually has these labeled as dango, which I guess the ones that I ate technically are, but they were still labeled warabi-mochi in the store. Unfortunately, the taste is a little difficult to explain, but you'll just have to take my word for it that they're delicious.

The typhoon is supposed to get much worse tonight at 9 and be bad through tomorrow. Of course, I have class, so I'll be going there.