Waiting Out Typhoon Jebi

After a long day at the shrine, well, almost the next day, we received an email from Paula and Logan. They warned us of a huge typhoon they had heard of from a stranger on the way to the airport. Typhoon Jebi would soon be rampaging out of control through Osaka and, gulp, Kyoto, right on top of us. We would later learn the storm we were about to meet head on would the largest in 25 years.
The following morning after a debate about going out to sightsee or not, we ruled not to, the family set out for the store a few blocks down from our hotel. Our flimsy hotel umbrellas did little against the wind outside. The gale would grab tight of a sleeve or umbrella like a pit bull and hold on tight, dragging us down the street. While the rain was lite, the gusts stirred it up, sideways and diagonal. It easily sliced through our thin layers.
For hours we waited in our hotel room, the small and only tv that was located in the bathtub (It’s a long story) was constantly on the news while we watched the weather on our tablets. We spent the day studying when we weren’t constantly running to the windows. Every minute or so we’d hear the CLANG of debris smashing onto metal or the SMASH of roof tiles shattering in the street. Shreds of tar paper were whisked into the air and large metal mail boxes and traffic cones blew in front of our guesthouse. Around 2:00 pm, the peak of the typhoon, we stayed away from the windows when a particularly large piece of roofing was hurled just outside our glass door.
We were perfectly fine when the clouds of the storm passed. Our building had fared much better than some of our neighbor’s. Television antennas hung from the peaks of rooftops by a single wire or two. One car had been disfigured by an unknown heavy object, leaving a deep dent running the length of the hood.
We had survived one of the largest hurricanes the new generations of Japan had seen with not a scratch on us and the next day we set out for Hiroshima.